Thread: Suggest me a little CNC router?

watching this with interest as I have more money than brains and want one?
And do I want 3 or 4 axis jobbie.....

Originally Posted by _fly_

watching this with interest as I have more money than brains and want one?

I'm guessing this question has been asked many times, and I get the impression nobody can recommend a Chinese seller with any kind confidence.

Options so far:
1. https://sites.google.com/site/cncdiyorg/9060
Bare machine, add Geko 540 drive and spindle/VFD
https://sites.google.com/site/cncdiyorg/vfd

Pros: Big, not paying for inferior stepper drive
Cons: Pricey way to do it - $1530 + freight (?) for the frame, plus the spindle/VFD combo, plus Geko drives plus power supply(s).

2. CNC6040 Series - carving-cnc.com
Probably the middle one with the 800W spindle/VFD - shipping adds about 500 clams so AU$1,800 or about AU$2k with the 4th axis.

Pros: They kind of look like they're an actual entity, for what that's worth. Everything is in there.800W should be enough to damage most things I plan to put on it.
Cons: Paying for stepper driver that I may end up chucking, but that's not guaranteed.

3. CNC 6040 ROUTER ENGRAVER MACHINE ROUTING & DRILLING n | eBay or
CNC 6040 ROUTER ENGRAVER DRILLING / MILLING MACHINE e2 | eBay

800W spindle/VFD, about $2k with freight, maybe a hundred or two less with "Make an Offer"

Pros: From what I can tell, one or two people here have bought this machine, so known quantity/seller?
Cons: Not much of a saving compared to the No. 2 option.

At the moment No.2 is looking attractive, but so far haven't seen anyone here who has bought from this bunch

I bought my 6040 CNC router from eBay seller tool-zoom nearly 12 months ago.
It arrived well wrapped and with no physical damage. A few emails regarding manuals etc were responded too fairly quickly.
There was a dead stepper driver card in the controller but as it was some months between receiving the unit and actually powering it up, I didn't follow up to get a replacement instead opting to use a Gecko G540 instead.

Originally Posted by snowyskiesau

I bought my 6040 CNC router from eBay seller tool-zoom nearly 12 months ago.
It arrived well wrapped and with no physical damage. A few emails regarding manuals etc were responded too fairly quickly.
There was a dead stepper driver card in the controller but as it was some months between receiving the unit and actually powering it up, I didn't follow up to get a replacement instead opting to use a Gecko G540 instead.

Cheers for that - your thread's one of those I've been reading through, and I remember you mentioning how well it was packed, which is a useful thing to know given how many Chinese sellers there are, with some going to greater effort than others.

That sellers price looks to be AU$1850 + $200 freight, so a bit over $2k, but I guess one might save a hundred or two with a lower offer?

How does the 800 watt spindle work out in terms of what you're doing? I notice there's other versions of the same setup with a 1.5KW spindle, but I kind of wonder what benefit the extra power provides?

Well for a start. it means that if you are using a 6mm end mill to cut 0.5 mm of aluminium then you can go at 2000mm a second instead of 600. Or, cut 1mm at 1000 etc.

RustyArc.

Just another point which you may or may not have considered...

Import costs.

I noted above your quotes were the machine and shipping only. Perhaps this is because you have already factored in the extra costs on any given purchase yourself but if not, just a heads up on that front.

I have just imported a machine (none of these) and the associated costs added an extra $1200 - or actually, that included about $300 shipping so make that $900 additional. This does not include any broker fees as I did all the paperwork (and leg work) myself - so if you were not going to take that route, you could add another 100-200 for a broker. It also did not include any freight within Australia - I collected from the depot. The exact total will of course depend on the price of your machine and shipping too.

I knew there would be additional expenses upon import, but did not realise just how much it would add to the total. So that $900 included - Duty @ 5%, GST @ 10%, port handling charges, quarantine charges, application charges, delivery order fees, documentation fees, terminal handling charges etc etc etc. The breakdown of the charges is large so lets just say that is the total!

Just thought I'd throw that in there.

Jeremy.

In my case, the shipping charge was all inclusive i.e customs and quarantine clearance as the item was sent via EMS mail/courier. The only extra on top of the quoted price will be GST.

Originally Posted by J.F. Custom®

snip.

The smaller machines are normally shipped via courier or EMS ect. normally when the chinese send these machines they list the total value on the customs form at a lower value so as to not attract additional charges for the customer.

With couriers you don't need to arrange a customs broker as from experience they have their own in house team which handles all the paper work.

There are ways around it if they say it is a gift and also say it is under $900 aust it should be fine.
David

Originally Posted by J.F. Custom®

I have just imported a machine (none of these) and the associated costs added an extra $1200 - or actually, that included about $300 shipping so make that $900 additional. This does not include any broker fees as I did all the paperwork (and leg work) myself - so if you were not going to take that route, you could add another 100-200 for a broker. It also did not include any freight within Australia - I collected from the depot. The exact total will of course depend on the price of your machine and shipping too.

Thanks for the heads-up, from the sound of it the machine you imported was fairly substantial?

The suppliers I'm looking at all appear to use international couriers (DHL, UPS, Fedex etc.) or mail, such as EMS, who usually handle customs clearance and deliver to the door. I expect for a machine over $1,000 to be charged GST, any duty that applies & maybe a processing fee, so maybe a 20% premium on the purchase price, but hopefully no more than that... Hopefully...

Edit - just read the other replies, sounds there's a decent chance it'll be fairly straightforward

There should be no duty nor handling fee, just 10% for GST..

Originally Posted by Bob Willson

Well for a start. it means that if you are using a 6mm end mill to cut 0.5 mm of aluminium then you can go at 2000mm a second instead of 600. Or, cut 1mm at 1000 etc.

Cheers - that explains a bit of it, but on these little machines, is there a limit to the material removal rate based on the power of the steppers and/or frame strength and stiffness rather than the power of the spindle?

That is, based on this size of machine, am I going to be able to get a real benefit from going with a 1.5kW rather than a 0.8kW spindle? I do plan to mill a fair bit of alu sheet for control panels etc., so I'd pay the extra if it's going to result in faster work.

Originally Posted by RustyArc

Thanks for the heads-up, from the sound of it the machine you imported was fairly substantial?

Yes and no. Just a bench model actually, but a sturdy one!

Originally Posted by RustyArc

The suppliers I'm looking at all appear to use international couriers (DHL, UPS, Fedex etc.) or mail, such as EMS, who usually handle customs clearance and deliver to the door. I expect for a machine over $1,000 to be charged GST, any duty that applies & maybe a processing fee, so maybe a 20% premium on the purchase price, but hopefully no more than that... Hopefully...

Edit - just read the other replies, sounds there's a decent chance it'll be fairly straightforward

Yep - you and others above are correct. If it comes by DHL or similar, they do all the processing, brokering, paperwork etc and deliver here. You do in fact still pay for it, but then it's bundled into the initial delivery fee. Therefore your quote should cover all that.

Mine was a different situation - my machine is ex Canada. Just a wee bit further away than China and hence, a shipload more in freight if I were to choose DHL!! In fact, the DHL quote from there was about equal to that of the total I had to pay once it landed here so I would not have saved either way.

Yes, over the $1000 and you will get the GST charged. Be aware, GST is charged on the total value of the goods + the shipping. So if your machine was say, $900 - you are not safe from GST unless your shipping was less than $100. Clear?

Be aware though that if the supplier devalues your shipment to avoid the GST, this is usually what the insurance is also derived from so if anything goes pear shaped, you may be out of pocket to address/resolve the issue. That is not to mention the legalities or il-legalities of such arrangements as well... Likewise the "gift" status...

Each to their own.

Originally Posted by snowyskiesau

There should be no duty nor handling fee, just 10% for GST..

The handling fees are charged by the ports. If you deal with them directly, you pay this fee. If you have a courier company such as DHL, they pay this fee (possibly at a reduced/bulk rate) and include that in their charges to you. So one way or another, it is paid.

No Duty though ? How so ? Is this some sort of free trade agreement? I would like to know of a way to reclaim the 5% I was charged!

I know of the FTA with USA, but while we do have a "trade agreement" of sorts with Canada, unfortunately this did not cover CNC machines. Tariff concessions exist in special circumstances such as the item not being available in Australia. There was in fact a Tariff Concession Order that did cover CNC machines and should have made my package Duty Free, however that had since expired... apparently.

Jeremy.

I have been following this thread as I am looking to get one of these smaller CNC machines as well, a 4 axis one.

Have asked a couple of questions via PM and got some good information, but still researching this topic.

Reading this post HERE reminded me that the freight charges on some of these machines are amazing to say the least.

The machines this person purchased ex Ebay

CNC 6040 ROUTER ENGRAVER DRILLING AND MILLING MACHINE | eBay

clearly states that it is located in Sydney, the buyer is in the Hills District NSW, yet the freight quoted in the Ebay listing is a whopping $713.00

Am I missing something here, or is this purely a ploy by the seller to minimise Ebay fees?

If so it seems odd, as Ebay final fees are 7.8% of the selling price, in this case this would be 7.8% of $1052 = $82. The maximum Ebay fee is $100, so we are seemingly talking about saving $18?

If it is not about saving $18, how can the delivery from NSW to another address within NSW cost $713?

If the machine is delivered direct from China, then shouldn't the location be stated as China or am I being simplistic here?

Anyway, this post highlights why I am still sitting on the fence, this buyer is having problems and I have seen quite a few posts here on the forum where people have problems of one type or another with these machines. None seem to work straight out of the box and backup from the supplier(s) appears to be non-existent.