Well in my view it was a breath of fresh air to hear someone truly say what they think with regards to a product review and act accordingly.
We only have to look to our own forum and cnc experience here to see that if you buy a machine for $1000 expect to put in the time to make it do what it can do but be realistic about your own abilities. Consider the time Dan, Bill put into their Shapeokos but now after that consider what both have since been able to produce on the machine. Bill has done work on his that I dont believe would be possible for handtools.
I think this guy illustrates the hurdle the Inventables, Shapeoko, etc camp all have in their business model. Scale up to mass consumer acceptance requires a machine and software that is more typical of a mass consumer product. Tweaking is not mass consumer orientation even if the market is the "maker market".
Take a look by comparison at the
Carbide offering. They offer a out the box working machine and then to deskill the software side which is the next hurdle they see as an issue they have created a package that appears to simplify the process. Have not seen a review on it just a video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SuOPqXMnhs
These companies can survive inmo given the reach of the internet, they typify my view that you can create a niche company today and within that niche find sufficient participants provided you go global. ( Keep in mind our global population and the fact that birds of a feather flock together ....ie Toni lives in Spain, Stu in Japan yet we all hang here).
Bill has of his own accord upgraded his machine in certain areas and that includes him committing to spending on software to get the satisfaction out of it he wants.
So i see this a bit like buying a lathe, or even a digital camera. You sell yourself the idea and spring for the price point that works for your budget not giving thought to the what else do i need. I have spent i guess at least 4 times what my lathe cost on the accessories actually 4 may be tad light. Luckily for me those are transferable to a lathe that deserves that spend. (my personal battle). Same would go for a camera. No one mentions the tripod , bag , filters, batteries, lenses, extra memory cards today, etc etc when you buying the camera. Some even use that as a sale point making a bundle deal out the extras to camo the base price and increase their margin.
I tend to like what the guy is saying. First i like that he is honest. Second if i get a cnc i want it to do what he wants it to do. I want it to work like a machine should. I dont want to spend my time to tinker with it, even though i am a tinkerer. I want to tinker on other things i have enough of them to do.
This was one of the wake up calls with buying my table saw. As a rookie woodworker one thinks you buy a tool like a saw and well it is all setup. Then you join a community and find out why you got burns on your cuts. Now you spend a ton of time (which i have) tinkering with the alignment. Not what i wanted. Then gradually you discover what you thought was a good machine was good for a specific price point. Its at that point you realize what Allen Levin once said about woodworking as a hobby. I used to discount his comment in my own head thinking of my buddy who is a golfer. But Allens words have stuck with me over the years and each time i have been to by plywood and wood in our neck of the woods and then factored in the waste Allens words of this aint a cheap hobby come back to me.
I think the issue is a very personal one. Where are you in life, how much time do you have to devote to your hobby, how much money do you wish and are you prepared to spend on your hobby, what is your goal for the hobby and so on.
My whole drama with prior NN was caused in part because one day i happen to realize if one produced things in your hobby you had to get rid of them to make space for more. Well meeting Mack Cameron made me think one had to at least consider turning over what you produced by selling some of it. You can only give away so much till all your friends have enough of what you make. And even in that department while they may ooh an ahhh your woodworking gift at Xmas it don't mean they would not prefer a gift card. (yeah i said it, that's my disappointing view of where society is at). So when i mentioned selling a few bowls to NN casually one day before even building my shop, she took it to mean cottage industry was going up in my back yard.
Ya all know what followed.
Personally i think Leo has the best approach if i were making a call that suited me. The price of his machine is right and while his expectations of its accuracy are higher than mine, i think its built adequately enough that it will be as close to one time tweak as is practically possible for a machine. He has an outlet for his produce that allows him to carry on having the fun HE wants to have and circulate the money. As Leo himself has talked about a shop budget and shop funds this is the way to go. He has proved previously that he can make a go of this approach and his latest machine is to add capability and new learning to his fun. Whats not to like about that.
I find interest in each persons approach, heck they have helped me sort out just what it is that i really like. We need to keep in mind some of us only have a bit of time on weekends to tinker, others have 7 days a week to do this. Some have coin to spend on the hobby others have to get by with what will do or less. Some have physical disabilities (something we all heading for someday) and have to factor that into their desires. Just the other day i said to Linda how i wish i was 30 again and back in the tech world when i saw a Harvard University video on the discovery channel showing the real future of 3D printing, printing a finished working electric item. Been looking to see if i can find that video to post here no luck so far.
For me and woodworking I am a bit like Darren. Its only part of the tinkering i enjoy. Would i like a CNC, absolutely. Will it be a $1000 unit definitely not. But like everything these machines will evolve. Its a free market and there are many players with significant coin invested in making the machines.
Just consider something like the Drone business. I have watched how DJI one of the leaders in drones has evolved their product over time. The latest version released at CES in Las Vegas now has a price tag $300 less than the original and has way more features than when first launched. They dealing with the price demand curve.
I still think its absolutely amazing what Bill has managed off his machine, but i think we all can say Bill is not the average hobbiest when you look at what woodworking he has done before buying a CNC.
Something i would like to see is if Bill sent Leo the program for his box lid carvings and Leo ran that on his new machine, just how well the big machine would do it. There is a challenge. Part of me is guessing that Bills machine with a fine bit has achieved better than what Leos big machine will do but i dont know.
At a greater level the debate on the CNC issue is a moot point to me. I have never been able to understand those that only do turning and can turn baby turn 7 days a week. I dont think i have ever done the same thing in my day job from one day to the next, EVER, so no ways could i be interested in doing only one facet of what is offered by woodworking. But thats just me and my crazy mind each to his own.
I have never stopped thinking back to a time prior to my joining the forum. At that point in time i relied on the magazines and buyers guides for tool purchase decisions. I wised up pretty quickly after joining here and seeing the advise handed out by our bright group. I just cant help thinking about people that today are not part of a group like this and come across the $1000 cnc machines or even something like the baby laser engravers etc and think of starting a business with this being the core of the business. Many of these machines are sold on this basis to unsuspecting people. The reality ends up that these machines are not suitable for continuous mass production. If they were a company like where Leo works would not be spending 100's of thousands buying real machines to do what they produce. So i wonder how many have "sold" themselves the machine of whatever type on the basis of it paying its way in some or other business idea but have not tested the actual market for the business idea.
The machine is not a business going to make. In that situation it is only a tool and in that sense one can outsource the manufacturing initially to prove the business model and later if need be invest in the machine. But that is a different debate for another time.
Best part 
