Question for all Shapeoko guys

Rob Keeble

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Whats your thoughts on the shapeoko 3 with the dewalt router used for spindle

I am on the edge since i seen some videos of it with the Dewalt router cutting aluminum.

If i get in the water i am looking at the XXL unit to get the largest cutting area which just makes it for a project i have in mind.

Now i see the difference between the standard unit and the xxl upgrade kit versus the xxl unit on it own is only $100. Looks pretty attractive to order it in that form .

Any thoughts and opinions welcome.

The rails i see on the shapeoko 3 look nice and beefy in comparison to the XCarve.
 
Rob, you are the only one who can answer your question.

Why do you want a CNC machine?

Do you want to go into manufacturing a product or do you just want make a few things for yourself and friends/family?

My Shapeoko2 is doing what I want. Carol went a lot farther because she has a manufacturing plan. Leo went with what he has because he has a plan.

What do you want to do?
 
my shapeoko 2 is doing just what i want. the only thing i would change is the width of my y axis. i've got enough length, but a touch more width would be nice.

If I recall properly, you built your SO2 the "classic" way: gantry is X; long rails are Y. By using the tiling function of VCarve, you actually have no true Y limit - make a cut, then shift to the next index point.
 
yup, all i need do is tile it, and it creates the proper tool paths. but, with only about 11 inches of x axis, i'd like to go a bit wider, not taking up too much space.
 
Well i just want some prototypes. Had found a place here to do them with a big machine but now they dont take that kind of work, so i was thinking ..what the heck diy then can farm out production when it suites me.
Its a bit like my vacuum forming experience. Company said they do prototypes and small runs, took them 3 weeks to tell me what i wanted was going to be in the order of 5k for tooling. Yeah right.
And trust me i know about the pricing and setup costs etc for small jobs.
I could teach a few of these guys about contract manufacturing....they aint got a clue here.

One can always flush out serious and non serious customers through contracts and non recurring engineering costs to5 cover initial setup and amortize over initial production run with a letter of credit to cover entire purchase order.
But i aint come across ant small business that understands that sentence. Then they wonder why they sitting with no work.
Sorry but i am tired of people who complain about Asia but have no clue how to do a deal when its in front of their eyes.

Anyway getting away from topic, indirectly Bill and Dan have answered my question. If i decide to pull the trigger then i will just go xxl and if i need larger then tile like Dan mentions.
But i am going to some more searching first.

Thanks Dan and Bill for the input.
 
FWIW, I'm planning on making a bracket so I can mount a dewalt router on my Big Ox. Its 1500x1000. I set the X up to run the long way, and the gantry to do the Y, but it's all really about how you plan out the project with tiling I reckon.
 
Bill's got a great response in defining your purpose present AND future for getting into CNC ...

You may find you love it and end up with multiple machines .... I almost ended up there by diving into a lightweight machine early on, but finding the cheap rails on ebay made my story take a different tack.

In the end, the nuances of the machines will almost always come down to speed and capacity. Most any machine that can move in XYZ movements simultaneously is basically the same up to a point. Differences affect how fast you can run or how big a part you can make. It's always a balance of speed and capacity. Longer axes need a drive system that can handle decent speeds for the material you're cutting so that the project (or the machine) isn't running for a decade to get the job done :p

Like with most things tools, you're paying for patience. Cutting metals is more about the cut recipe than the machine itself. Even a fairly lightweight machine can cut metals with the right cutter, spindle speed, feed rates and chip loading formula. Sometimes you're stuck pioneering that on your own (like if you go rogue and design your own machine like i went and did...), other times you have a community behind a known set of hardware that can at least give you some kind of ballpark parameters to start with. That's got some value ... this is where I think those open source designs excel ... there's a community of people using them and chances are someone has already tried what you're thinking of doing.

I kinda wish i had that sometimes... other times, the thrill of the hunt is fun for me :D
 
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