14 x 31 cutting area seems small to me....you might want to verify that this will handle tops, etc.. as well as necks.

Trev

Has anyone else dealt with this guy yet?

The machine that he's offering looks like a lot of cnc for the money but I haven't found anyone how has gotten their machine yet. The price is certainly right but I'd really like to hear some customer feedback before I send him any money.

Mattia,

One thing I noticed about your original descricption and what I saw on the photos in the link. Those rails are not fully supported, at least not the ones I saw. Do you know for sure the model you are considering have supported rods?

Ask me how I know about the need for stiffness! It is not fun to watch your cut quality suffer due to vibration or flex, and unsupported rails will flex and vibrate.

Mike

yeah, the supported rails are an upgrade, he's posted a few pics now. Also having them tapped and pocketed into the end supports and upgrading to 20mm ballscrews throughout and a 1/2" t slot aluminum table. I think there are a few pics in his last post in that thread. He expects initial customer reviews to start showing in the next few weeks as folks get their stuff up and running.

jaydawg I thing the quitest spindles are the water cooled versions, whether Chinese or Italian. I know the little 3hp Chinese version is quite a bit less expensive but I haven't heard about life span.

My next spindle is going to be an ATC. I am tired of having to sit and wait for the little short programs to finish so I can change the bits!

Mike

Agreed. On the other hand, he started the thread about a month ago, and from what I understand pretty much everyone was interested in supported rail machines, which started getting built up a couple of weeks ago. He quoted me a lead time of 7 to 10 days plus shipping, pursuant to all the bits and pieces being available.

He's easy to communicate with, responds quickly and completely to emails, the only part I'm still waiting on is, like you, seeing a machine in someone's hands. Well, that, and some cash in my bank account would be nice

I've budgeted about 4,000 euros for the CNC (excluding tooling, including Rhino and MadCAM), so I figure spending about 1500 us (including vat, local purchase) on a 1.6 kw TeknoMotor 24,000 rpm spindle, including VSD, meaning I can control everything from Mach. ER25 collet.

the $1,500 machine will stand up to any $10.000 machine

I looked at those watercooled spindles on ebay yesterday but most of them run ER11 collets. That only let's you use tooling up to 1/4". That would be a real issue.

I'll have to go back and do some more research on those.

After following the link I can't tell if this is a working CNC, a frame, part of a CNC machine, or what. He writes this:



If this is not a working CNC, apprx. how much would a person need to invest in order to make it one? Software aside.

I'm not interested in getting one, but it's interesting to see something so potentially less expensive than commercial units. The way he communicates isn't very clear for someone (me) without any prior background.

http://www.homeshopcnc.com/HFspindle2.html
These units run the ER20 collets which will handle 1/2" shanks and even a little larger.
Nelson

quote]
I wounder how practical it is setting up the water cooling system on a relatively small table top machine? Would the added weight on the gantry affect performance?

jaydawg I am not sure if I follow you, but I will tell you what I know about the system and maybe that will help.

The spindle is the only significant weight on the z axis which is of course mounted to the gantry. The water system is tubing that is fed into and out of the spindle via a small pump that feeds from your water storage container. Many have used aquariums and their pumps.

Hope this helps.

Mike