Originally Posted by
theremin
I looked at the Stinger before I got my Raptor. Nearly bought one, but they were in the process of a move at the time and orders were going to be slow from what they told me. I liked it, and they make them within easy driving distance for me. But the price of the Raptor outweighed the convenience and I bought one. Took awhile to get the Raptor too--guess that's the way it goes when you have a popular product. It was worth the wait.
But George is right--the Stinger isn't anywhere near the machine that the Raptor is. Still a nice machine, but the new Raptors have them beat by a pretty good margin, and that's before figuring price into the equation. I'm glad that Camaster was running slow when I was looking to buy. I'd have probably been happy with the Stinger, but would be several thousand poorer and wouldn't have the machine that I do today.
Assembly of the Raptor isn't quite a no-brainer, but it's close. It's not a kit, but it's very straight forward to assemble and George was good about answering questions when they came up (I had very few). Took me an afternoon to put together and I was up and cutting wood. Not bad at all, and certainly nothing to fear. If you can't put one of these together, you probably shouldn't be trying CNC to begin with!
Dave
dave i would like to invite you to the aspire camp in march if you are in the south, it is a cnc event for owners of all types of machines, what cad cam are you using? actually shopbot and others are bringing machines maybe you could bring yours it is a well publicized event!!
James McGrew CAMaster 508 ATC
www.mcgrewwoodwork.com http://dropc.am/p/EJaKyl