[520052]

I've been meaning to write this for quite awhile. Don't know if anyone is interested but I thought I'd share my experience of researching, purchasing and setting up my first CNC router. I scoured these forums for information and gleaned an awful lot of information. I had originally thought about building my own machine, I do have quite a bit of manual machining and manufacturing experience, but no CNC experience what so ever. So after researching a few machine designs and reading these forums I eventually came to the reality that this would most likely be a project I would either spend years on or not complete at all.

My needs were for a router with a table of at least 4'x4', with as much Z travel as I could afford. High powered, water cooled spindle, T slot table, coolant pump and water recovery pan. These were all necessary as the primary material I would be cutting would be aluminum plate of 1/4" to 3/4" thick. My plan was to cut nested parts out of this aluminum plate to manufacture a lot of the brackets and stop pieces I use in my business. I also wanted to be able to machine wood, plastics and it would be an added bonus if I could also cut stone. So in addition to my above wants/needs, dust collection would also be needed.

Reading these forums and learning from the trials and tribulations of the posters I studied the different available machines. Contacted a few manufactures and came to a decision.

I hope people might get the confidence they need to take a big leap and order a machine sight unseen from the other side of the world. If no one has any interest or if I'm breaking the forum rules, let me know and I will cease and desist.

More to come in the future, gotta go.

[ger21]

Why do you want a lot of Z travel if you're only cutting 3/4" plate? The taller the Z, the poorer your cut quality will be.

[520052]

I understand that, and when I said "as much as I could afford", I was probably giving you the wrong impression. What I should have said was that I was looking for Z travel of more than just a few inches.

My wife has an interest in creating wall hung art to sell, and the ability to cut 2 1/2d profiles out of wood was a capability I also desired.

So back to my search, I'll keep this part as short as possible.

I am a firm believer in buying American when economically feasible and was reluctant to consider a machine from China. I don't want to start any arguments here, I am just speaking for myself. But when I did the comparisons of available machinery meeting my desires, I just couldn't afford a machine made in this country, as much as I wanted to make that happen. I know I could have bought something used, but I didn't know CNC at all and knew nothing about motion control and didn't want a possible repair project.

What influenced my choice significantly was reading the threads on here of people trying to cut aluminum on what is basically a wood cutting router and all the problems they were having. I definitely wanted something as rigid as possible.

I started looking and contacted Limac because of their adds here and J-CUT because they seem to be a popular brand among other members of this forum and I liked the prices I saw on ebay. I was searching ebay for new or used machine prices just to see what ballpark prices were running.

So in my search I stumbled across these stone cutting routers from J-CUT. I figured if they were able to support and cut a large stone slab, they would be quite rigid and be able to cut aluminum. My thinking was I would get a rigid machine, T-slot table and the coolant pump and pan needed to do the aluminum cutting and could still use it to cut other materials and retrofit dust collection.

I contacted J-CUT and after quite a few, probably 30 emails with Mandy over the course of a 5 week period, I had come to a conclusion. The JCUT-1313C was going to be my purchase. This is a 1300mm x 1300mm capacity machine with 300mm Z travel. (51.18" x 51.18" with 12" of Z travel). I only have single phase power available so I asked for the largest spindle I could get that could be run on single phase. The answer was a 4.5kw, so that is what I chose.

Supposedly this machine could support 1000kg (2200lbs.) slab and would weigh in at about 1500-1600lbs. Should be stout enough for my needs.

Mandy also quoted me a price with "free" shipping. After reading the import horror stories on here, I knew that only meant shipped to a port relatively local to me. I told Mandy I wanted a delivered to my door price and also, as I had no idea of how to import anything into the states I needed them to recommend an import agent they dealt with. They came through with the delivered to my door price and suggested an agent in NYC. So now I had a delivered to my door price, the only unknown was import tariffs and charges by the import agent.

I didn't have an extra $2000-$3000 to throw away on unknowns, but figured since I had the to my door price I would be pretty safe. So at this point I wired half the money.

After about 2 weeks Mandy imformed me my machine was ready to ship and I wired the balance. I was sent the shipping manifest and waited.

About 4 weeks later (long boat trip) I got a call from the import agent the router had landed in NYC. I would have thought it would have come to Philadelphia as I am in eastern PA, but what do I care, I have a to my door price.

The import agent was great, emailed all the forms for me to return filled out and took care of everything. He didn't quote me a price up front, so that was a little scary, but in the end his final bill, including tariffs, DHS and everything else was about $850. Not too bad compared to what I've read here.

A week later I got a call from the freight company saying my router was at their terminal about 45 min. away from me. I told them to call to arrange delivery as I actually needed to pick it up at the terminal so I could get it on a truck with a 3000lb. capacity lift gate. The local truck rental has 24' trucks with 6' long 3000lb. lift gates.

So off I went to pick it up. Tight fit but it went in.



More of this story to come.

[520052]

We got the crate off the truck with a couple of pry bars and a dolly we managed to get under the crate. It was a little hairy balancing the crated router on the lift gate, more worrisome than dangerous, only because the crate was about 7 1/2' square and wasn't evenly balanced. I lost my helper at this time so I uncrated the router in the driveway, still on the steel shipping pallet and the dolly. I manged to finesse this rolling assembly into the garage with a pry bar and a little help from a hydraulic jack. Once inside I cut the steel packing pallet down the center, lifted one end of the router and removed the corresponding half pallet, the the other side the same way.

Well there it was my new router in it's new home.

Attachment 304060

[520052]

The router came with a "toolkit" containing some clamps, collet wrenches, a few cutters, a couple of extra drive belts, an undersized computer cord for the unit, a CD with a trial version of mach3, the Ethernet smooth stepper add on, and a few screenshots of the mach3 settings pages on it. No instructions whatsoever. I was hoping I didn't make a mistake at this point knowing nothing about CNC machines.

Oh, by the way it did also include 2 fountain water pumps; one for the water cooled spindle and one for the coolant system. Both rated 220v single phase, but these pumps use 220v single phase with one hot, one neutral and an equipment ground. Can't run on our 240v two hot, no neutral single phase. More on that later.

Fortunately the control/machine was wired for our style single phase supply, but the cord provided as a 15a cord you would use to plug in a PC. So I substituted a 20a 240v cord for the one supplied and pulled a line and installed an outlet for it. Inside the control box the inside of the receptacle for the cord had a post for an equipment ground but it wasn't grounded; grounded that and looked around inside for any glaring omissions. None found, remember I know nothing about CNC motion control at this point, what I did see was the control board, smooth stepper board, the axis drives, two large transformers and a sizable Variable Frequency Drive. Wow, hope I don't have any problems.

So I hook up my $50. used XP computer via the USB smooth stepper and turn everything on. Fans whirring, noises coming out and everything seems to be working. I had previously loaded mach3 (ended up downloading a copy) could not get the smooth stepper add on to load, downloaded that also. First experience with any motion control program ever, so I was very confused. Found the settings screens and entered all the information from the screen shots, and decided to try to move the spindle. I press X+ and the spindle moved down towards the table? I pressed X- and the spindle moved down towards the table? No matter what axis or direction I tried, the spindle moved down towards the table. WTF, now I think I am really in trouble cause I don't know what to do. So I spend about two full days reading on the internet learning about mach3 changing settings, but nothing changes. Wow I am really starting to freak out.

Well for some unknown reason I open the control cabinet door and am staring in there, not really knowing what I am looking at, I kind of know what everything is but that's about all. I reach in and press on the Ethernet smooth stepper board and realize its loose, I securely seat it into the main board and give things another try. Everything worked! What a relief.

Luckily for me there is so much information out there I was able to dial in all my settings and adjust the step counts and such to get the machine set up accurately.

The above foreign voltage problem with the water pumps was solved with an inexpensive inverter purchased off ebay and hooked up inline of the water pumps; and yes from what I learned hear I never started the spindle before I got the coolant pump working.

So as delivered I had a CNC router with a water cooled spindle and coolant system. I got one with the coolant system to cut aluminum and other materials but was hoping to get by cutting aluminum without creating such a mess. I have a Micro mist system on my high speed aluminum saw and purchased one for the router. Hoped that would keep things cool enough for me to not have to use the coolant system all the time.

I also wanted to cut wood, so there was a need for dust collection. I searched here and elsewhere and was inspired to fabricate a spit shoe for the dust collector. I also have a wood shop so having experience with dust collection and learning from the research of Bill Pentz, I wanted to use 6" hose and pipe back to my 3hp cyclone.

I am going to end this now as I have probably rambled on way too long.

Just wanted to say that the router turned out to be a good purchase. Many trials and tribulations along the way, many months of trial and error but in the end a good investment. The router all told, delivered to my door, including import agent, tariffs and local shipping was a little less than $9000. Alot of money I know, but way cheaper than I could have spent.

Yes it cuts great, using what I learned here, Gwizard calculator for feeds and speeds and the exclusive use of Onsrud O flute bits cuts aluminum fast and smooth.

Hope this helps others to make the plunge into CNC, probably one of the best moves I have made.

Here are some pictures of how it is equipped now.
Attachment 304148

Attachment 304150

Attachment 304152

[HomeDeco]

They are possibly alright. Whenever Now i am buying router portions in case Now i am buying a little bit for starters career that will I'll possibly certainly not use once more I'll seize an affordable far east $9 little bit rather then the $45 model little exactly the same lower. We've certainly not had a worry basic low cost portions aside from naturally they do not apparently last just about so long. Should it be the lower I do believe I'll be accomplishing many or perhaps a single I'll use regarding like pine or perhaps additional very hard timber I'll go on and springtime with the costly stuff.

[latcnc]

Now did you get your router in good condition?
now working ok or they are some problems ?
Please can you send some photos ?

[Jack_YsCNC]

Hi,

please check your private message.
Im serious about what am i saying.

Jack

[_Nikola_]

Hi,
Why private message?
Are you still satisfied?

[Jack_YsCNC]

Hi,
Why private message?
Are you still satisfied?

What do you mean?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

[_Nikola_]

latcnc: (3.15.2016.)
"Now did you get your router in good condition?
now working ok or they are some problems ?
Please can you send some photos ?"

Your reply (3.15.2016.)
"Hi,

please check your private message.
Im serious about what am i saying.

Jack"

Are you still satisfied with the router, or you have some problems?

(Sorry if I misunderstood your message)

[Jack_YsCNC]

Maybe back at the time I thought you want a router. Lol sorry for my message. Lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

[520052]

Nikola, Yes I am still satisfied. I think this was a good purchase decision and have been happy with the router since its purchase. Unfortunately my full work schedule does not allow me much time on the machine lately, but I am happy with the results I am getting thus far.

[bccad]

I contacted J-CUT and after quite a few, probably 30 emails with Mandy over the course of a 5 week period, I had come to a conclusion. The JCUT-1313C was going to be my purchase.

More of this story to come.

Hi 520052. I know this is an old post but, I am also looking for the same machine. Would it be possible for you to send me the contact information for the company that sold you this J-CUT router. Thanks in advance for your help.

[520052]

Hi 520052. I know this is an old post but, I am also looking for the same machine. Would it be possible for you to send me the contact information for the company that sold you this J-CUT router. Thanks in advance for your help.

This contact info is old 2013. But the the person I communicated with was Mandy at [email protected]
Hope you this helps.

Bill

[520052]

Just wanted to post an update as to my experience with this machine as I now have a few miles on it. I don't know if I mentioned this before but it is primarily used for routing aluminum. I have installed a micro mist-coolant system, even though it did come with flood coolant. The micro-mist system is far less messy and allows the chips to stay dry and be sucked up the chip collector, which works beautifully by the way.

Things I would change. If I were doing this again, which I am sure I will be someday, I would get an ATC spindle. The other main change I am probably going to make is to go with an isel PT 25 aluminum plate, extrusion table. The t-slot aluminum table this came with is very thin and vibrates quite a bit under load.

I am really loving having this thing, repeatability is awesome, cut quality and consistency is great. Being a cnc newbie I have learned a lot using this, most of through mistakes and reading. I did find through use that I was baby-ing it a little. I have increased my depth of cut per pass to between a 1/16" and 1/8" and am getting quite good results. I should mention here that these are roughing cuts so the finish is not too great but tool condition and longevity seem to be good so far. I cut multiples of the same part and cutting speed really helps me out time wise.

Just an update, I don't know if anyone is still reading this thread.