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.