I picked up my new machine about 6 weeks ago. It took about 2 weeks to get completely assembled to the point I was ready to actually do something. It could be done a lot quicker but I was somewhat limited on how much time I could put into it. I'm not going to go into much of the build detail or post a lot of pictures of the progress. That's already been done very well and I don't have much to add in that department.. What I can do is post a few observations.
1. I would highly recommend these machines to anyone. All of the parts are top of the line. Instructions are very complete. Support is phenomenal. If you call with a problem and nobody answers, don’t get excited, you will probably get a return call in about 15 minutes.
2. I was a little hesitant going into this that a bolt together aluminum machine would not be stiff enough. Not so.
3. If, during the build you think that some parts are missing, look again before you call. They may not be in the bag you are looking in but they are more than likely there someplace.
4. Before you bolt the frame together, think about where you may want mounting points and put some T nuts in the in the slots. You can always add the roll in nuts but that gets a little pricy compared to putting in some regular ones.
5. I’m not going to say everything was absolutely perfect but CNCRP handles things quickly and well. The biggest problem I had was that the gussets were not 90 degrees. They were off enough to pull the horizontal extrusions into a little curve but there are new ones coming so I’m good with that.
A few of the things that I did during my build.
1. I added two extra of the long (48”) extrusions. Since I was a little concerned about stiffness, I figured this wouldn’t hurt plus I thought the additional mounting point would be nice. I probably did not need the because the machine is already pretty stiff and the way I’m mounting things the Rockler T-track gives me all the mounting I need.
2. I’m going to start off by not using a surface board. Instead I’m just using the T-Track mounting with ¼” ply blocks under my piece. With this, the chips will just fall to the floor. I’ve found that even with dust shoes or whatever, I still have to vacuum everything up so why not just vacuum it and not mess with the dust collection. That’s OK for making big chips but I will have to use better dust collection if I start cutting MDF or something else really dusty.
3. I saw someplace on this forum where someone found a use for the mounting jigs. I’ve posed a pic of what I did with one. Kind of nice to be able to run a dial gauge around the surface of my board. I was surprised when I got only .006” of deflection over the surface of a 24”x36” piece of wood. Don’t forget that this was wood.
4. Posted a few pics of my first project on this machine. Who can say no to a 4 year old Grand Daughters.