[issdar]

Hello everyone, I am brand new to the community and CNC milling in general. I'm interested in CNC because I wish to design and mill custom computer parts specifically aluminum sheet, 3/4" plexi watercooling distribution blocks, and possible wood. I have very little experience using Solidworks which I am being to learn more and more. Basically I am looking for a machine/plans that require me to do no precision cuts and require no special tools aside for machine square and calipers. I also would like the machine to be relatively quick to assemble and get running so I can start learning gcode and Solidworks better. I may have found what fits my needs 8020cnc.com sells plans and looks like total cost is around $2500 which is upper limit of how much I'm looking to spend. Anyone have any first hand experience with the machine at 8020cnc and are the parts recommended a good combination for what I am looking to do? Thanks everyone!

[awerby]

I'm somewhat skeptical of the claims on that site; that you can really build a decent CNC router without access to anything more than basic hand tools. The frame can certainly be constructed with just the 80/20 extrusions, associated brackets and other special hardware, but a CNC machine also needs plates for motors, bearing seats for the screws, precision surfaces for the rails to seat on, and critical alignment so things don't come out all wonky. It's hard to imagine doing all that without using at least a drill press and a table saw. But if you go that route, could you please report back, preferably with a build log, so we can see how it went?