I have a Laguna IQ router that seems to be the perfect size 24"x48" for me. I chose the Laguna over other models as the prices was right and it had the ability for the gantry to mover over the end, allowing me to mount boards vertically for end mortising which I have used a couple of times with great success. I have a Laguna 18" bandsaw which I like a lot. It took me several weeks to get the CNC working properly as support and documentation was poor, and there was a loose stepper motor wire and a bad linear bearing, which I ended up disassembling the entire gantry before I found it. IT is a pretty solid machine now though, and is working as expected. (knock on wood)

Regretfully I did not order the 4th axis which was an option as I thought that I could always add it later, as on the Laguna website it lists it as an OPTIONAL 4th AXIS TURNER "AVAILABLE ON BOTH THE STANDARD IQ AND IQ PRO. THE 4TH AXIS TURNER ALLOWS YOU TO SHAPE 3-DIMENSIONAL OBJECTS. MOUNTED ON THE T-SLOTS OF THE TABLE THE 4TH AXIS TURNER ALLOWS YOU TO CREATE...". When I was debugging my x-axis wiring problem I realized that the control and the motor drivers only support 3 axis. I emailed Laguna Support for upgrade options, and never received a reply.

I have been reading several retrofit posts in this forum and believe my options are:
1) I can add a 4th Leadshine controller ~$35 and replace the RichAuto A11 with an A18 or even a B58. Which will give me control for a fourth axis.

2) I could completely retrofit the A11 controller and replace it with a Centroid Acorn controller, which would be give me additional capabilities but is more involved. I am concerned that I may run it to calibration problems that may be difficult to track down. From what I can tell no-one has retrofitted the Acorn to a Laguna IQ.

I am not crazy about the DSP pendent as everytime I have to tweak my files, I have to take the USB from the controller, go into the house to my home office launch Vcarve pro, make the changes save the gcode to the USB drive, go back to the garage insert the USB wait for it to load, and then run the new file. It would be nice to have the capability to make the changes on a computer right at the machine and then to run them from that machine without all of the coping back and forth to the USB drive.

I know there are forum participates that have retrofit experience, are there options I am not considering? Any insight that you can give is sincerely appreciated.