Ok, I am stumped about to the point of giving up. I do custom furniture restoration and design and have been looking at adding a CNC to my shop for close to a year to cut moldings, furniture parts, etc..
I have looked at everything from a Shop Bot, to machines upwards of $100k and have gotten customer service levels (as far as information from the mfg and/or sales peoples) ranging from pretty good to insulting (one guy actually told me I was wasting his time becasue I was not ready to purchase when he was ready to sell) to no reply at all.
At first I was sold on the fact that I needed to get a new machine because it was new and someone would set it up and train me and should have the latest technology. Then after a year of looking, you start to think they all have essentially the same set-up and parts which makes you wonder why the vast differences in pricing. Then I started looking at used machines and see that you can get an industrial machine for half the cost of new, but typically they are 5 to 10 years old which makes me wonder about the technology and mechanical problems.
So, my question for those of you in the know is this, what are your thoughts on new versus used and high end versus low end? I am not a production shop and everything is custom, so it is not like the machine will be running 24/7. Is a $30,000 new machine better than a used a $60,000 machine that is 10 years old? I, like everyone else, want the most bang for my buck but I do know that I don't know enough about a CNC to mechanically troubleshoot one or evaluate it to know if I am getting screwed or not on a purchase.
At the moment, I am thinking buying a new, low end machine like a Shop Bot may be an inexpensive way to venture into the waters rather than starting off investing in a $100,000+ system that I may or may not ever use all of its capabilities. On the other hand, I don't want to waste $30k if it can't do enough to do anything but frustrate me and make me wish I had gotten a $75,000 machine.
I think I am going to go bang my head against the wall for a while now.
Thanks for any guidance you may have,
Jeff