Is anyone using one of these small CNC routers at all. I'm thinking of getting one to do some engraving, cutting ect. Are they any good? I'm only looking in the £250 range but if ones at this price aren't great then I'll have to save.
Much depends on what you want to cut. If you're looking at light wood or acrylics you might get something in that range but I was looking at something that could cut light/softer sheet metals a couple years back and couldn't find anything under £800. Maybe things have improved, but most machines are variations of the same stock chinese models.
Not really looked much as I'm not sure what I'm looking for, this was one I picked at random that's in my price range. https://www.amazon.co.uk/SainSmart-...1741877049&sprefix=cnc+router,aps,114&sr=8-12 As you have mention light woods and acrylics really, both to cut and engrave.
They aren't great, I'm afraid. CNC routers are a bit of a weird one. If you want to actually cut things with it, then anything under around 1000 quid new will have a weak spindle, way too much flex, a very small work area, unsupported linear rails (this is an important one) and crap electronics. That being said, you can get pretty much anything done if you take very very light passes, at the cost of time. When you're cutting plastics you want to move fast and have your rpm low. With a small spindle like that, having a low rpm will give you no torque so you'll end up stalling it constantly and breaking cutting bits in the process. You can't move faster than your stepper motors will go. If you try to, you lose torque on them too. More stalling and lost steps. For engraving wood and plastic, it would be ......fine. For a couple of hundred bucks, it would be worth getting one just to play with. Just don't expect miracles. You can upgrade the machine with stiffer parts and motion controllers, but you're still stuck with a lightweight aluminium extrusion frame that flexes loads. I went down this road about 8 years ago. I ended up building my own machine for about 1500 quid, and although it won't win any prizes for looks and size, it has paid for itself about 30 times over with the paid jobs I've done on it.
That's that idea out of the window then lol. I didn't think I was going to get much for that price tbh but you never know until you ask.
If you're wanting to actually cut things out of anything harder than mdf, you'd be looking at about a grand. Something like a used workerbee: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/19700416...eZES1TYSsO&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY There are plenty of diy guides into building your own, as all the components can be bought separately, you you do want to cut cost down
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/genmitsu/cubiko/rewards I keep getting the ad for this, I just missed the £200 tier, but it is mighty tempting!
