Can I get some advice on a good CNC for use in a home/garage set-up? My brother is looking at getting this 1000mm X-Carve, and while I know how to use our Multi-cam at DMS I don’t know what advice to give him for buying one.
I sold for Rockler a while back and from a consumer grade product perspective they offer a lot of CNC choices. Here’s the search URL they have a lot of choices in various cost ranges. There is also a cost for the stand, storage area and bits etc.
https://www.rockler.com/shop?w=CNC
I don’t own one myself, but the customers I talked to were pleased with them.
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i bought the AXIOM and love it. You can go to the ToolsToday website and they have a bunch of stuff there. I think they have one like you showed there .
I bought my Axiom at Rockler and it was at my house in 6 days!
Todd
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Depends on his budget and how much he wants to spend. I have my favorite CNCs, but they’re quite expensive. He could even go as cheap as to buy a kit and put it together himself.
Biggest questions…
- What are his requirements?
- What’s his budget?
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I would say under $5K.
I don’t know that he has any requirements specifically, he’s wanting to get into CNCing for fun and he lives in the middle of nowhere so he doesn’t have access to a nifty makerspace like we do. He’s looking for the best quality for that price, and the biggest “bang” for his buck, I guess?
If he’s a DIYer, the Maslow CNC could be a fun project. It’s not going to have the accuracy of a Multicam or ShopBot but it takes up less space. And the BOM includes “two bricks” - does X-carve have anything that fun? 
https://www.maslowcnc.com/
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That looks super cool! I’ll ask if he’s into something like that! Do you know a ballpark on the BOM cost? Obviously its a ymmv thing, but that’s going to be the first thing he asks.
This is what I am hoping to buy and build in about a year or so…
https://www.cncrouterparts.com/tested-pro4896-cnc-routerplasma-combo-machine-p-467.html
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That’s awesome, but kind of a huge footprint. I didn’t think to ask him how much space he’s willing to allocate, but I’ll pass this on for sure!
The have several other size CNC kits. May want to look at some of the other options on the website.
I am planning on building the same basic setup as the Tested spec listed in the link above.
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I have wanted to build that for over a year. I even cleaned out my garage several times and moved stuff to storage. But alas now I have crapped up the garage again. 
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They have a “complete” kit for $400, and an upgraded kit with a pre-made router sled for $550. The rest of the materials are construction lumber and plywood, IIRC.
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That’s the story of my life!
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Oh cool! Thanks for that. Sorry to make you do the work, but I was on my phone and didn’t see where to find the pricing.
No problem. This is way more fun than work!
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Just be sure it’s understood that the Maslow is 2D only, has lower travel speeds, and it’s been known to hang up and catch fire. That all works if you’re all hobby, going to be with it all the time and monitor it. I’d be a hard pressed to see anybody get very serious about CNC and not move on from it pretty quickly after they had played with it for a little bit.
Afterthought: but it would be a really inexpensive way to get into making yard decorations where you just need a basic shape and precision is not the most important thing.
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I have been using a Carbide3d Shapeoko 3 for the last three years. Very good machine. At the time it was a lot of footprint (16x16) for the money (about $1100). They have larger versions. Easy set up and software is simple/intuitive (at least to me).
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I’m also looking to buy/build an Avid “Pro” series kit in the next month or two.
I’ve already pieced together all of the electronics, identical to theirs in most ways, for a $1200 savings. I expect to spend ~$8k before I’m done but they have less expensive offerings.
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I’m actually in the market. I am so torn between the Inventables (X-Carve) or the Handheld Shaper myself. Each bring different things to the table. Following in case others have additional information to share.
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Would this help your decision:
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