Need advice on purchasing Shapeoko like CNC machine

I have a friend that is interested in purchasing a CNC machine like the Shapeoko 3 or XL. He is open to all suggestions as to brand, model,…

  • Would Shapeoko be a good choice?
  • Should other vendors be considered? Who?
  • Any thoughts on how long it takes to assemble and align?
  • Do machines like this tend to have maintenance issues? Expensive? Time consuming?
  • What to watch out for?

{Edit: Added category]

I’m not an expert but…

We got an Xcarve. Reasons for the choosing were there wasn’t soldering needed and more importantly they helped us with a discount. It was nice for my robotics challenged butt that it came with as much kit aspect as desired instead of the other one I’d been working on that was an inherited design. It’s quite similar to the Shapeoko.

Working off and on I assembled it in about three weekends knowing nothing about what I was doing going in

Calibration seems ok. That was another weekend, I haven’t tested it too much because I need to build the box for it and suspect I’ll need to recalibrate after all that. So far maintenance is minimal

I’ve heard mixed reviews on the multihead machines like the Shark. Totally not going to pretend like I researched really hard either. Xcarve gave us a super discount and Easel is very kid friendly so the deal was easy to choose…but thought it would be nice to know that anyone intelligent enough for IKEA furniture can handle Xcarve.

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What types of materials use and parts would he/she like to make? Examples of materials: pcb materials, plastics, soft metals (aluminium, brass, etc.), hard metals (steel, titanium). Examples of parts: pcb boards, name plates (mainly 2D work), thin parts (2-1/2 D parts - requires more z-axis [up & down] movement than 2D work), 3D profiles (near-continuous simultaneous movement of all 3 axis). Also, what size of parts - this has to do with the required size of the machine’s work envelope and also the horsepower. For example, someone wanting to frequently machine parts that are 24" long on a machine that could only cut/mill 9" in the longest direction would have to re-set (re-clamp) the part 2 or 3 times to finish the part.

http://www.taigtools.com/cmill.html

I have found the Carbide 3D forum members to be brutally honest. I suggest you also ask your questions there…

Thanks for the rapid excellent info and video links.

He does quite a bit of woodworking and I suspect usage would be primarily wood and acrylic with light duty aluminum if any at all. We walked through DMS a couple of weeks ago and a couple of folks were using the Shapeoko and it was very impressive. I don’t know about size. I would imagine that if you mentally justify a small tool, it would be very easy to say, “For a few dollars more, I can be ready for anything.”

If he purchases one, I’ll probably get some access and I would like to try PCB work but that would not effect a buying decision. I’m also cheering for the folks working on the ELab machine.

@MrsMoose - Were discounts available to everyone or was it through a specific organization?

Bounty challenges were for everyone then an institution one additional because of my job. Then their discounts attracted a grant so I really only paid like $100 for it. They come as large as 1000x1000.

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Check out the newest issue of Make magazine - it’s the annual “Desktop Fabrication” issue with 3-d printer and desktop CNC reviews. And I think their previous Desktop Fab reviews are online too.

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