Difference between revisions of "Equipment/CNC Router"

Revision as of 21:47, 3 March 2013

PROPOSAL : A 4' x 4' or 8' x 4' CNC Router

CNC Controlled
Minimum 4' x 4' cutting bed
- It was generally concluded whilst 8' x 4' would be attractive, it may have limits in terms of floor space and also materials storage and handling - storing and moving 8' x 4' sheets on to a flatbed machine is a pretty impractical task in a full workshop, and certainly not a 1 man job.
- We concluded we could store a lot of sheet material in 4' x 4' and 600 x 900 for the router and laser respectively (and for general use), making storage much more tractable and avoiding the need to cut down such large sheets.
decent software

Maybe a Vacuum bed

Would make jobs quicker to setup (except vacuum beds sometimes require a custom 'mask' cutting to cover all the unused holes)
avoids risk of hitting clamps/bolts
Will be more expensive (new mask needed for each job?)
Unsure how "magical" a solution it is

Shopbot

The defacto FabLab CNC router
Would be from the [PRS Standard Range]
Prices are roughly $11500 and $13000 for the 4x4 and 8x4 models
Ship from US (no distributors), by air or sea, and import duties etc payable
Quote from Shopbot: approx $15k/£10k + shipping/taxes for 4x4, 8x8 would be approx £2k more

Piranha

HPC Laser CNC

Not clear what is available or specs; assume it is china import again, but could be interesting to go with HPC given great service
1200x1200 looks like it might be: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HPC-CNC-router-1200-x1200-engraver-CNC-Machine-sign-making-UK-stock-/150966295622

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 Maybe a Vacuum bed
-* Would make jobs quicker to setup, and avoid risk of hitting clamps/bolts
+* Would make jobs quicker to setup (except vacuum beds sometimes require a custom 'mask' cutting to cover all the unused holes)
-* Will be more expensive
+* avoids risk of hitting clamps/bolts
+* Will be more expensive  (new mask needed for each job?)
 * Unsure how "magical" a solution it is