Possibly the wrong place to ask but I might as well.
I fancy a new toy and that toy is going to be a CNC milling machine (else it will be a mill, a vacuum former or something similar, no 3d printers please).
Naturally as part of this I found the whole 3020, 3060 and 6040 Chinese CNC machines dotted around the place ( http://www.carving-cnc.com/ seems to be one of the better vendors)
They start at just over £550 for the 240V stuff already in country/without shipping (and customs) hassles and go to about 4 times that for the nice 4 axis 6040 stuff.
I saw several youtube videos from China and from outside China and nothing too red flag like was raised, I also did not see any second hand ones floating around which is often a good sign. I do not mind milling a better plate/table, installing better bearings or rewiring it with real wires.
Though it will be a toy £550 is a lot of money that I would rather not waste on a complete piece of junk. At that price point, other than building one, I am looking at the considerably smaller Roland stuff http://www.rolanddga.com/products/milling/imodela/ for the alternatives. I trust the Roland to deliver upon what it says.
However the build areas of the 3020 stuff are 65 x 300 x 200mm (the 6040 stuff is 65 x 580 x 400mm)
This compares to the imodela stuff at 26 x 80 x 55 mm (a serious difference)
Accuracy is sub mm for both, I do not much care beyond that for a toy (whatever materials it mills are whatever it mills, though I would dearly love something that would chew through tungsten I do not much care if I am limited to wood and plastic). Obviously I would like to go for something like http://www.shopbottools.com/mProducts/desktop.htm but they are somewhat dearer.
I fancy a new toy and that toy is going to be a CNC milling machine (else it will be a mill, a vacuum former or something similar, no 3d printers please).
Naturally as part of this I found the whole 3020, 3060 and 6040 Chinese CNC machines dotted around the place ( http://www.carving-cnc.com/ seems to be one of the better vendors)
They start at just over £550 for the 240V stuff already in country/without shipping (and customs) hassles and go to about 4 times that for the nice 4 axis 6040 stuff.
I saw several youtube videos from China and from outside China and nothing too red flag like was raised, I also did not see any second hand ones floating around which is often a good sign. I do not mind milling a better plate/table, installing better bearings or rewiring it with real wires.
Though it will be a toy £550 is a lot of money that I would rather not waste on a complete piece of junk. At that price point, other than building one, I am looking at the considerably smaller Roland stuff http://www.rolanddga.com/products/milling/imodela/ for the alternatives. I trust the Roland to deliver upon what it says.
However the build areas of the 3020 stuff are 65 x 300 x 200mm (the 6040 stuff is 65 x 580 x 400mm)
This compares to the imodela stuff at 26 x 80 x 55 mm (a serious difference)
Accuracy is sub mm for both, I do not much care beyond that for a toy (whatever materials it mills are whatever it mills, though I would dearly love something that would chew through tungsten I do not much care if I am limited to wood and plastic). Obviously I would like to go for something like http://www.shopbottools.com/mProducts/desktop.htm but they are somewhat dearer.
