I've got my heavily customised printer already, I don't need a maker space. I want the convenience of having the CNC machine myself and be able to access it anytime without leaving the house.
OK then, my advice would not be to buy any of the Chinese machines. By the time you've 'fixed' the problems with it, you'll likely wish you hadn'tOriginally Posted by Shakey
Look for an old Emco or Denford desktop CNC. They come up fairly often on eBay. They are perfectly usable on the whole - but the control side of them is very dated. However, converting them to run Mach3 is easy (easier than building a robot!) and it will transform it into a state of the art (almost) CNC machine.
I have A Denford EasyTurn CNC Lathe and a Bridgeport Interract 1 Mk2 4 Axis mill - both converted to Mach 3. It also makes them very easy to adapt / extend yourself - for example if you wanted to make an automated toolchanger or a bar-feed. The mechanics are the easy bit on most machines, its the integration with the NC controller that's virtually impossible. With Mach 3 however - it's easy!
I also have a home built CNC Plasma running Mach3 - which has been worth it's weight in gold!
This is my write up: http://www.instructables.com/id/CNC-Plasma-Table/
It gives a little insight into Mach3 too.
Si
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