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My new piece of equipment :-)

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I decided to get out of dye sub and move into a slightly different market.

 

I have been reading everything I could about CNC Routers and calling up all the manufactures in my price range with lots of questions the last two months.  I decided early on I did not want to build one because I would rather spend my time learning the software. I also wanted all metal except the spoil board and not HDPE which narrowed down my choices considerable.  In the end I went with a Probotix Comet

 

It arrived this afternoon and I was up and cutting in a few hours. I will say I have a lot to learn but I have had a smile on my face all night ;D

 

20150610_211815-1_resized.jpg

 

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thats thinking - doing something that not many people offer, for years I looked at them and thought it would be a good investment

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Be sure to post up pics of some of your work,

Cal

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Hopefully it will be a good investment One of the main reasons I decided to go the CNC route is exactly what Dakotagrafx said there are not many people offering it especially if you compare it to cut vinyl which is very over saturated unless you have a really good niche or are selling trademarked decals..

 

Thanks Guys. Once I get past the learning curve there is just so much you can do with a CNC

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Wow, thats pretty awesome and pretty good price as well. Kind of makes me want to buy it and modify one to hold a plasma cutter to make a cheaply made plasma table since ours at the shop costed around $11k to make.

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Hopefully it will be a good investment One of the main reasons I decided to go the CNC route is exactly what Dakotagrafx said there are not many people offering it especially if you compare it to cut vinyl which is very over saturated unless you have a really good niche or are selling trademarked decals..

 

Thanks Guys. Once I get past the learning curve there is just so much you can do with a CNC

 

That's EXACTLY why I bought a laser.   I wanted something different. Something no everyone has and I can use it to make unusual stuff that'll have a high mark up because never everyone can make it.    

 

I'm in the same boat you are.   I'm still learning and figuring it out.    

Keep us posted with some pics of your projects.  

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I have been dying to "up my game", wait I have no game. Rephrase that, ad yet another hobby and build a large format CNC router. A friend in Texas just finished a Green Bull from buildyourcnc.com and I am so jealous.

 

https://buildyourcnc.com/greenBullCNCMachineKit.aspx

 

While it does not fit EFIMAGE prerequisite of no MDF construction. It posts a integral dust containment system and the ability to add laser & dedicated liquid cooled spindle (apposed to router head)

 

If the Probotix Comet offers a dust collection solution I would suggest it for your heath. A local friend has a home build 2'x3' and it makes a hell of a mess and some nasty fine dust. He finally made a pull threw "hood" for it with home A/C filters and Lowes blue foam.

 

As previously stated, please share your work as you progress.

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I decided to get out of dye sub and move into a slightly different market.

 

I have been reading everything I could about CNC Routers and calling up all the manufactures in my price range with lots of questions the last two months.  I decided early on I did not want to build one because I would rather spend my time learning the software. I also wanted all metal except the spoil board and not HDPE which narrowed down my choices considerable.  In the end I went with a Probotix Comet

 

It arrived this afternoon and I was up and cutting in a few hours. I will say I have a lot to learn but I have had a smile on my face all night ;D

 

20150610_211815-1_resized.jpg

I have had a carvewright since 2006 , cnc routers are an awesome addition to your shop but can be a pita at times have fun man and let the creating begin!

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I will post some pictures once I get the hang of it.  Dust collection was a big issue for me I went with a KentCNC dust shoe which is on its way. I ordered it Monday so hopefully it will be here today or tomorrow. My plan for now is to go from the dust shoe into my Rigid Shop Vac with a .1 micron dust collection bag and a hepa filter in there. I will be adding a cyclone next and then a harborfreight 2hp dust collector with appropriate filters sometime down the line.  Right now I am over budget with everything else I needed to get going like software, bits/endmills, router/spindel Etc. I want to wait until I have some money coming in from the CNC before I add anything else. unless the shopvac is not cutting it then I will have to upgrade

 

While vcarving it really did not produce too much dust then I tried some pocket cuts and that was a whole different story. :(

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What software are you using? Vectric makes some amazing stuff

 

Vectric Vcarve desktop :)

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If you'll forgive my boldness, may I inquire as to how much that ended up setting you back?  I've ordered a 1 meter x 1 meter X-Carve CNC from Inventables that should ship today or tomorrow, after a 4 week wait (which I knew about and expected when I ordered).  It provides a working area of 31.5" x 31.5".  It comes with a less powerful spindle that what you've got, but they offer mounting plates for a variety of small routers similar to the one in your picture, which I'll probably upgrade to once I've got it all figured out.  The one it comes with has been used to cut/carve wood, aluminum, engrave brass and copper, and that's adequate for my needs.

 

With shipping, minus the wasteboard, mine came to a little over $1200.  Adding the wasteboard would have added another $257, more than half of which was just extra shipping costs.  I ordered the threaded inserts ($9) and will cut down a $17 piece of 3/4" MDF to exact dimensions (I actually plotted the template for it using a Sharpie holder in my Graphtec).  It won't have the pretty black grid on it that the original one does, but it's a wasteboard that is going to get torn up over time, so I'm not too concerned with that.

 

It's a kit, vs. an assembled machine, but I figured this will give me the opportunity to learn more about how it works and be able to make modifications or improvements if necessary.  They provide access to a free online design/CAM software tool called Easel.  It currently doesn't support V-bit carving, but there is a free program called F-Engrave that will generate the g-code necessary to carve signs with v-bits, and that is something they plan to incorporate in to Easel in the future, and the machine supports any software that can export g-code, so all of the Vectric applications are available (and if they weren't so darn expensive I'd consider buying one of them!).

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I am a little over $4000 into it when all said and done with software, router, bits and dust collection. Crating and freight for the cnc was $300 alone.  My original budget was $3500

I looked at the X-carve, Shapeoko 3,  Zenbot and the Romaxx  HS-1 ( nicely built but too small) . I also wanted lead screw over a belt drive.  I would have loved to get a Shopbot but that was way over my price range.

 

I was really contemplating a build from cncrouterparts.com but was concerned with build time. With having a fulltime day job , 2 young kids and my regular eBay and Etsy orders at night I really wanted to maximize my time and get learning the software and making sawdust and money right away. By the way if I went with the build from cncrouterparts.com I would have cost me around the same price but would have been a more robust CNC.

 

Have you played around with the Vcarve Demo?  It is a pretty cool and the previews are great it pretty much shows you exactly what you will end up with.  With your working envelope you would need the pro version $$$ to take advantage of the of the 31.5x31.5 bed.  The desk top version only supports up to a 24x24 inch bed.  The comet is 25”x25” so I am losing about a 1” which I am ok with for the price of the desktop version.

 

Have fun when you get the X-carve built and running.  There are just so many possibilities of what can be done.

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Have you played around with the Vcarve Demo?  

 

Yes.  Before I got into vinyl (and sand blasting and dye sublimation and everything else) I was looking seriously at a ShopBot CNC machine and played with V-Carve and Aspire and most of their other apps.  They're nice pieces of software, but in my opinion they're over priced for what they can do.  VCarve Pro is $700 and Aspire is $2000.  They're really slick, but that just seems crazy expensive for what they do.   I understand they have a smaller potential market than there is for something like Adobe Illustrator, or CorelDraw, but $2000 is large chunk of change for software - especially when that's more than I paid for the equipment I would use it on...

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Yes.  Before I got into vinyl (and sand blasting and dye sublimation and everything else) I was looking seriously at a ShopBot CNC machine and played with V-Carve and Aspire and most of their other apps.  They're nice pieces of software, but in my opinion they're over priced for what they can do.  VCarve Pro is $700 and Aspire is $2000.  They're really slick, but that just seems crazy expensive for what they do.   I understand they have a smaller potential market than there is for something like Adobe Illustrator, or CorelDraw, but $2000 is large chunk of change for software - especially when that's more than I paid for the equipment I would use it on...

 

I would disagree with you about it being expensive I would say its quite cheap for what it offers and ease of use. It really is software targeted for business users who make money using it. Also prior to Aspire, one of the only options for 3d cam with 3d sculpting capabilities was Artcam from Delcam, which cost $7000 for a license...Just thought I had to defend the software because I don't think people fully appreciate how much more affordable CNC related software and hardware has become. 

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