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Advice on a small CNC cutter please?
Hi all,
Asking on behalf of my employer here… we’re looking at getting a small CNC cutter for profile cutting foamboard, usually no bigger than say A1 in size. (no need for 8ft x 4ft sheets)
We have no experience in CNC cutting so looking for some guidance on what we should be looking for or models/brands you would recommend?
Thanks in advance.
Pete.
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8 Replies
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There are a few companies that do small cnc routers, Routout CNC is one that comes to mind quickly and I’m sure I’ll think of a few others tonight in bed
worldofcnc is another.
I’ve used Routout many years ago for parts and I’ve seen one of their earlier routers and it was nicely made.
If you go down this route then the machine controller will be PC based and likely Mach3 or a variation, UCCNC is a nice simple control program as well, I use both and UCCNC is far nicer to use. Make sure it is using an ethernet or usb controller, not a printer port. the printer port is ok but for business use the USB or ethernet controller is much smoother, they are both still controlled by the PC based program but the timing is taken care of by the separate control card.
Steve
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Interesting Post to be honest.
we are also looking for a small one -
Hi Peter did you ever buy a small cnc router as i am also lookinmg into this knid of thing mainly for cnc cutting diabond letters 4 to 5 " in size
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quote Patrick Donaghey:Hi Peter did you ever buy a small cnc router as i am also lookinmg into this knid of thing mainly for cnc cutting diabond letters 4 to 5 ” in sizeHave you thought about where you are going to keep it ? Biggest problem with running a CNC is the amount of dust it produces 😆 😆
Vinyl & dust don’t get along to well so if you had a separate room or an enclosure for the machine it would make life a lot easier. Decent dust extraction systems can be quite expensive off the shelf, you can build your own much cheaper if you have the time to spare 😆 😆 -
Yes martin i was going to build a purpose built room for it as i have the space and have it air tight with extraction so that wouldnt be a worry , Im looking a system that is built by a company in the republic of ireland it looks impressive so far
http://cnc-factory.eu/ looking at the HF-8060-Ultra if you look it up let me know what you think
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Even although you are looking to cut only letters etc, you really should not minimise yourself to less than 1000mm square for general sign work. you only have to try creating a large logo for a fascia and your beat, if only small text capabilities.
Think on it like a vinyl cutter, most tend to buy a 610mm wide vinyl cutter because they recon thats all they need for vans and shop fronts. You have it in the door 5 minutes and you need to create a large logo or similar, same story here.I haven’t looked at routers in a long time, but buying on a budget i remember shopbot had some competitive priced machines / options back in the day. http://www.shopbottools.com/
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I started with a small shopbot – I think it was 3 ft by 2 ft – but soon realised that apart from the fact I was getting bigger jobs, most materials come in 8 x 4 sheets, so it became a bit of a hassle – every time I started a job the materials had to be cut down to size with a saw or ordered to be cut at source.
This added heaps to the time for each job AND the cost of materials, not to mention the extra bits of material I didnt need which I had to store or dispose of.
I pretty soon got an 8×4 shopbot to replace it.
Simon -
Thanks for the advice Robert and Peter ,
I see what you mean about a 610 cutter too , My first plotter was a summa d120 and your right i thought id never use a 4ft roll of vinyl but i always have a few in stock as i use them quiet abit back to the drawing board then
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