# Any thoughts or experience with small shop CNC's



## Crickett

Happy Holidays folks from the buckeye state.
I'm a small shop luthier and I'm to the point now where I'm tired of making templates by hand with plywood, files and rasps. Even though I can make them quite well, they are time consuming, and at the end of the day, plywood templates just can take daily abuse and hold their tolerance. So I'm looking to get a new CNC to make acrylic or masonite templates. I'm looking for a good size table as well, potentially in the 24" x 36" range. Does anyone have experience with New Wave, Shark, or others? I'm not looking for the lunchbox style that feeds in the material. Cheers all, and I hope the jolly fat man brings a lot of joy to you and yours.


----------



## Ger21

> Does anyone have experience with New Wave, Shark, or others?


They are little more than overpriced toys.

An XZero raptor is 10x better for the same money, but you'll have to assemble it yourself. http://xzerocnc.com/raptor-30/
A friend of mine has two that he uses in his business, which is making components for acoustic guitars. Necks, bridges, fretboards, ...

If you want a well supported, turnkey machine, look at a Camaster Stinger.

Once you have a CNC machine, you'll be using the machine to make your parts, instead of templates.


----------



## dannelson

If you are really just wanting to cut templates you are better off outsourcing the template cutting and specialize in what you do. I f you see yourself cutting parts on the cnc remember 2D is doable but true 3d is out of reach for most people to afford 5 axis machines. 100 k plus.


----------



## bonesbr549

I have a cnc and I'd first ask what you want to do with it? Second how comforrtable are you working with Cad. you will need to understand cad cam and control. I build a cnc routerparts kit and have been using cad for a long time and it took me a good 4 months to get the concepts and cofort level. I'm still a babe in the woods but its a great tool to have in the arsenal for sure.

If a novice then support is key. I was close to going with the xcarve (its community supported), but I wanted a number to call so in the end thats why I went with cnc router parts and they have been great and I've not been dissapointed.

Good luck and btw I spent a few years researching before buying so i know what you are going through. Shoot me an IM if you have any specific questions. I was anal in my quest for cnc


----------



## pjaromin

I'm *very* green to CNC woodworking, but I definitely concur with Gerry on his last statement - _once you have a machine you'll want to skip the templates and let the machine build the part._

I spent a couple weeks looking around and ultimately bought what Gerry (and other more seasoned CNC'ers) commonly dismiss (and deride) as as "toy". In fact the forums I've seen tend to be fairly brutal on newbies who spend less than $5,000 on a machine.

I chose to ignore them and got something I could actually afford to get my feet wet.

Due to the size and speed of the machine I may adopt a hybrid approach for the larger cuts (1.75" body cut outs and deep cavities) of letting the machine route part way and then finishing up manually using a bearing. Time will tell - the large 1.25" deep cavity I cut last night in a telecaster thinline took about an hour on the machine. I still much prefer drawing on the computer and letting the machine cut it to printing on paper and perfecting a template I may not use again.

I posted a review of my new machine here http://lumberjocks.com/reviews/8962

Good luck on your search (if you haven't already gotten one)!


----------



## Ger21

> I spent a couple weeks looking around and ultimately bought what Gerry (and other more seasoned CNC ers) commonly dismiss (and deride) as as "toy".


Most of these people are trying to be helpful. I've seen countless people buy these cheap machines, only to find out that they were expecting much more than what they got.
And there are a lot of machines out there, that are very overpriced, and not very good.
While some people may be very happy with them, others may be very disappointed.



> In fact the forums I've seen tend to be fairly brutal on newbies who spend less than $5,000 on a machine.


When you get people thinking that their $1000 machine should perform similarly to a $10,000 machine, then trying to explain the reality of it may seem "Brutal". But the vast majority of CNC forum members are trying to help newbies out.

And I didn't say that he needed to spend $5000. I gave a link to a much better machine at a similar price point.

Glad you like your machine. The stepcrafts seem like nice little machines.


----------



## pjaromin

Sorry, Gerry…guess I'm a bit sensitive after reading a couple threads on Reddit that could only be described as "brutal." They weren't trying to be helpful, just showing off their superior knowledge and equipment. I saw another post here (not you) that struck me the same way. I'd love a $6000 machine but will need to ride a cheap moped for a while to make sure it's truly better for me than walking before I hop on a Harley!

However I probably cast too wide a net there…I just looked in the wrong place I suppose.

Thanks again.


----------



## ArtMann

If you are making guitars and other instruments for a living, I think it would be worthwhile to consider a more industrial grade machine, say one tht costs $6000 or even $8000. There is a huge difference in performance that will make you money if you are doing this full time. I agree with others who say it makes a lot of sense to use a CNC router to carve the guitar bodies and parts rather than just make templates.

If you are doing this as a hobby and output doesn't matter, then almost any of the machines listed already will cut out a thin router pattern accurately.

I use and highly recommend Camaster machines but there are other good choices, including CNC Router Parts kits if you are mechanically inclined.


----------

