# Anyone have experience with Fox Alien 3018SE?



## AllanK

I want to start dabbling in CNC, but balk at the +$1,000 prices. Also, at 74 years old, not a lot of time to spend on a learning curve . I haven't used CAD software, except for Sketchup. I watched the assembly video - piece of cake.

For $300 this looks like good way to get started.

Has anyone used one? Other opinions?

Cheers,


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## diverlloyd

It says it doesn't come with the spindle so that's a extra charge. Check out banggood.com they have a bunch of the small cnc machines like that. I was looking into buying one before I found the one I have now. The free softwares you can go ahead and download them to try out which one you like before you buy a machine. You might want to download one or more of the free programs and try them out before buying a machine.


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## AllanK

It actually does have the spindle, and even comes with bits and Z-probe. Which one did you get?


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## diverlloyd

I see the bits it comes with but didn't see the spindle in the package list. 
I bought a digital wood carver CNC I found at auction. I was looking at the biggest desktop one on banggood when I came across the digital wood carver. I'm using all free software minus the usb controller, there is a learning curve to them. There is a YouTuber named roger Webb who has a lot of good videos on cncs and he just did a couple on one of the smaller machines and how to upgrade them. That machine looks like a fun one to play with but will you be happy with the size?


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## diverlloyd

Here is a bang good link
https://m.banggood.com/search/cnc%20router.html
I figured most of them are made in China I might as well buy direct and save some cash. I bought my laser from there and have enjoyed using it.


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## diverlloyd

Did you end up buying one?


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## AllanK

Yes, and I'm having quite a few problems getting it work correctly. On the plus side, the support is excellent, on the minus side it's in China, so every exchange of emails takes a day. Good thing I'm not in a hurry. I also have a learning curve, having never does anything with CNC before.


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## diverlloyd

Yeah learning the programs is a bit challenging. But something will click for you and it will make more sense after that.


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## cnckoke

Hello gentlemen. So I recently bought a mini CNC router. Actually got it for Christmas, and I've been working on it since then. The only issue I'm having is getting the item I'm carving the right size! No matter what I do nothing will come out any larger then 1/4" !! I'm sure it's a setting somewhere but I just cannot figure it out. Do either of you have any ideas I can try on mine? Thank you.


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## AllanK

> Hello gentlemen. So I recently bought a mini CNC router. Actually got it for Christmas, and I've been working on it since then. The only issue I'm having is getting the item I'm carving the right size! No matter what I do nothing will come out any larger then 1/4" !! I'm sure it's a setting somewhere but I just cannot figure it out. Do either of you have any ideas I can try on mine? Thank you.
> 
> - cnckoke


What software are you using to design your piece, and what software to drive the cnc? I've used Easel and Candle and they work pretty well. Haven't tried Fusion360 yet - may be too old to spend time learning it


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## cnckoke

I'm using drufelcnc for my gcode and also run the cnc. What I've been doing as a test is…I pull in a image from clip art to my desktop. From there I drag the pic into the coding area of drufelcnc. Drufelcnc creates the gcode and I set all the settings (at least I think I do) and then hit start. Everything seems to be running smoothly but it only carves out the image the size of 1/4". I hope I'm explaining this the right way.


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## diverlloyd

Fusion isn't bad to learn there are very good videos.
The best way to figure out the size is to draw a square and have it cut it. That way you know the size exact size. If you are just dragging a image then adjusting the size maybe it's not confirming the size change. Like mine you have to hit enter to change the size the hit enter again to confirm the change.Does it show the image the proper size in the grid? If so then there seems to be a issue that you will need to ask or watch someone who uses your same program. Inkscape can do images and make Gcode files that you then can import into your program. That would be a easy way to see if the size issue is your program or a setting issue.
Here is the programs manual I was looking at page 45 and 46. https://drufelcnc.com/doc/DrufelCNC_manual.pdf
I'm sure you have already looked at it but maybe extra eyes will help


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## cnckoke

Thanks for your input. Yes I have already been through the manual more then once. I had a meeting with someone today that has some experience and he told me the drufelcnc software is just for laser etching. I'm not doing any laser so he had me try mach3 with lazycam. So I'm back to learning. I'll keep you posted. Thank you again for the help.


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## diverlloyd

Good luck finding a program you like to learn is a big part of playing around with a cnc.


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## stevepeterson

> I'm using drufelcnc for my gcode and also run the cnc. What I've been doing as a test is…I pull in a image from clip art to my desktop. From there I drag the pic into the coding area of drufelcnc. Drufelcnc creates the gcode and I set all the settings (at least I think I do) and then hit start. Everything seems to be running smoothly but it only carves out the image the size of 1/4". I hope I'm explaining this the right way.
> 
> - cnckoke


This could be an issue with imperial and metric confusion. You might be sending a file that is 10" by 10", but the machine thinks it is 10mm by 10mm. Try looking for a way to tell the machine to work in inches, or else scale everything up by 25.4X before sending it to the machine.


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## AllanK

cnckoke: there are a ton of settings in drufelcnc! How did you set yours up? Also, even though my 3018 is connected to the computer usb port, drufelcnc doesn't see it.

As for Steve's comment, there is an inch/mm selector at the top of the drufelcnc window - did you select yours properly?

Let us know how it goes with mach3 and lazycam.


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