looking at purchasing our 1st router looking at a 10 year old scm and a 2021 laguna the same money, laguna is a 4x8 scm is a 5x10 scm has a drill block, the laguna is a smart shop 2 without a drill block. my only fear about the laguna will be to slow it has a 12 hp spindal.any feed back would be appreciated.

How much will speed matter to your shop? Do you have the orders, the workers, the bander and assembly equipment to keep up with a fast cnc?
Other things to keep in mind: do you have the electric capacity for the SCM, large compressor with dryer, big dust collection? These can add thousands to proper fit up. Check the requirements of each machine.
What software will you run? It will have to support a drill bank.

I don't think either is a great choice. The SCM is probably a heavy iron machine with a lot of use. It takes a lot of power and torque to move that much weight around when cutting, and bearing etc. replacement is going to be very time consuming and costly.

There are, in my opinion, better choices for medium weight routers out there than your other option.

As to the spindle power unless you want to cut at crazy fast feet rates even a 10hp spindle should be more than adequate.

BH Davis

What are you planning to do with it?

I disagree with BH Davis - I love old heavy iron. If you look after it it will never break.

Buddy of mine had a Felder 4X8 - wouldn't hold a straight line when cutting MDF shaker doors.

I have no experience running a heavy cnc such as the SCM but I can tell you that there is no way my light industrial cnc similar to the Laguna could keep up with one. Weight matters - it will be more rigid so can accelerate and not flex. So your cutting speed can be higher but the real time saver is the rapid movements. Big iron machines can have scary fast rapids without tearing the machine apart. Good vacuum is essential. I don't know how to check the performance of the vacuum pump(s). Rebuild might be costly.

Tom I guess you used the word I'm looking for accelerate and decelerate, like I say I have watched the videos of the laguna and the accelerate decelerate seem pretty slow Imo, plus no drill block for boring so it would be 1 hole at a time. Spoke to my cabinet vision rep witch run his own shop and has 2 routers and his statement was "I wouldn't own a router without a drill block." so I guess I will stick to the plan.

Miscellaneous ramblings of an old man:

I looked at the Laguna you mentioned. It's similar to my buddies Felder. In my opinion, not an 8 hour a day 10 year machine. Will it do what you want? Sure, but it'll cost you in the long run.

I like heavy iron. To be fair, we have evolved our business to the point where we only cut plywood and lots of it. Not uncommon to cut 100 or more sheets a day on our KOMO. The Laguna would not handle that.

My Biesse and Komo have rapids in the 3200 IPM range. Fast enough that you can't get out of the way.

As I mentioned, that Felder couldn't cut a straight line when cutting a shaker door unless slowly. On my ANDI one of my guys made a mistake and ran our surfacing program with a sheet of 12mm Baltic birch on the table. 1200 IPM. Machine didn't break a sweat.

If you are going the Laguna style route check the pneumatics. The heavy machines typically have 2 pneumatic systems, one lubricated and one dry. The lubricated for all the pneumatics on the machine and the dry for all the places that use a jet of air for cleanliness, during a tool change for instance. I know the aforementioned Felder only had a dry system resulting in many valve and cylinder failures to the point that my guy re-plumbed the machine for both.

Heavy iron tends to have automatic lubrication systems and huge bearings that last 20 years or more. I have had several machines 20+ years old and I have never had to replace a linear bearing. They also tend to use more off the shelf rather than proprietary components. If you get a Fanuc control support is everywhere.

Regarding drill blocks. In my experience drilling is the most time consuming part of cabinet parts. It's not only the tool change time that is saved. If you configure it properly you can drill multiple holes at once. 3 5mm drills on both the X and Y means that all sets of shelf holes and hinge holes are done in one plunge rather than 2 or 3. Calculate that time over a year and it's amazing.

Ride along tool changers are also important. As you noted with the Laguna a lot of time is wasted going back to the end of the machine for every tool. lets say an extra 5 seconds per tool change times 3 changes per sheet times 30 sheets per day is 750 seconds per day or, if my math is correct, 25 hours per year. If you bill out the CNC at $120.00 per hour (I'm in the $160 range), that's $3,000 per year in lost opportunity.

Software, software software. Pick a machine that does NOT depend on the factory software. Spend the $ for AlphaCAM (I use this) or MasterCAM. If you can use it, things like staydown (bridged) nesting can cut 10% to 15% off your cutting time.

Invest in vacuum. It looks like the default Laguna vacuum is a regenerative blower. High flow, low vacuum. They are used because they are cheap, not because they work. Busch or Becker is better, low flow high vacuum, but a Travani or similar is best, hi flow hi vacuum.

Heavy iron takes more power to run but for a shorter time. I suspect that it's pretty even.

Lots of good old iron out there at reasonable prices. They make take a little longer to get going and will need some TLC to be perfect, but once dialed in they will run forever. A lot of them are being replaced only because they cannot talk to the computers in the office. We use USB floppy emulators and USB sticks to communicate with our machines. Inexpensive and works just fine. Keeps the machines off the network so they can't be touched by any kind of virus that the girl in the office picks up watching youtube at lunchtime.

Ok......I defer to Dropout. Obviously he has extensive experience with the heavier machines. I'd still just caution to be sure the machine you are getting is in good condition. I suspect he would suggest the same.

BH Davis

I believe as mentioned by others, a drill block is a necessity if you’re doing cabinets. And the bigger the better.
I’m also weary of older equipment. You’re buying this to save you time and make you money and you will change the way you build things to maximize the capabilities of the CNC. When it’s down l, it’s not easy to go back to the old way.
Anderson makes a great machine, while not cheap will run all day every day for years.

Anderson Spectrum