What should be anticipated for annual maintenance costs of operating a quality made 4/5’ x 8/10’ cnc. Spindle of say 10+ hp with an atc.

I am naive on cnc operation and upkeep. Trying to decide if a purchase makes sense for me. With regard to usage, will not be worked hard. Used to own a door shop that I sold many years ago. This will be a minor production for retirement piddling. I’ve make to my late fifties with all 10 fingers and see this as a way to continue my woodworking safely with deteriorating eyesight.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Mark

Depends on the machine and what you do with it.

The more meticulous you are the lower the cost will be. I'd guess less than $500.00 on a decent name brand machine.

Learn how to do it yourself. Buy a machine with as few proprietary parts as possible. Fanuc controls are ubiquitous and there are parts and techs everywhere.

I have a mid weight 4 x 8. Twelve years of daily use not full production and other than changing the oil in my vacuum pump and the occasional collet replacement I haven't had any maintenance costs. All ball screw machine with servos.

Your air supply will be critical to lower maintenance costs, so add a good compressor and air drier to the purchase price. Sending high moisture air into the spindle tool changer will dramatically increase maintenance. Next, what kind of oiler system you have and what quality of oil you send to the linear bearings is also critical. A new machine will only have the price of way oil for the first 10 years unless you run 3 shifts. There will be tooling and collet costs, but not directly a machine cost since those parts are expendable. A 10hp spindle is a monster. I found 7hp was just fine.

RichC, that reminds me.

Make sure you get a machine that has both wet and dry air. A buddy of mine has a Felder that only has dry air and he keeps needing to replace valves and cylinders.

Ended up re-plumbing the machine.

Pretty low for me, I don't think my machine sees 500 hours a year. Super duper special German Weeke grease is like $90 for a $7 tube of grease....
Air filters for the control cabinet.
Oil for the oilers.

Every two thousand hours having the clamps cleaned, inspected, and adjusted in the spindle. That's basically $1k to have a tech come do it.

They aren't that expensive to run. Carbide and electricity will be the highest costs.

They can get real expensive when you screw up though.

I’ve had 2 Biesse machines and 2 Anderson’ Selexx. The Biesse were very solid and I never needed to many parts. When I did they are priced pretty high. I rebuilt a spindle once, don’t think it actually needed it, had a great hirs party do it was about $3k with an additional $1500 for expedited shipping.
My first Anderson had for 12 months in a temporary facility. Needed 1 sensor that cost 35 bucks and a gallon or so of lube oil.
Second 1 is in our new facility and has been running for 12 months and needed zero parts.
Depending on pump, you’ll need new Avon’s about every 3000 hours and they are about $1k for a set.
We cut all 3/4” melamine and get about 50 sheets out of a 1/2” compression bit, then about 40 on first sharpening and 30 on second. We only sharpen twice then replace.
A good CNC more than pays for itself and I wouldn’t let maintenance costs worry you
Message me and I’ll be glad to talk about my experience with Anderson and CNC. In general

Thanks for all the great responses!!

Depends on the machine and what you do with it and yours abilities.

https://wattsan.com/cnc-wood-routers/