Should a Builder Buy a Low-End CNC Machine?

Opinions vary — but the answer may depend on what his purposes are. May 7, 2007

Question
I am interested in purchasing a new CNC machine to cut out cabinets for my new shop. I am a builder, so I only do cabinets on my own job. I would also like to be able to do some carving, like inlays, on them. I do a lot of radius and elliptical work as well. Any suggestions on affordable CNC machines? My shop is single phase only. Machine has to be able to do 4 x 8 sheets of 3/4" plywood.

Forum Responses
(CNC Forum)
From contributor J:
I hate to beat the same old drum again, but here goes anyway. If you are not a full time cabinet shop, it is not a wise purchase. Go through the archives here and read about the difficulties (which means expenses) these machines tend to bring. If you are a builder, then by all means be a builder and spend your time and money building an additional house or two a year. If you think you are going to save a buck or two and have a nice toy, I think you will be sadly disappointed. I know how it looks when I suggest outsourcing, because that is my business - cutting parts for others - but seriously, it's not for everyone. I have a mechanical eng degree and have been a professional woodworker for 15 years and I find blending my already existing skills challenging in this endeavor. If you lack my background or something similar and also have more of a hobby in mind than a profession, you will more than likely be sorry. In the short term you are better off outsourcing to someone local who can guide you along in properly preparing your design files for the CNC, then after seeing his process and being very familiar with the whole format, proceed if it warrants. A real machine costs real money; don't needlessly make it a money pit.


From contributor D:
Whether he needs his own machine or not, I would leave up to the questioner. Outsourcing is an option but does not work in some cases. We outsource some of our machining and in those cases it works out well for us. But on the other hand it is not a viable solution in all circumstances. When outsourcing lead times, dependability and costs are just some of the factors. Each shop needs to weigh all these and then do what is best for them.

As for machines which may work, Omni Tech seems to make a good machine. From reading the posts here, Omni Tech has some satisfied customers. There are machines at lower costs, but overall Omni Tech appears to be a very good value for the cost.


From contributor C:
Anderson Stratos.


From contributor D:
I'll have to agree with contributor J on this one. Omni Tech and Anderson Stratos are excellent choices, though they require 3 phase to run. Most single phase service is not large enough to run a CNC of this caliber when you add it all up:
2 phase converters (1 for vac pump, 1 for CNC).
Dust collector.
Lights.

I know this, as I went through it a couple years ago. It is not cheap setting up single phase to run a CNC, let alone rest of the shop.


From contributor P:
I have a customer that is primarily a builder with a cabinet shop. He now makes building components and cabinets as he needs them and of the quality his customer expects without being held hostage by outsourcing. CNC? It is not for everybody and everybody does not use it for the same purposes.

The Omnitech machine requires only one phase converter, as the vacuum pump is wired through the on-board transformer. We have customers that are using rotary converters to meet the three phase requirement for our machines.


From contributor J:
If you know so much, Mr. Salesman, how about telling us how many 3 phase amps it will draw at full load on a single phase 220 line? You don't know? That's convenient. I do, because it is how I got set up in a rural area without reasonable 3 phase access. I did, however, have a very strong single phase primary line to tap from. I had to have a commercial transformer put in for just me and my house (another 6k). How big was that single phase converter to power this again? First of all, it's a horrible idea to have them on the same line. Ask anyone who knows anything about electricity and/or these types of machines. I did, and I have two separate phase converters working great, thankfully. Enough on the very real technical aspects of getting one to actually work at this location and back to my original thought.

Outsourcing is no different than any other business decision you make. Don't do business with people who do not deliver as they say they will, easy enough. If you ask the right questions, you will properly qualify someone who you can work with. Why is outsourcing such a touchy topic with those who use the old "held hostage" garbage? Why not the plywood guy or the hardware guy or the ... guy? I'll tell you what my experiences tell me. These people can just go buy these things off a shelf if they have to and that makes them feel more comfortable in case they forgot something. If you are willing to put in a little time and set up a program, it will work very efficiently. If getting your parts in about a week isn't good enough, then your business needs to make an organizational adjustment in order to do outsourcing properly. If the leads are inconsistent or the process isn't done well, like anything else, it will be a nightmare.

Believe it or not, I am not trying to scare you off, just making sure you know what this entails before some salesman takes advantage of your excitement and sells you a 75-125k paperweight. If you want to know more specifics on your situation, then I and others will be happy to give some advice. We need volume of work, type of materials to cut, your actual power situation, etc. Then you will get a much more precise picture on the costs -we didn't even get into the old flamethrower about software, etc.


From the original questioner:
Well, let me say this: I am not in a position to spend 50K or more. This is something that would be just a nice feature to my personal house. I do make money from my new houses, but my passion is in my cabinets. I pay cash for all my tools and that way there is not a burden to get jobs to pay a note. I saw a Shopbot for close to 12K. I just thought of cool little things I could do with it. When my clients become pains in the butt, I build something. I usually go overboard on the types of stuff I build. Lots of arches, inlays, custom moldings. I am limited to what I can do because of my shop's electrical capacity. I just totally love woodworking, and so far, I have made pretty decent money. It is a tradeoff - I make money this way, that way. Today I learned to make polish granite, bought tools and did two cabinets and was able to pay myself around $600 dollars. Next job, would make more, since tools are paid for. I love to learn different things. My thought process on the CNC machine is my dad is going in the missions field and will not be helping me as much. I thought if I had a CNC to cut out parts, then the heaviest thing I would lift other than the actual cabinet would be the sheet of plywood, plus the level of accuracy would be awesome, since sometimes my dad has a different degree of perfection than I do. But I love him. Also, I could program several things to cut out and while I am off looking at houses, he could start assembling them. I really appreciate your feedback.

From contributor J:
I think you may find it very challenging to do any of the mid level type programming you seem interested in. The programs that are capable of doing more complex parts are expensive and require ongoing monies for updates and maintenance, so constant cash even if you buy a cheap, small machine. The very lightweight machines are for cutting very light duty. If you try complex parts with solid materials, you will wait for a part forever. The biggest issue for your power situation is the vac pump which you will need to cut any 4x8 material, unless you want to, again, get really creative and waste hours cutting simple sheet stock.

The machines are not going anywhere. Look much deeper than on a whim to purchase this machine. There will be loads of salespeople trying to sell you everything under the sun. You would be best served to get a good piece of software and master it first - then think again about the machine. By the way, Ecabs is free - many links here to find it. The others are good also, but they will cost you a lot to start and you may pick the wrong one for not knowing any better. I want to emphasize one last time that this isn't a toy. I think a lot of the light duty guys try to make it seem as though it is so they can sell cheap machines to small guys. I think the light duty machines are okay for sign shops and the like, but not for woodworking. Aluminum and plastic won't let you cut any faster than some of the light duty machines cut at anyway - good fit. Wood is a much heavier material and volume and speed are important.

By the way, 50k is never going to happen either for doing this. If it would, I would have done it a lot sooner than I did. I haven't added it up, but I bet I have a good 135k in the machine, power, material handling items, training, software, etc. By the time you have that into it, it's certainly not a hobby anymore.


From contributor M:
I think what you want to do can be done with a lightweight machine. I run an Anderson Stratos 8 hours a day at work; great machine, and is what you need to make parts for a full time cabinet shop. However, I have a Shopbot at home and it will make anything the Anderson can, just slower. I would not run it 8 hours a day 5 days a week (although I know people who do), but a few parts at a time a couple days a week are no problem.