Anyone know anything about those cheapie cnc routers... I know the rules

I am a machine shop with actual machines and am not trying to ask dumb home shop questions...
I am needing something to cut simple 1/4" grooves 1/8" deep in 1/4" plastic sheets. The parts are 20"x44" so i cant get them on my 4020 machine without screwing with indexible fixturing and my mill is pretty busy at the moment anyway so i dont really want to tie it up. I have found that prices vary widely from like $6-7k to any stupid number a guy wants to spend.

I dont really even need a Z for this project, and was just going to pick up a used cheapie on clist, but for some reason all the cheap routers have magically dissappeared... does anyone around here have any experience with a company they like, or have one they are tired of in the corner of their shop?

Just spitballing here, there is just so much info out on the interwebs that I am having a hard time sorting real from less than real.

-Parker

Carbide 3D Shapeoko

Cam Master, Shop Sabre or Shop Bot all US built and they have economy priced machines that perform for what you want I run a Shop Sabre IS 510 which is a 50K machine with tool changer and tooling. For what you want you can spend about 7K for new with a spindle just like the big machines you can spend much more. You can go cheap and use a wood router rather than a spindle but they are noisy but it does save a couple K.

I would not buy one of the cheap China routers but that is your choice
Mike

The machine you want for that project will not do a whole lot else. If you explore what a real CNC router can do it may free time from your VMC on some materials like aluminum or plastic.

I've worked a lot with a Larken 24x24 cutting wood (http://larkencnc.com/). Profiling, slotting, and 3D surfacing. It's a canadian company, and they make bigger ones as well.

The hardware is pretty solid. It's no VMC, but it does the job. The software is very basic. Pretty much a set of jog buttons and a spooler to send G-code to the machine.

Support isn't the greatest. There's the one guy who knows everything, but whenever I've called I get his brother. If the lead Larken brother ever gets hit by a bus, support will probably be nonexistent.

Here is a thought depending on how accurate they need to be. Table saw with a 1/4" dado blade. that size part would be pretty easy to cut groves in with a table saw.

I do this for some parts I make I had a custom blade made to make a 1/4" slot in UHMW but I go 1.5" deep on a cabinet saw I have been using the same blade for 10 years I send it out to be sharpened every so often.

Mike

If there all the same Z and all the parts are the same some simple templates and a good router can make surprisingly good parts fast.

That is the trick, they arn't all the same... think custom pantograph templates. I get that the good routers can dabble in the aluminum world, i am just on the last few payments before being paid off in the shop, and an shuddering at the idea of more payments! Ha.

I'm the process of setting my father up with a workshop, and I've gone down the mechmate route. They are DIY, but very sturdy made from steel, not alu. Good for sheet material, but nothing more as they have poor Z travel. Of the cheap ones out there, they are the best. With you being in the US you might find one 2nd hand one about.

I can't help on new purchases, I've far too many "nearly new" chinese ones for sale which implies they haven't lived up to expectations in my mind.

I have a Chinese CNC router that is a little more than you seem to be looking for, ball screws on all axis and much heavier built than many of the North American routers I have looked at including some that are fairly well known. The guy I bought the machine from mostly sells lighter duty rack and pinion machines. All in all my router has been pretty good. I have had issues but not as many as 2 shops I know locally who have bought much higher end machining centers.

Customer support has been slow to respond and the importer does not have a manufacturing background so questions have had unsatisfactory responses. I hope to upgrade to a 5 axis router and I will likely go with a North American name brand because I would want the customer support. But if I were buying a similar machine to what I have or a lesser machine I would buy from him again. His company is called Can Cam

I'm a banjo maker also looking around for a small (2 x 3) high quality machine for wood and non-ferrous metals. You might want to check out the Axiom machines. They make the Powermatic cnc routers. Also the Laguna cnc's. They are all in the same import ballpark as the Cancam - ball screws, linear rails, servos, genuine spindles vs router motors. And similar price - around $6k. These machines use a Chinese DSP controller with a hand held pendant, about which I know nothing

I plunged into cnc with a 20 yr old Techno Davinci router, a tiny (12" x 8") high quality machine, that was aimed at the educational market and also used for making templates for molder knife grinders. It's very accurate and rigid, and I would want the same in a larger machine. The controller was primitive, I replaced it with Gecko drives and Mach 3. I wonder how the DSP controller compares to Mach 3?

It's hard to get good information about these little routers. "the forbidden zone" seems populated by hobbyists more interested in dicking around with their machines than making parts, and this forum is really mostly professional mills and lathes.

You just need to filter the information from here and the zone, the part about how is in here and what is out in the zone.
Good luck with your router hunting.

Marko