Small CNC Engraver - looking for opinions

[Stytooner]

I did misread it the first time, Brian. It does look like everything is there. The machine should be able to engrave plastics okay. I think it will be too flexible for any metals. It may do okay on free cutting brass like for trophy plates etc. Hard to say.
Most of the flex will be coming from the unsupported rods. The bearings are also not tight tolerances to these rods. It helps that this is a small machine. You will get the best results towards the ends of the travels. It will be more stiff there. Avoid the center of the bed when possible.
I think it would do well for 3d printing and laser engraving. For that, it is built better than some. Nice frame, so good bones.

I would say it is worth the cost if you need something like it.

[BloomingtonMike]

Did you pick one up?

[Brian in sunny FL]

Not yet Mike, need to spend some time to find a low cost no frills program to take an Adobe file and convert to G code, just haven't looked into it yet.

[BloomingtonMike]

Shapoko William where you at?

I would just encourage you to check out vcarve. Desktop is like $400. You could import directly from Adobe, generate the gcode for easel and cut directly to grbl from easel. That or figure out the post for grbl and generate gcode from vcarve directly for that.

Just buy a shapoko and skip this timy toy machine. I think shapeoko is a toy but it is much nicer than this engraver.

Get a better machine and use it and it and the software will pay back many times over.

[PaulJohnstone]

I have not used this, but it is free:

http://jscut.org/

Autodesk Fusion is also free for hobbyists and small businesses.. I have not used it, but it has gotten good reviews. Not sure if it suits your needs or not.

[Brian in sunny FL]

Thanks guys I'll check both options.