Best CNC kit below $3000

[tablesawtom]

They look look they are made out of plywood.  not the best material for a CNC

Woodsmith made one out of wood, took two issues. I saw one of Bob's in action in Wisconsin, in a small commercial shop. and he was thrilled with it. I live in Iowa , so no connection and I haven't talked to bob in 15 years so no connection with either.

By the way I believe to foundation of the Brooklyn bridge is wood. The towers rest on underwater caissons made of southern yellow pine. Both caissons contain interior spaces that were used by construction workers. I would think not the best material for a bridge

Tom

[JDuke]

My opinion for what its worth, this may get a little long and meander a bit so feel free to ignore me.

many years ago when I first started woodworking I didn't have much money and didn't really understand cost/value

I bought a new delta benchtop saw and it screamed in my shop for a while.  It was cheap and it got the job done for the most part, but it was a compromise in many ways, very light and not much capacity to the right of the fence, didn't have much power, was very loud.  I built a table around it and tried to make it work but soon learned that an emerson made craftsman contractor saw was a vast improvement, and could be had used for about what I had paid for the new Delta benchtop.  I upgraded to the Craftsman and even bought a second one to bolt together to make a double table saw.  Built some great projects with those saws.

Eventually I found a Unisaw at auction and was in the table saw big leagues, it served well for several years until I was able to get a Sawstop.
my first sawstop was the industrual saw with the bigger 30" table and 3hp motor.  I thought I had the best saw available at that point. Then I ran across a professional sawstop at a price I couldn't pass up and brought it home.
to my surprise, it fit my needs better than the Industrial saw, easier to adjust blade height, table that was standard 27" deep so could bolt up many aftermarket router tables etc easier.


Now you may be wondering why I have spent so much time talking table saws in a CNC router thread, but bear with me and I will get there.

A couple years ago, I bought a couple CNC routers at an estate sale.
I got a CNC shark (which I sold almost immediately) a Shapeoko XL and for a mere $20 I picked up a broken gantry for an X-carve with a Dewalt palm router motor in it.

I spent some time messing with the CNC Shark and realized that I didn't like the way they work.  I wanted to be able to jog it easier and adjust feed rates more than you could easily do from the control pendent that they have.

So I sold the Shark and set about learning to use the Shapeoko, the shapeoko is a great machine and this is where the table saw analogy comes into play.
I soon learned that the Shapeoko was somewhere between the level of  a benchtop and contractor saw in its ability level.
it can certainly do the work, you have to be conservative with feeds and speeds based on its rigidity. 

you can also upgrade the shapeoko to a heavy duty spindle which further improves its rigidity, so you can get it closer to the ability level that would translate to a contractor saw.

Many a great woodworker has spent their entire life with a contractor saw as their only saw and done great work.

You can do the same with a Shapeoko or x-carve, and if budget and space are primary contstraints then that may be where you need to be.

My tool journey has always been one of looking for bigger faster stronger, So I didn't stop there, I built a close copy of the Avid (formerly CNCrouterparts) 4x4 table
as far as I know this is the pro level of CNC routers.  I am sure there are stronger and faster machines but from a feed and speed standpoint, the rack and pinion drive on linear slides is significantly faster than Belt drive on guide wheels.

last time I sat down and looked at prices, I think I have about $5500 into the 4x4 table.

Now as you look at CNC its definitely more complex than table saws, but there are some parallels.

if your budget is very limited, then some of the plywood machines may get you there, but like the bench top saw they are going to take some patience and significant effort to get good results.

as you move up in budget to the Shapeoko and x-carve class machine your getting a machine thats easier to get good results with but still has its limitations.




one other consideration and parallel to table saws, by numbers there are probably a lot more woodworkers running contractors saws and as such there is lots of support and parts available.

with the Shapeoko and X-carve you get a similar large support community. 

Good luck with your selection, I hope my meandering thoughts were at least marginally useful.

Duke

[paulWoodworker]

I know your budget is 3000, but you can get the Avid CNC 4 x4 kit for 3100.. If you upgrade to Nema 34, it's 3250.
That's what I would recommend. That's something you will never have to upgrade (even if you only get the Nema 23 version)
Then for software, you need Mach3 and some kind of CAD/CAM.