[Tom M]

Brad Reamer has the same machine as I do, and I’m sure can give you a better assessment of it’s cool trick functions than I can. It really, truly was a toy for him. I envy that.

Incidently, I think there is a good enough argument for more than one head to find whatever it takes to get it. Say, a five and a ten, with the ten being the Columbo quick release. If you fabricate custom rather than volume, and do not reenter the top to be profiled, an auto changer is not necessary, IMO.

Ultimately, if you are financing this, and can push enough more work, and have the work in the first place, you’ll more than make it worthwhile to go large.

[Andy Graves]

I would buy a machine that can at least cut two sheets side by side. We nest all pieces on the full sheet and usually load two sheets and run the kitchen. Remember you will probably not buy another one so make it a good one.

[Jon Olson]

When buying A CNC you really need a business plan to start. What do you want the machine to do? The Solid Surface Industry is about to change. I believe the shops that survive will be fabricating more than just CT’s. Many designers are seeing the advantage of Solid Surface. We jut quoted lamp shades with an inlay out of Corian.

What’s the point? This stuff is coming .Having A CNC that can rout tight tolerances will be vital. We have a 4 axis CNC . less than a year old. Based on all the stuff I see coming . I wished we had purchased a 5 Axis.

I know there’s cost to consider and no one should spend over there limit but $50,000 to 100,000 how much will it increase your bottom line?

Thanks for the tips on the Silicone .

[Len Smith]

Check this out. Could be a good deal, even if it needs some work. CLICK HERE

[Paul Bingham]

Thanks for the link Len. Unfortunately I have never been one to buy used machinery, especially of the complexity of a CNC.

With my luck I would spend 3 or 4 thousand dollars getting it here and have it shut down two days later. A first time CNC user is probably better off buying a new machine with a warranty.

[Jon Olson]

3/4 of our shop is used Machinery. True a CNC is a very important investment. But say it cost you 15,000 than you spend $3000.00 to up grade. That’s still a bargain. Cheaper than a good panel saw.

You than have money to spend on the other items that sometimes are overlooked dust collection, air, training.

Len is a stand up guy. So that another plus.

[Paul Bingham]

It’s not just the cost of fixing or upgrading the machine, it’s the down time and frustration of trying the get a machine running that you know nothing about to start with. Although, I know several friends with shops in the area that buy only used equipment, spend time and money getting them running and save money over new equipment.

My shop is small in size and people leaving us very little time to spend on making equipment work properly. It will probably be all we can handle getting a new machine installed, training done, and the inevitable learning curve out of the way without disrupting production too heavily.

Thanks Len and Jon for the input. All this info is invaluable to me in making my decisions on make, type and capacity of machine to purchase.

Paul

[Jon Olson]

My Pleasure.

[Paul Bingham]

I have a local rep for Biesse CNC machines giving me a quote on a machine. Does anyone have experience with this line of equipment?

[Andy Graves]

pjb wrote

I have a local rep for Biesse CNC machines giving me a quote on a machine. Does anyone have experience with this line of equipment?

When i looked at Biesse, but the table size was too small.

[John Cristina]

PJB,

Have you called Diversified Equipment & Supply, they are similar to Fab Choice in nature. They carry certain name machines and help set up, train and service. We bought our stuff from them and they are really helpful with any questions and service.

John

[Dennis Schafer]

A company in Abbotsford B.C. that we work with recently bought a 8×20′ Biesse. It is pretty nice and I hear the Biesse’s have some great nesting software, but price wise are about twice that of an AXYZ or MultiCAM with similar table size.

[Paul Bingham]

On another thread I mentioned the problems we are having with Formica SS produced in China. This is a very troublesome problem fabricating manually, but can be dealt with by expending extra labour and cost.

How does this affect CNC fabrication? With the sheets not being flat can a decent vacuum be achieved and held while cutting continues. There must be ramifications for profiling when the top of the sheet is not level. Obviously v grooving would be out of the question as you would be cutting thru the bottom of the sheet in places and not getting near the bottom in others.

[Tom M]

Paul,

There’s certainly a point of diminished returns, but tape does work well on the edge.

I think you’re bigger problem is with the warped material.

I think that the memory of the set will still be there after forcing the level of the seam to cause problems down the road. There is always scale of warp, but I can’t see it as being anything but bad.

I’ll defer to Lenny, but that’s my take.

(I would post this over there, but I already was there and I’m here. So There)

Tom

[Jon Olson]

Hey Paul warped sheets are a challenge. Sometimes when we deal with warped sheets we hot melt the sheet down to the board just to make sure.

[Author]

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