Recs for CNC cutter/router?

[Aurich]

My CNC is a little bigger than your needs, and a little more expensive than the ceiling of your budget.

https://www.onefinitycnc.com/
It's also probably my least-used tool, so my CNC experience is not vast. But, those caveats aside, I can say that I think you might struggle to use something like this as a "kitchen table" kind of deal.

All CNC's have similar form factors, they've gotta move the router/spindle around with rails of some kind. None of them are that compact, or easy to pack up. Once you build it I would pretty much assume that practically speaking you have to keep it assembled, so your work size + a little extra is your minimum footprint for storing it. Mine is not light, I imagine smaller ones or ones that aren't quite as stiff are better, but still not gonna be casual pick up and move about.

But all that aside, they're just messy. I have dust extraction, and it works, kinda. You're routing through material with a high speed bit, it's never going to be clean. You can collect a certain bulk of the dust okay (and factor your dust extraction into your space, storage and setup) but it's not something I would ever do inside my house, let alone my kitchen. Maybe a dedicated shop room you didn't mind getting dusty, mine is in the garage.

If you can get something totally enclosed, looks like that Snapmaker does that, it might help a ton.

 

[Aurich]

Space is the eternal problem when it comes to tools. You can always save up to buy a nicer CNC, but it ain't easy to save up to add another room onto your house or something.

So this is a bit of a left field suggestion, but when it comes to a certain form of space-effecient, portable CNC options there's the Shaper Origin:

https://www.shapertools.com/

 

[Aurich]

One of my buddies helps run a furniture shop and has been debating getting one for inlays and dutchmen on larger table tops. I'm trying to encourage it as much as possible because I really want to play with one.

That’s definitely the best use case imo. It’s not a great big CNC replacement. But the ability to drop it in the middle of any surface and have CNC like precision is pretty sweet.

 

[Aurich]

Alternate thought:

What about just getting a small, cheap CNC like this: https://www.twotrees3dofficial.com/...y-engraver-desktop-wood-router-cutter-printer

And just trying it out. It's not a huge investment, it's small enough to maybe store away when not being used, and you could get your feet wet with smaller scale ideas to see if it's worth pushing for something larger.

I can tell you that my personal experience has been that my CNC is really neat, and also my least used tool. It's just not the first thing I reach for to solve problems, and kind of a pain to set up, use, clean up etc. It's sort of a stressful machine too, moving a physical cutting head around sucks. I always worry (with good reason lol) that I'm going to run into a clamp, or the work will shift or I'll break a bit.

My laser is so much easier, since it's 'touchless'. Fuckups don't hurt as much, generally.

 

[Aurich]

I've wondered why nobody has taken that a step further to make handheld cutters. They're clearly not worried about ethics or legal repercussions as it is, so why not step up the wow factor for a way to stand out from the crowd?

You can get a handheld fibre laser, not sure if anyone is doing it with diode.



I agree with @Xenocrates, all in one tools are just bad at lots of things. Stick with dedicated hardware.

 

[Aurich]

One of my personal goals is to do a project that gives me an excuse to order metal work from https://sendcutsend.com/

I'm big on owning your own tools, but there are things you can outsource better than you can make yourself, and if what's holding you back is lack of access it's always an option.