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Author Topic: noob wants a 3040, what is the best  (Read 7344 times)

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Offline nobby

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noob wants a 3040, what is the best
« on: June 04, 2013, 06:21:04 PM »
want to buy an A3 - 3040 ebay mill
whats best?
primarily want to simply cut out 3/4'' - 19mm a3 sized foamex letters

for the 6 to 7 hundred pounds, I gather .......
1. I will not get a mach3 license?
2. won't be usb?
3. will not be sliding block, but round stock linear?
4. will the controller have a sperate break out board and drivers?
5. Is it worth it as a beginner, rather than sourcing all the components and fudging?
6. coming from a sign background - does the mach3 sit in corel/illustrator on their toolbars - launching from there as a plug in, or does it require exporting as .dxf - rather than hp-gl.

thank - you.
what I 'want' is usb, servo motors and a quiet spindle, as want to use it indoors on a desk-top, can I simply swap out the parrallel to usb bob, then use better drivers so I can run it from my 64 bit machine?
« Last Edit: June 04, 2013, 06:26:10 PM by nobby »

Offline Chaoticone

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Re: noob wants a 3040, what is the best
« Reply #1 on: June 04, 2013, 06:55:50 PM »
Be careful............ lots have gotten bit by sellers sending out pirated software with their machines and most I think have had to completely rework their controls from what I have seen.

I'll let some of the others that have been down that road comment if they will.  I think most get burnt so bad they consider the whole experience a nightmare and generally have to do a lot more work and learn a lot more and spend a lot more than they had originally planned.

Brett
;D If you could see the things I have in my head, you would be laughing too. ;D

My guard dog is not what you need to worry about!

Offline nobby

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Re: noob wants a 3040, what is the best
« Reply #2 on: June 04, 2013, 07:32:55 PM »

should I 'just' get one of these, for the chassis and motors and controller box psu, delivered then fling in


£112
« Last Edit: June 04, 2013, 07:51:00 PM by Chaoticone »

Offline Chaoticone

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Re: noob wants a 3040, what is the best
« Reply #3 on: June 04, 2013, 07:46:56 PM »
Personally I wouldn't. It may suite you perfectly well but I'll let some of the others that have had dealings with them comment.

Brett
;D If you could see the things I have in my head, you would be laughing too. ;D

My guard dog is not what you need to worry about!

Offline Sam

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Re: noob wants a 3040, what is the best
« Reply #4 on: June 05, 2013, 01:22:42 AM »
I will have to agree with Brett 110%. I have never had one of those machines (thank goodness) but most of us around here have heard the horror stories. You get what you pay for....and sometimes not even. Best of luck with whatever your decision.
"CONFIDENCE: it's the feeling you experience before you fully understand the situation."

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: noob wants a 3040, what is the best
« Reply #5 on: June 05, 2013, 05:25:17 AM »
Hi Nobby, welcome to the forum.

Just my opinion…

These machines are only really suitable for light duty, short duration, work.
If it works as intended, straight out of the box, then fine.
If there is a problem (any problem) the seller is unlikely to respond to your e-mails.
The maker’s warranty usually requires the faulty part to be returned ‘Air Mail’ to China and the replacement part (if it arrives) may be subject to import tax (or similar).

That said, we all have to start somewhere but I suspect you would be disappointed with the performance of this particular machine.

Tweakie.
PEACE
Re: noob wants a 3040, what is the best
« Reply #6 on: June 05, 2013, 09:06:30 AM »
I have a denford microrouter for sale which will give you A3.

And it's not Chinese.

And you can have it on Mach3.

Offline nobby

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Re: noob wants a 3040, what is the best
« Reply #7 on: June 05, 2013, 08:19:18 PM »
hello, today I done a round trip and bought a 3foot square bed quality machine

was in a massive enclosure and part of an injection moulding thing

please note, the 6 by 4 foot chassis is for sale
also two sets of controllers and hand helds
plus a ton of 50mm aluminium extrysion
plus the best = 4 , 4 foot lengths of quality slinding block
plus two air rams -linear
oh and the pumps
and the squeezey bits.
oh does anyone want the cabinets - as I was going to leave them

but hey ho - I am on the ball, the machine didn't come with and spindle/motor, as it had 4 nozzles for squirting goop, plus it unbolted out of the frame and is a lovely smallish 'can come indoors' unit

Offline nobby

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Re: noob wants a 3040, what is the best
« Reply #8 on: June 05, 2013, 09:42:55 PM »
ooh , one more...
I do have a trend t10 2000w 1/2 inch collet router, is that too big and noisey
Re: noob wants a 3040, what is the best
« Reply #9 on: June 06, 2013, 06:17:05 AM »
I know I'm late to the party, but the 3040 that I bought has been a nightmare.  To date this is what I've had to do to get it running:
The copy of Mach3 was bootlegged. purchased license
The table was not square to the spindle
Replaced all of the cables to each motor and spindle with shielded cables because of interference, one of the cables had a short in it.
Break out board fried.  New shipped from china
One of the driver boards fried New shipped from china
The water pump emits so much interference that it hangs the computer every time.
Now the spindle is getting so hot (200F) after 10 minutes that I have to turn it off.  I suspect something inside the vfd is bad

Don't get me wrong, I purchased the unit with a computer loaded with cnc router software and a couple dozen end mills for $800.  I have dropped another $200+ into it, the frustration level is high and I cant put a price on that.  Good luck