does this cnc router look any good?

I was hunting around for a low cost cnc router, and came across this: http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?sku=PC00380
I think that looks like quite a good price for a basic machine, but I thought it best to ask for a second opinion from people who know what they're talking about. If you think it looks rubbish, can you recommend any alternatives for a similar price?

Comments

[jomac_uk]

First of all, i would steer away from this for 2 reasons, first of all Farnell do not serve the hobbyist market, they serve the professional market and the prices reflect this.

This CNC router is supplied my a company called Millford Instruments, better known for the Parallax Stamp, they are a hobbyist company for the budding robotics engineer, and no more, a quick look on their site (and many broken links!) would start me wondering!

If you are up to basic construction, do a search here for CNC and you will find some very good adverts for CNC machines at a far better price, another source is alibaba.com, the chinese equivalent of ebay, look for firms that accept credit card or paypal, so you are covered, i use them a lot commercially.

Another tip, is, after you have found a CNC that you like, find out where it is made, see if you can buy direct, if you can, stress its for export, and you want to buy this, LESS their country's local taxes, but be prepared to pay 10% import into the UK

If the OP wants to send me a private message, i will see what i can find and advise.

So my simple answer to the above is..NO!

[steveastrouk]

Rapid on line sell it for the same price, and they do supply the hobbiyist

[steveastrouk]

What do you want to mill ? That's a drill, rather than a mill.

Steve

[scarabeetle101]

Just MDF, maybe foam but nothing particularly taxing.

[jomac_uk]

Technically yes, but with the right software, it will route and mill as well, but its a hell of a lot of money for something that is made of wood, and isnt supplied with a dremel!!!

Its an experimenters machine if you download and look at the spec sheet.

[steveastrouk]

Its a toy really. You could make a really rigid machine for the same money.

[Jayefuu]

Conversion fail:

"The design uses low cost but effective materials to achieve a standard drilling accuracy of up to 0.1mm (2.5 thou)."

[psymansays]

Although it is a drilling machine, there should be no reason you couldn't use a dremel routing bit in the dremel tool that's attached to the machine in the photo.