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I purchased this 3040T for a cost effect home use CNC. This machine isn't really great for beginners as it's not a plug and play unit. You have to learn Mach 3 and get the machine and motors setup, along with learning to use which ever 3d modeling and tool pathing program you choose. Retail machines are much more plug and play, included the hard word and tech support is available, plus the necessary programs. The machine its self is a very sturdy piece. The motors are limited on how hard you can push them, based on the quality of the lead screws (which is expected). If you set the speeds/accel too fast, the machine will skip, and ultimate you'll ruin your nuts, driving the machine. I don't have a lot of time invested in the machine, but so far the cutting I have done has come out to dimension and I haven't been having any backlash issues. My first route was a perfect pocket that I could set the physical piece I had in hand, directly into very snug. I will also note, the spindle that is included (the router) is pretty low quality. My spindle quit working after approx 2hrs (if that) of use. The ebay seller was very good about providing a replacement/settlement, but after taking mine apart to research what had happened, I found that the brushes in this motor are bound to fail. That means a replacement spindle may have a short time span as well. Granted there was a physical broken piece that caused my 2 hour lifespan, but with how much the brushes had already been warn, don't expect years out of this piece. My plans are to retro fit a 1/4" Rigid brand router to replace the 1/8" spindle. It's a little heavier so it may cause flex issues, requiring other reinforcements. Long story short, I am still very happy with this purchase, despite the issue with the spindle. The buy it now price on this item is cheaper than you can source the parts to build it for. If you keep that in mind, any avid do-it-yourselfer would be very happy with this package. The table and gantry are built very stout and have little to no flex, especially considering the type of cut it can handle. You can't over stress the gantry with out breaking the bits this thing can handle. If there are issues with the steppers, they are an easy swap as well. My BIGGEST issue with this piece is that there are no limit switches. This means if you are not careful, you can run the machine (off the table) and it will strip out your drive nuts. The machine has no way of knowing exactly how big it is, meaning if you are not careful it won't stop where it runs out of space. Limit switches prevent that. Even if you are able to program the dimesions into Mach 3, so that it knows how far it can go, if there is any kind of backlash, where it gets out of sync with those coordinates, it will run off of the table. Limit switches are very important, and not only does it not have them, there aren't any obvious places in the box to wire them. I have to do some serious electrical research to figure out how to setup a pin/port to recognize switches that get wired to the box. All-in-all: 10/10 for the price 8/10 for the machine (price not factored) 5/10 for electronics (factoring poor quality spindle, and difficulty adding necessary limit switches)Read full review
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