Seattle Home Builders: Zen Toolworks CNC Carving Machine DIY Kit 7x7

Zen Toolworks CNC Carving Machine DIY Kit 7x7

Product Details

Product Dimensions: 15 x 15 x 13 inches ; 18 pounds
Shipping Weight: 20 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
ASIN: B002ARTLUG
California residents: Click here for Proposition 65 warning.
Item model number: CNCCARV-2020

By : Zen Toolworks
Price : $359.99
You Save : $39.01 (10%)

Product Description

NOT INCLUDED - This is just the CNC machine with motors. You will require a 3 Axis Stepper Motor Driver to manage every motor, a spindle/cutter (a Dremel would operate) and a DC power supply for the driver. You will also need a computer system with a regular printer port and CNC software program. - You will also want a way to mount and secure the spindle/cutter tightly to the Z-axis plate on the machine. We present a Spindle Kit total with a mounting frame for this machine. We also provide a 3 Axis Stepper Motor Driver that we use with our CNC systems.
You can see some video demos of this machine in action. Just go to YouTube and search for "Zen Toolworks CNC"
You are seeking at a DIY kit of a CNC carving machine. Now you can build your especially own CNC carving machine to do relief carving, letter cutting, inlay and all other fascinating attributes to enhance your woodworking, PCB or other projects.
The body of the machine is constructed with high density PVC boards. Steel guid rod, linear bearing and stainless steel lead screws are utilized to construct the moving components. The anti-backlash brass nut style will practically eradicate all backlashes. New Nema 17 motors(2 phases, 1.3A, 4 leads) for all 3 axis are also included. The install is very effortless, if you have a bench vise and a power screw driver, that will actually support. Install instruction CD is included in the package. Assembling the CNC is particularly enjoyable and only takes about three-four hours to full. You will be amazed by what can be achieved by this machine. Lastly, you can create and personal your extremely personal CNC machine for a price that's inside your budget!
When you obtain, you will be invited to join our member-only discussion forum. This is a beneficial spot to get assistance and study from other CNC users and share your personal expertise.

Technical Details

7(X) x 7(Y) x 2(Z) inches travel capacity
PVC Frame, Steel guide rods and precision linear bearings provide maximum accuracy and rigidity
New Nema 17 Stepper Motor included, 2 Phase, 4 Wires, 1.3A
M8 x 1.25 Stainless Steel Lead Screws with ball bearng end support
Effective backlash elimination with brass Anti-Backlash Lead Screw nuts

Customer Critiques

Zen Toolworks DIY CNC Machine Critique:
Brief evaluations are amazing but I decided that mine should certainly be a bit longer and in depth so everyone who reads it will have a far better idea of what exactly a Zen Toolwork CNC Kit is. In short It is a Excellent item. If you want a short review see below.
Brief Assessment: A Ought to have. 1 of the Very best Investments I have ever made as far as tools go. Decide to buy it!
Lengthy Critique:
A Should HAVE for everyone who wants to get started with CNC with an great properly made precise and affordable machine. If you want to style prototypes, carve foam, plastic metal or wood (this machine is best for carrying out wood engraving as it has a fantastic detail level even when down to incredibly small designs with the perfect bits) or even if you just want to make little custom and/or precision parts on occasion for models or RC vehicles or maybe just do a tiny custom engraving when in a though this machine is far more then in a position to deal with the process with no emptying your wallet. And it is a Kit! So you get to have a fantastic time making it!
Arrival: From the time it shipped to the time it was at my door was two days. I reside in NJ and the CNC kit came from CA so that was especially fast shipping!
Upon opening the box I found almost everything pretty properly packed, quite tight and secure. I did a parts count and everything is exactly where it should certainly be with a couple of additional screws, bolts and washers.
Parts:
The materials that tends to make up the body of the machine is very strong. Considerably stronger then I would have initially even though. The box must have weighted in at over 40 pounds, as the body materials is quite heavy and sturdy. Anything that was not created of the gray body materials (such as the driver screws or the rails) was steel or stainless steel.
High quality: All parts except the motors are brand new. Then again in the description it does say that the motors are utilised. Thinking about that the Stepper motors are probably the most expensive component of a CNC machine this is exactly where the real savings are as the motors though employed are rather well created and seem to have a lot of life left in them. I don't think I will be burning out any of these 3 motors any time soon. So anything came as described or better. For the price paid the good quality can not be beat and surpasses what most people would anticipate for a CNC machine priced properly beneath $1200 even under $300 as Amazon has them listed at an absurdly low $299.95. As far as CNC machines go much less then $300 is near absolutely free when you compare it to other people of the very same size. This machines capability appears to on par and in quite a few circumstances greater then the "cost-effective" desktop models other individuals are promoting for $1100 on up. Immediately after making it and seeing what can be completed I can say that this is a single of the best offers out there for any kind of CNC machine or tools. All moving parts have numerous ball bearings so nothing is dragging. Even after reading all the positive testimonials I was nevertheless pleasantly surprised at the sturdy style and well produced components.
Ease of Assembly: All you extremely will need is a inexpensive Walmart $1 Hex Key set, a smaller vise, a Phillips screwdriver, a power screwdriver (saves a lot of time but not genuinely required) and some frequent sense. Total tool expense for what is needed to assemble this kit if you do not have any tools at all (everyone has screw drivers proper?) would be less then $30 and that is with a inexpensive power driver or about $ten to $15 without having the power driver. The tough portion is receiving the small side of the driving screws to fit the ball bearings as it is a tight fit and they have to have to be pressed into the bearing. I found it simplest to get the driving screws into the bearings very first as I do not have a drill press useful (a inexpensive $40 a single from Sears could do it) and then use a modest vise to gently press the edges of the bearings into the body components. If you have access to any kind of drill press this can be performed honestly easy using the press to put the driving screw into the bearing right after it is in the body. It took me about 4 ½ hours to assemble and I had to back up a few steps considering that I forgot to check the alignment of a handful of holes (this indicates I put a few panels on backwards simply because I was not paying attention) and had to disassemble a handful of actions back to reposition a handful of of the body parts about 3 or four instances. That was my fault but. The only customization that requires to be produced is a mount for your cutting tool. I have a dremel tool so fabricating some thing was effortless enough. Even a quick repair but would be fine for the reason that as soon as attached you can use the machine to make a greater mount. I will say I had a excellent time just creating this machine. I am already tempted to order an additional one just to create it. Possibly I can talk a couple of buddies into buying them and letting me do the assembly. Anything was quick and nicely created and fit exactly where it was suppose to fit. When you read the on-line instructions for assembly it says that you should take your time and it does not have to all be built in 1 day but as soon as you start you just get into it and have such a good time that you really want to finish it all at as soon as. This was a % frustration build and very fun.
You will nevertheless have to have to decide to purchase a power supply and driver card but they can be located low-priced via the internet. You will have to make your own interface cables for the driver to talk to the motors but it only takes about ten min a cable (You will require 3) if you want to wrap it good and make sure it is all insulated. This is the 1 region you do not want to be low-priced on price tag or time about (I spent about an hour undertaking cables and about $10 for wires, tape and connectors at Radio Shack. Get the color range pack. It assists to color code). If you cross a line you could fry out your board or your stepper motor so make positive almost everything is separated nicely and insulated well. Most importantly make confident you have a male/female Printer cable! I did the whole develop, wires and all and at 1:30am I was looking forward to a dry run with just a sharpie to check out the level of specifics that can be done and to make confident almost everything was operating properly right after constructing the unit and receiving all excited about operating it when I realized I had no printer cable. Plus it was snowing so badly that almost everything was going to be closed the subsequent day so I had to wait a couple of days to get one particular. These are all more than EBay if you just sort "CNC Cable" in the search so if you do not have one particular you can get one particular shipped for much less then $10 if you appear on-line. If you have any mom and pop pc stores nearby they may well have 1 there if you look and odds are it will be no cost or only be a handful of dollars as the cables are not implemented considerably and just take up space. Almost everything went together extremely conveniently. Electronics as well.
Size: This is a desktop CNC Machine so it is small adequate not to be in the way, about the size of a significant desktop laser home business printer or about 1 ½ times the size of a desktop printer/scanner/copier and 2 instances as high which is great if you do not have a lot of room. I at present have mine sitting on a rolling laptop table and it takes up about 60% of it. 100% with the card and power supply but that is considering I have it mounted to a Plexiglass base as I am in the course of action of constructing a housing for the electronics) Do not let the size fool you on the other hand. The function region sounds smaller on paper but once it is built there is more operating space then initially believed. There are many things that can be fabricated with a machine this size that would surprise you. If you check out Youtube there are some good postings of some of the basic things this machine can do as properly as a outstanding video of a detail engraving on an aluminum block. Though Zen Toolworks appears to be a young organization and this CNC machine is nevertheless a pretty new item, I count on to see a lot way more of these videos soon as it is the least high-priced machine you can invest in and one of the most beneficial investments anyone can make for their shop. This desktop CNC Machine is just large enough to make practically anything you could want a small 3 axis CNC machine to make in the perform area AND the worktable is raised adequate so that a bigger then 7x7 item could be fabricated and/or engraved in sections with no the frame obtaining in the way. It is tiny enough to be out of the way if you have a tiny store or even an apartment with restricted working space.
Level of Detail: The initially thing I did once I got the machine built was to use a smaller metal bar and attached it as a mount with some screws to hold it in spot and some zip ties for a pen so I could do a test run on a sheet of paper. I utilized Mach3 and jogged the unit manually to see how accurate it is. Jogging made a really good level of detail but the little quantity of time that it takes to tap a button doesn't allow for a actual test of the machines detail levels as you can not get extremely fine levels just manually jogging the machine. So the subsequent factor I did was to use Mach3's Lazy Cam function and just typed out my Fiancés name, picked a font and did a drag and drop. It took about five min to do the 8 letter name. I had the machine set for a pretty small font with the lettering outlined so it was a hollow letter which is why it took that extended to make. The font size on paper would be comparable to a ten font size if you had been to use a printer. Just employing a cost-effective pen and only becoming held in location with zip ties I was able to generate an tremendously correct and fairly fine level of detail. No misses, skips or miss alignments. It does not sound like substantially but thinking of the tiny size and kind of font once you see it carried out it is really impressive. To get an thought discover a hollow text font and in size 10 print out a name. This machine did that with a pen and with a considerably thinner line going point by point with no missing a beat. Let's say that right after that I was quite impressed. Not only was it perfectly drawn the round components of the path exactly where in fact round and not just short lines. Next I located a Dragon image I liked so I utilized... Read more›

The kit got to the east coast in lightning time. The kit is rather nicely manufactured, and somewhat straightforward to put together. The documentation is new, and a little lacking, but Zen has currently made improvements in the week I've had my kit. You are purchasing this from an American smaller business owner, who ought to spend all day on Google supporting his product. If you have a question, it will be answered straight by him, in much less then an hour. It is also supported by way of Google groups with a forum of some knowledgeable men and women as properly, it's especially newbie friendly.