How does a MechMate compare
 

to retail machine in terms of quality of cut, speed and reliability? This is assuming the components and build are of equal quality. I'm new to this, but think building a MechMate would be an excellent way to learn, but just wondering what the end result would be capable of. Just looking at the MechMate, it doesn't really look like anything from the big CNC manufactures, I'm guessing because the MM is designed so the average Joe can put it together, but doesn't this design then compromise the performance?
Thanks for helping out a rookie!

If you count the performance of a industrial 100,000 USD router with ATC, 10-15kw spindle, large servo motors and ballsrews all over, etc, then it will surely outperform the Mechmate.
Sometimes maybe in quality but mainly in job time, which is relevant in production work. As we are not in that business time is sometimes a bit irrelevant to us.

What you get is a machine YOU can repair and keep maintenance of, really usable for large sheets as there is a very small number of such large machines and operators ready for custom one of work and small series. And also good for small stuff, that you get everyday, from people who want just one unique piece for their specific need.

Nice start is to call a couple of company's near you and ask about some custom job, draw some parts and ask them to quote, make it a small job. lets say half a board. If no one accepts, then there is a large open space for you.

And of course you get free help and advice here on forum :)

Commercial machines are available in many price/performance ranges. Off yhe top of my head I'd say MM performance is equivalent to commercial machines at about the $15 000 mark.

The machines the MM does look a lot like might be something along the lines of:

http://www.shopbottools.com/products.htm

http://www.ez-router.com/


So it might be best to compare the MM to $30-40K machines rather than $100-200k.

Hey Thanks
 

for your reply's. No, I wasn't thinking of comparing the MechMate to a 1 or 200,000 dollar machine, and if it compares to a retail machine of 15k, well that's probably all I would ever need. Plus the education you gain building it is priceless!
Thanks!

What a modest man ! :)

I personally had a Multicam 1000 series machine with a 2.2Kw spindle which utilized 3:1 geared belt transmissions with 48 x 96 vacuum table.
Cost - roughly 27K plus software

My 5x10 with 2.2KW HSD spindle machine, 7.2 OM geared steppers with Vectric Software cost roughly 14K total with me building it. And it out performed the Multicam is speed (about 50-90 IPM) better jog speed and average job cutting speed by about the same. Oh, and I get 8" over bed height, which on the other was only 3.5" clear. The max product I could cut was 2" thick sign foam.....I've cut 4" product on the MM.

Great value for the well fabricated MM.

its not the price of the machine ... its how you use it.

mmm i know that phrase from somewere. :rolleyes:
you can buy a 200k machine to cut circles or built a MM to do fantastic jobs like the one you see on the forum.

.... or you can buy a 250k €, 5 axis cnc with a proprietary software and each time you need to do anything you have to request the manufacturer to program the machine.