Hey everyone! Looking for some opinions here before I begin down the rabbit hole of browsing the endless threads/cnc resources online. I'm very much new to CNC, and would love to hear your opinions on what you would build yourselves given the following constraints:
- $1500'ish budget, NOT including software/computer. (willing to spend a little more if reasoning is justified/needed)
- Moving gantry (I'm working out of a 1 car garage and already have a TON of woodworking/beer homebrewing equipment, so space is at a premium)
- 18"x24" minimum size...Would love to go larger, but dont have space currently. Ideally would be upgradeable/expandable in the future?
- Needs to be rigid enough to cut aluminum. Would like to eventually be able to mill out logos/custom branding irons, etc out of aluminum.
Ultimately, this will be used for making custom beer tap handles, custom signs/logos/lettering, etc. Also would love to be able to mill aluminum to make 3D logos/lettering in aluminum.
Where would you guys start? What components would you buy? Belt drive vs screw? Stepper vs Servo? etc.
Basically if this were your money, what would you buy? Thanks so much in advance for any help you guys can provide!