Hi, new guy here. Love the forum, one of the reasons for choosing an Openbuilds machine. Enough small talk, to the point... I'm looking for a machine to do both plywood and aluminium at least semi-regularly. Here's my dilemma: The Workbee 1010 is probably superior for aluminium routing, due to having lead screws. But for plywood, the 1510 is a clear winner for me, since it can do plywood sheets cut into three parts, compared to six for 1010. I already have furniture projects lined up, so the 1510 is tempting, but how much worse is it for aluminium carving?
You could add larger lead screws to the 1510. I have a CNC machine I designed and built that has a 1500 mm Y and I used these screws McMaster-Carr. There are antibacklash nut blocks available that will fit in the cbeam channel, or you can make your own. It is simple to do. I made my own with a drill press and a homemade tap.
This is kind of where I went as well. Except I'm barely smart enough to operate a CNC machine, let alone design one, so I went with a mechanical kit. It's a Lead type 1500mm x 1500mm. I have most of the parts on order now, still have to read up on control boards. Build thread incoming, as soon as parts arrive (I'm in Finland, which is great except for shipping times and weather and such ).
