Hi all, I know this is an open ended question thats hard to build. But in general terms how long does it seem to take the average person to gather all the parts, build, and make the first cut. Its seems to me that ordering a kit is a great convenience. Some claim a 2 hour build, so even a weekend or two would be fine with me. But I see people in here that take a year to complete a build. How hard is it to source, and buy your own parts? I can cut aluminum extrusions accurately, drill and tap and other minor tasks involved. I'm not really looking to save $100 or $200 by not going the kit route, and I do not want to fall into a months of trial and error and missed shipments or what ever else can go wrong doing a self build. So in general, how much time would you think you would save buying a kit? I am looking at the SparkConcepts new kit that is supposed to be available soon. I hear it is similar to the OX. Thanks very much for the read and any experience you can share with me.
User snokid has a sparkconcepts machine. Seems to be satisfied with it. Search Zeus. Its only a page back right now. All depends on what you want your router to do.
Hi Dave I have almost finished mine, so speak from recent experience. IF you have a chop saw that can cut aluminium and you are very careful with the ordering process. Then a base machine takes about 1-2 days to put it together from scratch for a newbie! A good part of this time is doing something, stopping looking at video and then going back into the workshop! Today I took it all apart and re-assembled in about 3 hours. The projects which are spread over many, many months occur because WE see enhancements from other members and want to replicate the improvements. For example this weekend I redesigned the corner brackets, base plate, inner Y axis plates and drilled tapped the cross members together to increase stiffness. I did not have to do this, it's more of a sense of pride to build something really good.
Thanks guys. Looks like I just missed Sparkconcepts latest round of kits. Everything was gone to pre-orders. Nest shipment may be mid Feb. Leaning towards buying my own parts now. LOL I procrastinate too much. Good to know that even a newbie can get this together in little time once parts are received.
