The "Ultimate Tabletop Machine" for Woodworkers

[richard newman]

Thanks for the excellent discussion Gary, very informative! I'm wondering if you didn't leave out another important parameter for your 250/250/125 test - depth of cut and I suppose type of material? Seems like these would affect deflection.

You are so right about the marketing stuff, but of course that is what marketing people do, accentuate the positive and deflect attention from the negative. And in a relatively new field with so many neophytes jumping, we are very vulnerable. Without real knowledge or experience, people can only search online for information, on manufacturer sites and forums, and everyone becomes an expert, and the misinformation spreads virally.

If we go to the extremes it become easier to look at. Everyone would agree that a router built of mdf, v-way guides, leadscrew, laminate trimmer, running mach3 is exponentially less of a machine than a massive cast iron floor router with precision linear rails, ball screws, high speed spindle and commercial controls. The problem is the vast middle ground, where almost all of us have to dwell.

Clearly we all have to make some serious compromises, and that's hard to do without good, accurate information, such as yours above. What do we really need in a machine? Can we even reasonably articulate that? CNC offers the promise of degrees of accuracy that most of us are not even able to measure, much less see, not to mention incredible speed. And it's hard not to want it all.

PS on edit - I have to plead guilty on all counts. As an elderly, semi-impoverished, semi-retired woodworker who misspent his life in a quest for excellence instead of financial stability, I just don't have the funds (yet) to purchase what I want (if I knew what it is). I don't feel I have the time or electrical/computer skills to build a machine, as much fun as that would be. So I have to rely on the used market as I did for my heavy machinery, but there is hardly anything there yet in the size and quality I want. Maybe it's time to liquidate the wood stash...