All,
I've been researching my brains out on CNC routers for the last several weeks and I've narrowed my options down to a few machines with the CAMaster Stinger II being probably my top contender. My only issue I have with this machine is the rack and pinion design. There's so much conflicting information out there it's hard to discern what to believe. This is where I turn to this wonderful community in hopes to getting some real world feedback from people who either own a CAMaster machine and have direct experience with the rack and pinion design, or from people who have owned both rack and pinion systems and ball screw systems.
I'm going to be cutting a number of different materials including some harder materials like G10 and aluminum. My real concern here is with aluminum and what sort of results I can expect from a rack and pinion system like the Stinger II vs a ball screw design (say theShopSabre 23). From everything I've read people are very happy with their CAMaster systems. Everything I've seen and read is in alignment with this when it comes to CAMaster. It's been tough to find a lot of information on how the CAMaster systems perform with aluminum. Is there really a noticable advantage with a ballscrew? The Stinger II claims a repeatability of +- 0.001"... this is just as good as the ShopSabre 23 at +- 0.001".. so is there really any difference in the results of these systems when cutting aluminum?
I'm hoping folks with a CAMaster system can comment on their cut quality/surface finish/accuracy of what they've been able to achieve in harder materials... especially aluminum.
cheers,
Craig