LinkSprite DIY CNC 3 Axis Engraver Machine PCB Milling Wood Carving Router Kit Arduino GRBL Assembled Version

This unit ships in a single box with two separate boxes inside. Assembly time will take anywhere from two to three hours depending on your experience, it took me about two and a half. Aligning everything will require some patients and using a tape measure will be needed. The smooth rod supports will require some torque to get them secured so they don’t move and I felt like the allen wrench was going to break. At first I found the slide nuts to be a little challenging, but if you install the nut with a couple turns on the parts and then push the screw while tightening it will catch to tighten on the support rail.I was really impressed with the 3d printed parts; they are all of really good quality. There might be a few blobs of material in certain areas that need to be removed, but do not affect the performance of the part. Most of the structure is aluminum and very ridged. They state that axis for x=130mm, y=100mm, and z=70.5mm, but I found out that my unit is x=150mm, y=100, and z=40mm.I was having issues with the 24v power supply and I had to check it with my voltmeter to find out that it was intermittent. I ended up using a 20v laptop power supply until I could get this one replaced. I decided to open the power supply and I found out that one of the 110AC wires was disconnected inside the power supply I was able to fix it by soldering it back together and then I closed the unit securely.I 3d printed a case for the circuit board and mounted it in the same location. If you are planning on etching circuit boards then you will need Eagle PCB Design (the free version works fine), PCB-GCODE, and you can use Chilipeppr to auto-level then mill the board. I do it this way so I can get larger isolation on my board. Another option would be to just drag your board into Chillipeppr and have it do everything.I have to say for the price point this unit is built really well and there is even an optional 500mw laser attachment https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H6XN1TA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. But you may want to consider printing a 3d case for the board to protect it like I did. I will most likely add it to Thingiverse.com.Here are the extra items I ordered for etching PCB boards…20pcs Single Sided Copper Boardhttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015K418OC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=110PCS Micro Drill Bits .3 to 1.2mmhttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FH5LATM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=120PCS .1mm PCB Engraving Bitshttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017LGA36G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=11.5mm Carbide End Milling Cutterhttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SMDPF4I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1Pros• Solid Structure• 3d Printed Parts are of good quality• Good Packaging• USB Controlled• Optional Laser Attachment• Low Cost• All the bearings were pre-installedCons• My kit came with a defective 24V power supply• No limit switches on any axes• Instructions are limited and vague• Circuit board is exposed• Cheap power supplyContents• X, Y, and Z Stepper Motors• Cutting Motor• Woodpecker CNC GBRL 0.9 Controller Board• Two Cutting Blades• Two Spindle• 24V 5.62A Power Supply• USB cable• User Guide• 5 Allen Wrenches of different sizes

For accuracy, this information was added in November of 2017. Overall, the unit is what i expected and Im happy with it for a first machine to get my feet wet with. Easy to assemble, Rigid construction. Simple to set up. A couple of precautions, the assembly instructions are pretty poor. You'll have to have a metric ruler handy and guess at the fasteners to use to put it together. They aren't clearly labeled. The good side is that they provide extra fasteners and its not crucial that you assemble it exactly the way its pictured. Take time to measure and place the slide rails (rods) as close to perfectly parallel to each other as possible. (it matters) Also, be careful when mounting the audrino controller board. Use the plastic bushings provided to offset the controller board so as to not allow it to short out on the aluminum rails. That would be bad. :-(With regards to operating the router;I learned while setting up the router for the first time that this device uses an audrino control board with GRBL 0.9 as the g code parser. This is an older version of the audrino firmware. (The newest version as of august 2017 is GRBL 1.1. If you are skilled enough, you could Flash the audrino with the newer firmware) If you don't want to learn how to flash an audrino.....read on.The visualizer is a software that feeds the parser g-code from your computer. If the parser firmware and visualizer revision level are out of sync, all the machine controls will not function. Meaning you cannot use the router. The visualize recommended for use with this machine is Candle. An open source visualizer program which is surprisingly good for an opensource freeware. The current version of candle is 1.1.7. It is incompatible with GRBL 0.9. In order to get this router to operate, you must find and download Candle 1.0.0. as it is compatible with GRBL 0.9. (Candle also has to be run in compatibility mode on windows 8 and 10, or it will only start once and you have to reboot to start the program again....and the display will be over-sized and difficult to use. )Best of luck!