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Comment by Joel_Mckay | Hacker News Reader

A reasonable quality plasma-cutter CNC table offers the speed and low operational cost most fabricators can manage well.

Having a CNC Router table in a non-industrial zoned area will not work for most people. Services like sendcutsend.com makes life so much easier... =3

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I was in charge of one of these when I was way younger and they are awesome. Downside is that I don't want to house Argon and they're such a pain to maintain. Getting parts ordered is definitely magnitudes more efficient and significantly cheaper nowadays. You can get really nicely machined and anodized parts from China for the same cost as custom part shipping cost here in the states, it's crazy.

Budget 3D metal printers will eventually enter the hobby market, but I only get to work on my hobby on Saturdays. =3

where do ypu order your parts?

Probably alluding to JLPCB, but I have used xometry.com on occasion. =3

I use mine in my (finished) basement, or if cutting tropical hardwoods out on my back deck (I have a machine on a wheeled cart).

The noise from having a router and vacuum dust-collection running all the time can become a problem in residential areas. Most would like a full-sized machine that could directly handle standard sheets of material, but the space is not the only limiting factor (i.e. the insurance provider could pull something nasty with your mortgage creditors etc.)

Peoples situations will differ, and definitely check out reverse-spiral flute carbide-cutters if you handle a lot of sheet-work on a 2.5D setup =3

While everyone wants a machine for full-sheets of plywood, they're expensive, and not used for many projects --- a smaller machine suits most needs and there is always tiling.

My machine is quieter than my neighbor's drum kit --- and I've run mine after 11PM and you can't hear it over traffic and the nearby speedway (on race night) outside in the yard (a quiet vacuum helps a lot), but I have gone over to their house at 11:01 PM to remind them of what time it is.

>Having a CNC Router table in a non-industrial zoned area will not work for most people.

Lolwut? Throw it inside where the narcs can't see it (you'll want it inside or at least in an out building anyway). They're not loud. The venting you'll want isn't loud either.

Source: I do this stuff in my house.

Are you using a full sized "router" on steel plate, or a mini-engraver made from a hobby-motor on balsa? Even a compressor fed Plasma-cutter rig is usually far quieter by comparison, as cheap import engravers often just make a mess of the surfaces.

Best of luck, =3

My router itself is a 2x2 with the Vevor 3hp spindle (not a repurposed handheld wood router). The router, regardless of material it's being used on, is quieter than just about any woodworking tool with a circular blade. When it's indoors nobody cares. I mostly use mine for making wood mockups of parts before I make them in steel. I have more traditional tools for steel fabrication. The router makes basically no noise compared to the "loud" ones of those.

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