Chinese 3040 machine

Today UPS delivered my chinamade cnc3040 and I hope I can shed some light on this object. And see what Im not paying for

I ordered from Aliexpress on the 4th of january. This version is marketed as shipped from the UK to get around tax and customs. Price: 1178$ + free shipping.  Specs: Ballscew, 500w aircooled spindle at 14000rpm, 30x40x9 cm effective travel, non-vfd, nema 23 motors, chromeplate shafts, Mach 3 included, tools and bits and cables.

When ordered the seller informed that the unit was not in stock in the uk and were to be shipped from china. Otherwise shipping is estimated to 7 days. Now it took two months. This dilemma is well described in the ad and i was not in a hurry.

Communication with seller was flawless/excellent. The chat function in app worked great and seller kept me updated regulary on the shipping process. Polite and accurate.

Now its here. Delivered to the doorstep. Extremely well wrapped and boxed. No sign of wear and tear. And everything is in the box.

So far so good.

To be continued...

Edit - link:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-From-UK-No-Tax-Desktop-CNC-3040Z-D-Engraver-with-500W-spindle-and-limit/1821027139.html
(from AliExpress Android)

Will follow this with interest...  Spent a lot of time reading over at cnczone.com on these 3040 and 6040 based machines (like those sold on carving-cnc.com).  Seems like a lot of people are happy with the performance.

Did your come with a hacked version of Mach 3?

Matador said:

Did your come with a hacked version of Mach 3?

Click to expand...

Yes it does! I havent tried the software yet thou.

As my knowledge is very limited in this businness (I prefer to learn along the way) you are more than welcome to post specific questions.

Will follow this too.

I know many of us are considering something like this, with prices getting so low - but we don't really know what we get. So this topic is quite interesting.

The Mach3 software bundled with it is probably the demo version, full function but limited in number of G-code lines it will run.

The routing spindle - is that a simple standard servo motor, mounted with a tool chuck?
Is it adjustable speed? (Edit: yes, manual knob on controller box)

What size bits does it take? Other collets available?

Jakob E.

Definitely also following with interest!

Good luck.

I've been looking at opinions about these machines in cnc forums too.

It' s hard to make a decision, some people are happy with them and some people blame them. I think many people are pushing them to the limit, in a local forum I read some of the most followed users hate them, and they' re blaming them in every topic, what a surprise they're running a company selling cnc supplies.

Some of them say the machines are chinese crap because they can' t mill steel or hard aluminium pieces, or are trying to make it run fast as a industrial machine, but I think if you are conscious of the machine limits you can get pretty good results, we are mostly using it just for taking out 35um of copper or 0,2mm of aluminium, I think they could do the job...

Very interesting!
I just ordered the cnc-x4800 USB so I'm definately interested in peoples experiences and will share mine once I get it going that is!

http://www.carving-cnc.com/cnc-x4800-series/cnc-x4800usb-router-engraver-drilling-and-milling-machine.html

Mind the size of the engraving /milling area.

I'd recommend to buy one, that is big enough for 19"-Frontpanels.
19 inch = 483mm ...  so i'd buy one with minimum 500mm travel space on either the X or the Y axis.

These machines are not THAT much more expensive...but you're much more flexible.

...markus

Mind the size of the engraving /milling area.

I'd recommend to buy one, that is big enough for 19"-Frontpanels.
19 inch = 483mm ...  so i'd buy one with minimum 500mm travel space on either the X or the Y axis.

These machines are not THAT much more expensive...but you're much more flexible.

...markus

Click to expand...

Definitely good advice if front panels is that's your main goal but you can still achieve that with the smaller table only you would need to do it in two passes I'll mainly be making smaller parts and wanted something more compact, also I have heard that the accuracy is a little better with smaller a machine.

Machine is now assembled. Very easy. Four screws for fastening the spindle sled. All wiring is predone. Wiring seems a little brittle and there is not much give in cable legth when hooking up motors. Motors fit good. Aluminium standoffs is a plus. Hooked up the cablewhip to controller box. Box gives a budget feel to it But it works. It looks as is if the guarantee-void-sticker has been cut. Maybe a chinese customs job. Total time for assembly 1h.

All connected the controller woke up and spindle runs. Tools are included btw.

Mach 3 is the full version yes accompanied with manual and xlms for three different machines. Unfortunatley not for this specific one. I uploaded an xml anyway and followed instructions. No answer from motors. After serious googling i changed kernelspeed to 25k and fiddled with active highs and lows on the axies under ports and pins  and suddenly i got movement in right directions! I nearly fell off the chair.

Uploaded a simple gcode circle from cambam, no drill bit, and machine reponds great!

If you have better knowledge than me concerning ports and how to read the breakout board you probably would have been up and running even faster.

Gyraf: The spindle is clampfitted.  Er11 collet sets can be ordered that can  take up to 7mm Shafts.

To be continued.

About 8 months ago I got this 6040 machine.
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/mini-CNC-router-600-400mm-engraver-drilling-and-milling-machine-engraving-machine-CNC-router-6040/404403447.html
Very happy with it so far. I can finally make the things I always dreamed off.
The 1.5Kw watercooled spindle has no problems with 4mm thick alu front panels.
19" panels fit with room to spare. I mainly use 3mm endmill bits, and 0.1mm engraving needles.
Still learning feeds and speeds, because I had no metal work training.
The Mach3 software it came with was indeed trialware. 500 lines of Gcode I think it was.
Enough for drilling small fronts, but engraving a front can have thousands of lines.
After searching for a long time, I ended up buying  a combo deal of Cambam and Mach3.
I do simple designs and Gcode generation on my main computer with Cambam.
And a dedicated small PC, in my workshop, with win7/32bit!!!! runs Mach3 (and the CNC machine).
I had problems with soft limits, untill I added three small endstop micro switches.
I simply had to wire them to the endstop headers on the parallel circuit board in the control box.
Now homing is a matter of hitting the home key on the keyboard.
Perfect accurate re-positioning every time.
Spindle motor control was manual.
I  changed that by adding a small/cheap converter board between parallel board and motor controller.
Now spindle speed (0-24,000RPM) is controlled by Mach3.
I also added a laser cross with two cheap line lasers.
Not really needed, but sometimes handy.
Leo..

Man...those machines are painfully cheap by comparison to what it cost me when i got one...

The plot thickens....

The machine now has a new home at a friends garage and the other day we set out for the first smoke test.

When zeroing the z we saw that the z-throw didnt let the bit touch stock material!! It bottomed out. We loosened the spindle clamp and lowered the motor as much as possible and now it barely touches. But not much play in the down z. I will build a flush mdf table to allow cutting trough thou. Maybe a longer collet neck/chuck? Well see.

Uploaded an example code and fired away on both an mdf-board and some acrylic plastic. Results not the best but it has to do more with material, feeds and speeds etc than the machine. Halfway thru the second run we lost z-height thou. Cannot tell why. Maybe motor fitting play. Ill return to this and see if it happens again. After a rewind the problem was not there. Strange.

Table is not exactly true. Its made up from three v-alu-profiles and there is a small threshold  between them.

Machine is fitted with 6 home/limit swithes. A big plus. But I cannot get them to operate. M3 will not recognice them. Bad wiring, setup, breakout board trouble I cannot say.

So there are a few things to improve/sort out here.

To be continued....

One common problem I've read about these machines is the lack of proper grounding of the various bits., and shielding of the individual stepper control wires.  The stepper motors spray tons of hash back into their return wires when they stop, and all of the motors need a solid bonding to the chassis common, as well as shielded leads from the controller to the individual motors.

OPR said:

Very interesting!
I just ordered the cnc-x4800 USB so I'm definately interested in peoples experiences and will share mine once I get it going that is!

http://www.carving-cnc.com/cnc-x4800-series/cnc-x4800usb-router-engraver-drilling-and-milling-machine.html

Click to expand...

Hi Opr, did get a hold of your machine, i would be very interested in any feedback you have,

Regards
Pierre

Finally I ordered a 3020-DJ CNC, coming from Germany, but made in China, delivery expected for the next week.

I'll use it mainly for light engraving and pcb milling, now I have to find a old computer to run it, or maybe try with arduino/grbl, but as far as I know, stepper drivers in Arduino shield format are not suitable for current reasons, anyway I have found some Pentium4 computers with parallel port for around 20-50€, so not a big problem...

I'm quite excited, luckily I'm so busy this week so waiting will be easy.

I'll keep you updated...

Well, the machine came a pair of days ago, I could make it move only once, in a recovery windows start, but it c ashes and didn't move anymore, actually it moves, but slow as hell (it can take about ten minutes to move along the Z axis, which is something like 70mm)

I triple-checked Mach3 configuration, LPT port settings in BIOS, nothing worked, I'm almost sure it's something about Win7 and LPT port, I'm gonna get an Arduino Uno and try it via GRBL, I would prefer Mach 3 or Linux CNC, and have more control on the process, but if it works fine on GRBL I can save a big and loud computer heating the shop (with 44°C out there every heat source saved is welcome)

About the machine itself, well, China Made, no limit switches, electronics box is noisy as hell, safety switch ridiculously weak, the structure looks sturdy, mine is a revision with some extra plates. The spindle is prone to replacement, the rpm control in the box is not so accurate, if you want it in the slowest position you have to turn all the knob up, make the thing start moving and then go back slowly with the knob to the desired speed, it won't start if you keep the knob in the lower positions.

I bought it with that in mind so I'm not disappointed, actually I think the machine is usable as it comes, if you can manage to get the damn LPT port in windows...

You are aware that Mach3 requires a 32-bit version of win7?

Jakob E.

Yes, actually the computer was a Pentium 4  32bit, so I think that's not the problem...

Looking in  the control box I found the mains ground was disconnected from the  ground of the pcbs, the hole for the screw connecting it to the chassis was painted and there was no connection, maybe that was the issue with mach3...

Also, try setting up the parallel port hardware in bios: You probably want standard parallel, not EPP or other half-modern enhancements.