After some weeks of research, comparing different Products, I finally came to the conclusion that I am purchasing a Nomad 883, which is going to hopefully be delivered in a few weeks time. My topmost requirements for the CNC machine were precision, mobility and cost, followed by the ability to cut a wide variety of materials. For my final decision I compared the following products.
Nomad 883, Stepcraft 2 (German), Shapeoko 3, X-Carve, Chinese CNCs (3020, 6040…)
I am starting to develop some interest in robotics but have very little to no background in machining. I am a hobby developer and have moderate coding skills, which I want to combine with electronics and mechanics to build interesting things with front end user interfaces. A lot of learning is coming my way. Enough background though, here comes my question:
As I live in Germany and have to pay 450+ Euros for shipping and 19% import tax, I am a bit afraid about any issues, which might arise during or after the delivery. It would be very costly to send my Nomad on a round trip in case anything doesn’t work as designed or some extra purchases need to be made.
Can you give me some feedback on what I can expect? I read a post where some users had to send back the control board and such, which might be totally possible in terms of shipping costs. It would be fatal if there would be something wrong with the frame or mechanics though. Would it be possible to make small repairs myself?
The Nomad is a great machine, and I think you will be happy with its performance. I had some issues with mine (replacement spindle ? fan, replacement board) but in the case of the fan, you could have bought a standard PC fan and installed it since its compatible. With the board i’m not so sure as it seemed to be more specialized, but i think they sorted that issue out and new Nomads probably come with that new board preinstalled.
I never had to send my Nomad back to Carbide3D, so I wouldn’t worry about that. Most issues are easily solvable by replacing the broken part itself, which is usually a fairly light weight part. I have not heard that anybody had issues with the frame itself.
I would recommend though to purchase a set of each type of Endmill with your Nomad, that way you can use the preinstalled settings with Carbide motion. If you are a beginner in CNC and do not want to have to define your own tools in the software, i would recommend that.
I would also maybe get another set of wasteboards unless you want to make your own.
Anyways, if you have any questions, let me know!
Oliver
The nomad is surprisingly easy to pull apart - so if something did break, and you can handle basic disassembly and assembly, you would only need a part sent over, and not need to send the entire machine back.
I had an issue with the z motor wiring harness and carbide sent me a new one - was really easy to swap out and fixed the problem.
I was the one that shipped back my Nomad, but it was only because at the time they didn’t know exactly what was wrong (it was right before they figured out the control board thing). Nowadays 1) I would assume they’re shipping them out with fixed boards already and 2) the fix was actually something I could have done on my own if we had known what the problem was; I think it would have been like a minute or two with a soldering iron…
Good to know that the Nomad can be disassembled easily. That was my biggest worry as it is not a kit. Reading forum posts, I sense that the guys at Carbide are doing a fantastic job when it comes to supporting both, customers and the community as a whole.
It is setup to work with 110v. So if you are on 220v grid then open the case, find 110/220 switch on the power supply (you have to pull PS out) and you are good to go!
Its not just about socket adapter but about power supply configuration. Be aware. I burned mine because I did not flip the switch from 110v to 220v and ended up soldering/replacing exploded capacitor.
,