Brand new to cnc and looking to buy

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

First off, if considering the Shapeoko vs. X-Carve please see:

X-Carve vs. Shapeoko 4

The workholding is something of a chicken–egg issue.

Options are:

• buy something:
  • T-track/clamps: https://shop.carbide3d.com/collections/workholding/products/t-track-table
  • Super Hold - Carbide 3D
• make something — more approaches than one could count

I’ve documented bootstrapping workholding w/ just the machine and minimal tools twice now:

Shapeoko CNC Router, Rigid, Accurate, Reliable, and Affordable

and

Notes on rapid positions and wasteboard leveling

Finally taking the time to revisit this with other machine sizes. For a Shapeoko 3 the rapid coordinate positions are (assuming one has set the origin at the SW rapid position point): NW = 0, 350 N = 200, 350 NE = 400, 350 W = 0, 215 C = 200, 215 E = 400, 215 SW = 0,0 S = 200, 0 SE = 400, 0 which yields: [image] It is possible to move 5mm to the left along X on a Z-Plus machine, and 65mm towards the front of the machine, and the Southernmost Rapid Position Points are align…

and we have some tutorials on this at:

https://docs.carbide3d.com/tutorials/project-wasteboard/

and

Hold Down Clamps

If you have any difficulties with this (or any other file or project), please contact us at support@carbide3d.com or post here and we’ll do our best to work through this with you.