Steel is specifically mentioned:
- A machine capable of cutting wood, aluminum, plastic, brass, maybe even a little steel.
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This machine is screaming for a solid aluminum threaded table.
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This is a super exciting new product.
But as a Pro owner, who is currently awaiting the new HDZ (and has been for months) so he can use an 80MM spindle instead of the compact router, I’m disappointed this was the announcement today 
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Hot damn, that’s amazing!
I’m curious, what’s the pitch on the ballscrews and the machine’s resolution and repeatability? With ballscrews, I could see it exceeding the Nomad?
Also, any plans for an ATC spindle? 
Will the Z axis on this machine handle the weight of a true ATC spindle like the JGL 80 2.2KW it weighs 7.9 kg?
This looks to be a good fit for my needs if it can be upgraded to a true ATC in the future.
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It’s been a busy and tough year with a supply chain that has fluctuated allot in the last 8 months. Rest assured the HDZ 5.0 for the pro is in production and will hopefully be announced shortly.
Off the top of my head resolution is 0.00625 mm. We feel a +/- 0.05mm tolerance can be kept and on some of the tests we’ve been doing have been getting even tighter than that *obviously materials, end mills and feeds/speeds come into the play here.
At this stage there is no commercial plans for and ATC, that’s not to say it won’t happen but not yet.
It will take the weight easily, although needs a 6mm spacer plate between the spindle mount and front plate. It would also drop between power cycles. Don’t ask me how I know…
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Adding on to Luke’s response: In some instances a well-lubricated, precisely built Z-axis will slowly drop when the machine is powered off. This is also common on larger industrial routers without brakes. You will probably want to stick a 2x4 or something under the spindle when it is not powered on.
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Any more photos or details on the electronics? A higher voltage and more powerful stepper driver system sounds pretty cool.
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I’m sure @Jorge can chip in here, we’ve been testing them for a while and they are robust. No random disconnects, a huge amount of pushing/pulling power.
We’re using a very good VFD for spindle control with a special control built in house.
The HDM uses NC switches which adds a little something extra to it.
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Forgive my ignorance, why does NC vs NO switches matter?
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If there’s an electrical disconnect or any damage to your cabling, an NC switch will show as triggered or flutter all over the place, so it can be easier to determine that something is wrong than with an NO switch, which will only indicate there’s a problem when you try to use it (e.g. crash your machine).
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There is no doubt this is a stunning machine, but I can’t help but feel sympathetic to those who bought the Shapeoko 4/PRO and didn’t see this one coming!
I bought my SO3 XXL in September 2020, and not too long after that the SO4 and SO4 PRO came out - and now the HDZ?
In less than a year? Very disappointing.
EDIT: The SO3 is pretty much obsolete now, so how long will it be supported, I wonder…?
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How much flak are you going to get for mentioning the S-monster? 
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I think it’s worth stating this isn’t a replacement machine to a 4 or pro. It shares no common parts other than the hybrid table. Shapeoko refers to our routers range.
We can’t publish our road map, honestly that would be disastrous for us. Where possible we make upgrade routes but in many cases it’s not possible. You can’t upgrade a Shapeoko 3 to a HDM - because over time ideas, tooling and machines develop. However where possible we make all our accessories backward compatible.
Whilst there is a large number of our users who run wood projects this isn’t really designed for that - it’s not a large format router so if you want to make large projects don’t even look at it. The Pro/4 would be more than suitable.
However if are If you are machining non-ferrous metals, composites and possibly some small hard wood projects in batches this would likely suit your needs.
Typically you get what you pay for and I will start by saying we machine everything. I don’t say that lightly, literally every single part of this has been on a bigger cnc. Why do we do this? Run a DTI gauge over a 80/40 extrusion or a round steel rod. Why don’t others do this… Others do, and why I say others I mean, Datron, Haas, Doosan.
Whilst the bed is “small” we ran through a bunch of customers projects, something like 80% of projects would fit on this bed and in this work envelope. It’s 2-3 times bigger than what you might get on a 3d printer, and stacks up really well against any entry level vmc.
We designed this machine to stand above the likes of Tormach, Axiom, Avid, Stepcraft or Inventables to name a few. We’ve not built it to be the cheapest machine out there (although it will likely be less than those mention) it’s built to be the best and for most users it’s overkill. If anyone is unsure on what machine they need just drop us a message. We are more than happy to point you in the right direction, even if it’s not one of our machines.
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Thanks for the feedback, Luke. I’m sure you’re really proud of this machine, and I think you have every justification to be.
Good luck with the pre-orders and sales, but it seems buyers in the UK won’t benefit from this for quite some time anyway, particularly as it can only be shipped on a pallet!
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If You could find a freight forwarding company, like I did with my Midwest steel and aluminium ATP5 plates, there is nothing stopping Europeans from ordering a HDM.
The price of freight, insurance, vat and other fees will be a good deterrent though…
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Random question - is the electronics control board is the same physical size as the Shapeoko line?
Are you able to elaborate on why? It doesn’t make much sense to me. I assume the fear would be an eternal “why would I buy the Shapeoko 6 today when I can wait a couple of months and get a Shapeoko 7” but in this case, the HDM is your most expensive machine. The people who are upset it wasn’t announced earlier would have been waiting to give you more money than they spent on their Shapeoko 3/4/Pro, so releasing the roadmap would have been profitable.
Or is the concern that some unscrupulous Chinese company will just go to market first with low-price garbage?
Getting into the DIY mill thing myself, I wonder, did you ever consider alternative options like epoxy pours for flat mounting surfaces, milling mounting surfaces that then bolt on to the extrusion or epoxy granite? Do approaches like those not work well or not scale well to production?
There are some other competitors around these days as well. The Shariff DMC2 KickStarter has a similar price point but makes different tradeoffs.
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Yes - we plan to support our machines.
The electronics box is quite a bit bigger now and mounts else where.
No.
We put everything in a HAAS - it’s about as flat as you are going to get at this stage.
We’re familiar that’s is the one where they bolt HGH15 to steel box section? Personally I won’t ever back a Kickstarter again - 0/2.
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@jepho if you want specifics on all the above I’d suggest emailing sales@carbide3d.com - however to address some of your questions:
In a similar way that we support for current users with a few tweaks which is not dis-similar to these competitors. We have a central support team that picks up all queries and manages the tickets and draft in the relevant people as and when. Spare parts/replacements are also managed centrally. The design of the HDM allows for a ‘modular exchange program’ where if a fault was found and it was not a user serviceable part a whole axis or major component could be swapped out relatively easily. All parts would be on an exchange only i.e. the faulty part would need to be returned to us and if it wasn’t it would be charged or all warranty would be void.
The community is a community, not a support mechanism for support. As always any and all support queries should be emailed into support@carbide3d.com.
Pardon? We have around 10 beta HDM’s out in the world and we are in production on the customer machines.
I don’t see any ticket or emails from you - where did you send these questions to?
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