Calling @TonyDangerCoiro?
But why? I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t, given a good enclosure. I’ve been doing it with my (not-quite-stock) Nomad for ages now.
By all means, it’s Carbide 3D’s machine so Carbide 3D’s choice whether they want to pursue this but I think it’d be a shame not to. Nobody else makes such a capable machine that can be used inside (Stepcraft might, they offer some nice enclosures for their machines but they’re so expensive I wouldn’t count them).
Maybe it would be too difficult to set the right expectations for the consumer?
The Nomad is sold as a desktop machine, and it works well as such - to a point. But if you establish a vague notion like “desktop” or “indoors” in people’s minds, they’ll put it in an apartment and the neighbours will complain because it’s too loud. Or they’ll complain there’s no tray to catch the filings to make cleaning easy. Or that its too heavy for the desk they already have and it vibrates a lot which makes them uneasy.
I’m not saying it has to be advertised as suitable for indoors or that it has to be anything like close to perfect, I’m just suggesting that perhaps some sound insulation might be offered as an addon for people who want it.
Yeah, soundproofing is always going to be welcome.
At a minimum, a decibel range for cutting a variety of materials so the buyer is aware of the noise.
Personally, I think it’s okay for C3D to leave this issue to the buyer since they will all have different expectations and requirements and C3D will have enough to consider just supporting the expectations surrounding the machine itself.
All of C3D’s machines can be used indoors or in an apartment … but shouldn’t be 
Looks really nice, and a bit bummed out to have bought a new Nomad just recently, despite the few months of wait. Even though they are very different machines, this one looks like it has the rigidity and precision missing in the original Shapeoko and could be a good sweet spot between the 2.
Ey man, What aluminium is that?
6082 I for the larger piece. The thinner sheet I’m unsure bit its’ 50/60 grade.
I’m curious about the light strip under the gantry. It seems to give off a very evenly spread light unlike a LED light strip with individual exposed LEDs. Is there any info available on that, maybe a source?
Many of this type of product use pretty flammable materials, probably best applied by the user on the outside if they want to damp down the enclosure, harder for coolant to soak into the foam pores and go smelly or hot chips to set fire to it that way.
Can I ask what makes you not want to run it in a spare room? Is it the noise, the chip mess, safety hazard, something else? (Maybe the room is carpeted?)
I’m curious because one of the biggest impacts I see for this machine is that it makes fast, accurate machining accessible to people that it wasn’t previously accessible to before. Hobbyists and makers that may not be able to afford a home, or may live in an area that has dank basements instead of well lit garages (I’m looking at you, Pittsburgh), for sure. But also engineering research labs in universities, which is where I have spent a lot of my career. These labs are shockingly limited by what they can make, even with 3D printing. Universities very often have shared machine shops, of course, but the barrier of entry is surprisingly high. Many students haven’t developed the skills to use them, the hours often are inconvenient, and unfortunately the culture in some of these shops is unfriendly to women. Having a relatively low cost, easy to use, versatile CNC that can go into a room that wasn’t ever intended for machining can be a pretty impactful thing. The HDM looks like it might be a machine that could do that, but maybe not.
I think the machine you are describing is the Nomad 3, Shapeoko 4 or Pro. In my opinion, you should have the resources to make a proper place for it if you can put $5k into a machine not including all the other tools, workholding and accessories that go with it. If you can’t, maybe spend half on the machine an put the savings into outfitting a workspace. There is a balance to everything. There is a cost and tradeoff for everything.
I think that the desire not to have it in the next room is just the noise inherent to removing material by it being sheared off at high speed. 
Unless the material is soft or you take really small depth of cut/stepover…you’re just going to be making noise no matter how the machine was designed. That noise varies by a lot of factors, but will always be there.
I work in a university machine shop, and have only been here for a few months. But your assessment seems valid here too. We work with a good amount of engineers, doctors, students, and researchers and many can design, but don’t seem to have the bandwidth available to add the fabrication of parts to their repertoire. I get that for sure. We do have quite a few women come in to the shop, so hopefully the culture of not being as open to female is either isolated, or dying out. I haven’t been able to talk to many to see what the environment is like for them, but that seems more just due to our limited interactions.
What are the specs on the ballscrews used? 1605? or are they a different pitch?
Hi @Luke ,
Brilliant work – you guys have finally made a machine that checks (almost) all my requirements.
A few questions;
Thanks
I am very excited about this machine. I am building out a shed office/workshop right now. I have a residential door on the shed. How hard will it be to get the machine through the door?
Is the door >40" wide?
Is the threshold suited for rolling a pallet jack over it?
The door is 35" wide and there is about a foot step up to it. So rolling a pallet jack through isn’t an option. Could it be partially disassembled and brought in pieces? Or maybe ordered that way?
I have had great success moving heavy things around rolling on wooden 6 foot dowels. Also I have hired a couple guys from a moving company off Craigslist for reasonable rates, to pick up heavy items and help me move them around before.
Yeh it’s easy enough between the wife and I we’ve moved a few units all over. You can tilt the machine forwards a little and the Y/X will move if it has full weight on it. 2/3 people and it’s easy enough over a short distance.