Based on your usage forecast, I’d definitely go with the pro model
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I went through a very similar period of anguish. All of the comments to “buy your second machine first” really had me paralyzed. Fulfill my salivation for a CNC Router Parts (Avid)? Or get a “toy” I’d just be disappointed with, amounting to throwing money in the garbage?
I finally decided with a couple revelations:
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if I was going to justify something pricey, I’d need to be making money from it (at this stage in life, I can kind of justify S03 levels of $$, but no way in hell could I get an Avid past the wife). In my opinion, the limiting factor in making money, if one is going to do it, is creativity and execution, not the machine
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kind of similar, but with the length of time I’d try and save up for an Avid, I could have actually been making and being creative all that time.
(Oh, and I received some incredibly generous seed money toward a CNC router from my dad for my birthday after helping take care of him and my mom after a hip replacement).
Anyway, I could not be more thrilled with the S03. So much so, it kind of baffles me what people write about these “toy” machines, making me wonder if they’ve ever used them?
At least, this is for my use-case which is 99.5% wood (balance being a couple projects in aluminum, and some in acrylic). For some things I’m proud of:
- these CNC “photos”
- keyboard plate and case (with the plate being precise enough to retain all the switches such that they mated perfectly to a PCB that required exact spacing for the leads). I don’t have pictures of it, but I recently re-located the case after glue-up to machine little counterbores for threaded inserts. It was just dead on. I thought for sure I wouldn’t get this step right. Nope. As perfect as I could have wanted.
- this inlaid Honda badge for a community challenge
- if I had any remaining hesitations on the machine, they were completely erased on this chess set made via two sided flipping
Of course, you’ll get biased answers from S03 owners… but I also read the same things you read, then used this machine, and continue to think that I am the vast majority of the limitation. I have so much to continue learning with respect to CAD, CAM, fixturing, optimizing, and simply coming up with things to make/try… I have no hunger for a more powerful machine as I have not pursued the limits of this one.
The caveat I’d add is this is for my situation, which involves creative “huh, I wonder if I could make…?” scenarios like the above. I’m not hogging through 3/4 plywood via full depth passes with a 1/2 in bit like I see some on youtube doing, or making 50-up pieces on a deadline, or machining aluminum (though @Vince.Fab should be empirical evidence the S03 can do this just fine as well).
If my scenario changed, my ability to use the S03 could also change… so far, though, I would honestly say I keep expecting it not to be as good as it is, but it keeps being even better than that.
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Thank you John and I totally agree with you with everything you say here. Like you said I questioned hundreds of times the reliability, quality and more of the Shapeoko vs others like Avid as you mentioned. Like you in the end honestly could not see the reasons to blow that amount starting CNC. Plus as you said my fiancé would definitely have my head lol. It’s taken me over 15 years now to convince her the difference in cheap vs decent quality lol. I do believe in buy once cry once but that doesn’t mean you have to buy the Ferrari lol.
Beautiful work you have done. Love the piece’s with the dogs, very very awesome. Very creative approach your doing here, very awesome.
And yes as you mentioned about creativity and execution being key here. I couldn’t agree more. At first when I started to toss around the thought of CNC I was very weary but my fiancé and a couple friends were like dude the thing that has always sit you apart in woodworking from most others is your creativity and approach. Most others are doing the same as the guy or lady before them and basically it’s just a copy of a copy. I agree because I like to always do my own thing and it’s not necessarily that I’m trying to be unique but as I suppose I get bored. I sometimes want to express myself and push the envelope lol.
I gotta say this forum and community has gotta be one of the best I have ever joined. That’s a really great thing. Thank you John
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