New to this forum, looking for any input on buying first CNC machine, no cad experience.
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A quick trip through youtube and you’ll see a tsunami of folks with no experience of any kind and they’re making it work. You’ll be just fine. Don’t let a lack of cad experience be the thing that holds you up. Buy the best machine you can afford, or that your spouse will allow.
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Just like John said- Plenty of info out there and remember- don’t think too much. Don’t dive in deeper than what you need to until you get the basics down. There is a rabbit hole if you want to go down it 
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Appreciate the feedback, to me the Onefinity seems to be physically the best built with the 50 mm tubes vs belt drives.
Pull the trigger my friend…you’ve already done the research, you’ve already decided what you want 
Life is short and only getting shorter.
I am patiently waiting delivery of my Elite Foreman. This will be my second cnc. The first was a custom built machine I had for 1 year and just sold it to buy the foreman. My first choice for my first machine was an Elite Foreman, but the wait time turned me off against it and bought the diy cnc. Big mistake with the exception it taught me the basics. Buy the biggest and best machine the first time, you won’t regret it.
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My biggest concern with Onefinity is they don’t do live demos. I am the type of person that I want to see the product in action before I write a check !! With that said, anybody out there in the Central California area know of anyone or anywhere I can see the machine in action ??
Important note If you do buy a Onefinity, I recommend you choose the 80mm spindle mount even if you’re going to use a trim router, You can always buy or make a shim to mount a router in the 80mm mount. And it gives you the option to buy or make shims for other routers of different sizes. BUT, if you choose the 65mm mount, then later decide to upgrade to an 80mm spindle, you’ll have to purchase the whole Z slider at almost $400! I was unaware of this when I purchased my machine but luckily learned about it soon enough to have my order changed. I think Onefinity should make this more obvious than being mentioned in a blog post.
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That is good to know, thank you so much for the info
You can get a 65mm spindle without any problems. Yes, they have less power, but if you are new, that should not be a problem. However, as John said, if you ever want to upgrade, it will be costly.
-Tom
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It also opens up the possibility to use routers other than Makita.
Hey Reyes,
See here for more information on
Welcome to the forum!
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Thank you all for the awesome feedback !!
I’m going to second all of the great feedback. I do really like the Elite series with homing sensors which self square your rig. That is a major feature in my opinion. I will also agree that no matter which spindle you plan on using, get the 80mm Z bracket. That way you will never be limited if you want to grow. Lastly there really is an amazing rabbit hole which once you get hooked will be a blast to explore. I know I have and now have a spindle, chiller, laser, and many other goodies which make the work enjoyable. Have fun!!
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