Hello all. I’m looking to get some opinions and anecdotes from more experienced users on this forum related to the great upgrade paths available with Onefinity machines. I’ve had an ‘original’ X-50 woodworker for about 18 months now and have really got both the machine and my use of it really dialed in. Obviously I love just about everything about the machine, and I’m looking at investing in upgrades.
The main upgrade I’m looking at is converting it from the Woodworker, to the Journeyman. Where I’d like to hear others opinions is whether or not I should complete some other upgrades while I do. I’m particularly focusing on if I should also upgrade from the ‘original’ X-50 to either the Pro or Elite variant.
I’ve done a lot of searching and reading of this forum already and seems like most people’s opinions are always to default to the biggest and best you can afford. I also see a lot of people in this forum who have expensive Elite machines with 2.2kw spindles who are making fairly simple projects. I don’t say that to put those people down, I just bring it up to add the context that I PERSONALLY feel like it’s overkill for MY purposes. I love the Buildbotics controller, and I love my Makita router.
So my main question: Does the Elite machine really give you any features that you consider “must haves”?
Limit switches are nice, however I don’t have any issue with the accuracy and repeatability of stall homing for woodworking purposes. I’d rather retrofit inductive sensors than IR anyway. Similarly, being able to resume projects after an error or power outage is nice, however this happens so rarely that I couldn’t justify the cost with this feature alone.
I’m just wondering if there’s some big smoking gun feature that I’m missing? Looking forward to hearing what people think!
A 2.2kw water cooled spindle is, I think the best upgrade you can do. The first time you turn it on you WILL say WoW this thing is soooooo quiet. Masso is nice but the firmware updates are very very slow coming from the masso team. Coming up almost 1 year to get what I think is a very goofy simple issue that should work by now is showing the g code as the program runs.
the other day I wrote this, with links on comparison regarding choice decision between buildbotics-derived Onefinity Controller on Original/PRO Series and MASSO G3 Touch on Elite Series, specifically
Note that you may also use some CNC Controllers other than Onefinity offers. The original Buildbotics CNC Controller from buildbotics.com should work out of the box (posting which describes the differences). Here in the forum they also use the Centroid Acorn, like shown here and here.
I think people who switched to a spindle would never go back. It’s also a matter of safety. You can’t say that a hand trim router used outside of its scope is a reliable CNC milling motor. And it’s a matter of effectivity. A hand trim router produces much less mechanical power for the electric current drawn than a spindle, because of its poor efficiency, and it emits noise and electromagnetic interference through its carbon brush commutators (a spindle has no such). But it depends on what you want to do. If you only make name signs for thanksgiving table once a year, possibly you don’t miss a spindle
Really appreciate this post. It all but confirms what I was thinking. The Masso doesn’t really allow for much that experience, jigs, and few extra minutes of setup can’t get you. What the masso does give you that can’t be otherwise achieved doesn’t seem worth the price for the upgrade. If the Elite series was available when I purchased mine maybe I’d be thinking differently, but as far as the upgrade path goes I don’t think the dollars and cents make sense.
it makes sense to upgrade to Journeyman, at least for me since I need the size, but unlike the woodworker, which is more ‘normal’ in size, the Journeyman is really a beast! In terms of size and weight. It is really big.
Question is if you would rather sell the woodworker and take a Foreman.
Couldn’t agree more. The journeyman is a no brainer. I couldn’t fit it in my shop on first order, but I’ve changed a lot of what I make now and now I’m able to fit it in.
The foreman would be too much, size wise. Also, anything larger than the Journeyman I’d want to make would need to be tiled on both the Journeyman and the Foreman.
And should it become necessary, the values are still there after power outage, they remain available in the log file. A script could list all occurrences of changing an offset from the log file, so that you can reconstruct where you were in the g-code file.
I have been looking into the same research on the elite and have decided moving to the Masso controller would be the best option for me. The Buildbotics has it’s flaws when it comes down to “homing” and when dealing with multi layered Inlays its a serious liability to cost and time. Switch to an 1/8" bit re home the Z but its not extended out enough so get the error to extend the bit more “Boom” homing Lost! That strange error where the Joypad stops working and the Z axis only goes down until you hit e-stop on/off “boom” Homing lost! etc. I have even taken photos of the screen before my jobs, lost the homing position and jogged the machine back to the .000 points, rehomed and started the cut back up to still be a hair off.
The Masso on the other hand has the ability to save multiple homing positions, pair that with a tool setter and closed step motors you greatly reduce the amount of time fiddling with the touch probe block and the machine knows how to get right back where it started in the event something goes wrong, this also apparently goes for power outages as well.
I will say with the Buildbotics though if no inlays or tool changes are involved, just placing your material, homing and pressing play I always walk away with confidence knowing it will finish the job and for many peoples applications I think its a great machine. Though if it’s working out for you already and you are looking for the biggest bang for your buck, the Spindle will probably be the biggest improvement for you.
I think if you are just cutting plywood into shapes the buildbotics controller works great.
For me upgrading to the Masso was a fundamental improvement.
It just starts when you switch on and the Masso will home all axis. With the toolsetter changing bits become fool proof.
Try running different toolpath with different bits with the buildbotics. You have to split up the toolpath, and there is a high chance you make a mistake by mixing up the toolpath or forgetting to home the z or whatever.
I do complicated projects, 4 axis stuff and inlays. The builbotics would just freeze constantly in the middle of a project, and I would have to restart, manually home all axis. The actual raspberry pi computer is so weak it would not be able to execute the g-code in time, missing steps which resulted in a ruined workpiece. It took me a long time to find out what went wrong, and after that experience it was hard to still trust the buildbotics, because it was unpredictable after loading a new project if and at what point the g-code execution would be too much and the router would plunge into my work again…
It was an incredible drain of my time.
I have not experienced and bug or software problem with the Masso ever. Never had to restart, it never ruined any of my projects.
I have so many bad experiences with the buildbotics controller.
I upgraded. Pro user since July 2021 (mind you, i purchased in January). Upgraded a couole of months back.
If money is tight then i wouldnt upgrade. The Pro is a great CNC. I like tatting around with the CNC and it is a joyful hobby for me and probably the only thing i have spent big chunks of money on for myself.
I upgraded because:
I like tatting around and Masso gives me options and i dont spend my money on much else (my justification).
ease to achieve 4th axis (rotary). And it was really easy using the stepper motor from the z-axis upgrade.
side bargain: not getting what feels like a random crash when you accidently nudge your controller before the BB controller finished what i think is clearing its cache after a job.
homing is reliable and repeatable
tool setter is great.
Variety of zero setting methods
Not so good, but i hope will come with time:
increasing Feeds during a cut. I’m surprised it is not already possible.
No estimated time for completion or progress. This really should be possible.
Annoying but im used to now:
i liked the game controller of the BB. The masso pendant is clunky. Mind you, im no gamer and using the game controller took some getting used to.
monitoring and controlling over the network. The Masso file upload is clunky.
