Which machine to buy

Machines (Elite Series)
1

Hi all,
Although I’ve been a woodworker for 20 plus years, I’m about to start a small woodworking business and I’m new to CNC. I’m about to order a Journeyman. The temptation is to go for the Elite with the main negative being the 18-20 week wait. Other than the lack of the wait time and the lower cost, is there any reason to go for the X-50 version of the Journeyman? It’s been around for a while and as such has become a proven design. But the Elites various components have also been around for a while and are proven, although not all together as the new machine.

So I guess my questions are, should I just go ahead and order the Elite Journeyman if I don’t mind the wait and the price difference? Am I missing any other factors here?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

2

Hey jsdds,

sure, if you would order the Journeyman Standard Series immediately you could get familiar with the machine and begin to work with it until the Elite Upgrade package is released :wink:

If you plan to make accessories like table, wasteboard, enclosure, that’s all easier if you have the machine in your hands. And if you plan to use a spindle and build your VFD control cabinet, that’s custom stuff anyway, it won’t differ between Standard and Elite Series, at least if you take into account some dimensions of Elite accessories, especially longer stepper motors. See recommendation to reserve enough space around the machine when building a table or enclosure. Just think of ordering the 80 mm spindle mount, as 65 mm spindles don’t clear the stepper with the standard Z-16 slider, they have thin walls when water-cooled, some cheap chinese 65 mm spindles had hairline cracks and broke (see also here). Also the drag chain that is offered on the Elite is not announced to be wide enough for everything when you plan to use a water-cooled spindle later. See here for width computation for a drag chain.

If you really don’t mind the wait. As far as I know, the Standard Series (like the Journeyman X-50) are available within 2 weeks.

Welcome to the forum!

1 Like
3

Aiph5u
Thank you for your detailed reply!

Since I have some shop modifications to perform and a bench to build, all of which should be done in a couple of months, I’ll likely order the Elite.

Thank you, again!

4

Short: Get the Elite right from the start. Don’t even consider another scenario.

Longer: If you want to get your feet wet with CNC while you wait, buy a small and cheap aluminum extrusion machine. The hassle of re-fitting all the Elite upgrades to an older system is going to be a pain, plus you’re going to spend so much more $$ and end up with all manner of extra bits that you have no use for, including an entire buildbotics controller. That’s an enormous waste.