Good morning. On another CNC forum, I asked for experience/opinions on the Open Builds LEAD 1010 machine. One reply was a concern about too much flex and therefore inadequate accuracy and repeatability, especially compared to the Avid (CNC Router Parts) machines. Can someone comment on that? I’m new here. If this question is inappropriate, please let me know. Thx, rink.
Well.. that depends on what you want to use it for. It is perfectly fine for woodworking and carving.. but if you are making parts to aerospace tolerances.... you need something more.. and add a few 0's to the price tag. The avid machines for the most part, use the same aluminum extrusions, different profile sure, but they use the same, just more of them. I think their key difference is using rack and pinion to allow for much larger machines. There is nothing stopping you from beefing up any OB machine with extra profiles, or making larger plates (or some places even sell upgraded plates), or replacing the wheels with linear bearings... that is the great think about open source products... Much of Avids additional cost is the rails and rack and pinion.. I believe they use actual name brand (read very expensive) linear bearings vs the cheaper ones.. (look at high quality bearing prices.. a 1m linear bearing or ball screw can easily hit $lk or more.)
The main difference is that OpenBuilds systems are designed for hobbyists who aren't looking to spend a fortune on production grade equipment. Is the Avid system better, sure but it comes at a price. The new X-Carve Pro is also a pretty nice machine but at $7500 it is well beyond what most hobbyists are willing to spring for. Truly it all comes down to your needs, your desired tolerances, and what you're willing to give for it. Openbuilds fills a niche and fills it well. And as ljvb notes above you can build any of the systems into whatever you need them to be. If I were building a LEAD 1010 today, I'd build it like the 1515 with the dual X gantry. That offers a substantial stiffness upgrade for a fairly small upgrade price. Not an issue. We're always open to honest inquiries.
ljvb and Rick: thanks for the info. What you said is pretty much what I thought, but I wanted to defer to the experts. I have a used small Piranha CNC. It's a lot of fun and a great way to learn CNC basics and workflow, but I want to do some larger work. I've been watching the CNC world for several years, plotting my upgrade strategy for "someday". With the parts involved in the LEAD 1010, I can't imagine there being too much flex or too little accuracy for my hobby work. 8020 aluminum extrusions seem pretty stiff to me, as well as the plates. From what I've seen, Open Builds has, by far, the best value anywhere when considering quality, capability, AND cost. Especially for people like me who are well-able to assemble a pretty complicated machine, but don't want the learning curve required to build my own from scratch. I'd really rather be a woodworker than a CNC builder. And the Open Builds program of software and accessories seems to be getting better all the time. Thanks again for the info. thx, rink.
I would like to use of actual bearings, and not the wheels... I plan on changing to linear guide rails soon..
I was in a similar situation before I purchased a LEAD 1515, Rink. Something that hasn't been mentioned. You received multiple responses to this post in under an hour. The OB community and customer service is incredible. You can't really put a price on that.
It's a general description of many open source projects. Most of the time, the user base is extremely helpful.. then there are the few who need the stick removed....
Agreed on all points. The user community here is clearly a valuable bonus. I’ll do my best to never need my own stick removed!
