When i start shooting up Bridgeports I’m blaming you. 
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Make that 2. I love the LR for woodworking, but I was a machinist by trade, and making hot chips brings a smile to my face. If money were no object, there would be a 5-axis mini-mill next to my Lowrider.
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Sit next to me at the “Starrag Anonymous” meetings
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Well I did the plasma thing…I want a metal cutting fiber laser now strapped on to my LR.
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Plasma is cool and you get a long way with a plasma. But at the end of where a plasma will take you is where cnc mills live.
I really lwant asers to be able to keep up with plasma but with wire edm precision…. And the cost of a kobalt router. But even that will dead end at the cnc mill.
As of right now I’ve adopted a hybrid approach where I use laser to cut my template and manually trace it with the plasma. It works… but it’s not ideal
That is 100% true. With LR4 up and running i know what machine i want. and it is more then 1 as usual.
I do not see any viable ready to build alternatives to the LR4 in full sheet format that you can just go and build. That is the great think about the LR4 design - you can just build it for very little money and you dont need to design anything even if you self source all the parts.
for smaller machines and bigger budget you can always build a PrintNC or get one of the mini mill varieties and convert it to CNC. that is probably the route that I’m going to take for a second CNC
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@Tokoloshe has a printnc…. Looks like an absolute beast.
Yeah, but absolutely not an entry machine. I’d not advise starting with it. I built it after over 6 years with V1 machines and I am glad I had the training. Crashing a PrintNC is no fun. 
I always tell people to start with a LowRider, get into the controls, cut a lot of things and see whether CNC is for you, after all. A LowRider is built in a few hours, days at max. That’s enough for maybe drilling the holes for one or two rails of the PNC. I see so many abandoned PrintNC projects because people underestimated the difficulty or overestimated themselves…
I haven’t looked too far into them, but the print part of the name seems very misleading. Lol
Yeah, there are a few printed parts that get replaced with aluminium later on.
Isn’t that what hobby machine tools are for? Making upgrades for themselves.
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