There is also the fact that having more power than you need is just a waste. A dimmer to reduce the power and speed of the dw660 is an improvement. It is already stronger than you need (except for some extreme cases).
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You say that like it almost never happens. And you call yourself a regular… 
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Trying to decide which one of these to buy for my first MPCNC. I have read that the Makita is pretty quiet compared to some others. What do you think?
I wonder now how the HP of the nema motors play a part in it. I’m doing mostly aluminum and I’ve been doing 1mm WOC at around 40mm/min. Obviously I can’t compare these values to the manual mills / HAAS mills at work. But I’m wondering if there are upgrades I could look into.
I’m cutting with carbide .25 endmill 4 teeth.
Edit… I think I’m getting off topic though…
It generally comes down to location and availability. In the US? DeWalt 660. Rest of the world? Makita.
The DeWalt 611 is much heavier (5.5 lbs vs 3.2 lbs from the 660) and much more expensive (~$130 vs ~$50 from the 660).
The Spindle? There are too many of them to make a definitive statement, but I haven’t seen one that can compare to the DeWalt 660 or Makita in terms of price, power, and weight.
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The beta crew has all the parts (again) should have some results in a day or two!!
I have built, un-built, revised, printed, and built again so many times this last week. I have measured things more precisely that I ever have on an MPCNC…This build process is a touch different than all previous versions and I am excited to see if the crew has an easier time squaring and setting it all up. Once I got the Z axis sorted out the rest started to behave as I expected and I can get this thing extremely square without the belts even connected let alone the dual endstops.
Fingers crossed it is as good as I think it is.
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I’m so excited to try it out! Getting the Z axis square was what killed my momentum when I was building my Burly MPCNC. That, and the fact that I ignored all the warnings and made it waaay too big. 
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With dual endstops you never really have to get it square. You can easily just home it and go. It being easier to square should just mean even less people will need to bother with dual endstops.
Ah, I should have been more specific. I was able to get the XY parts of the frame square, but I never quite got rid of the play in the Z axis, and so it was a few degrees off of perpendicular from the table, at rest. While I did have trouble adjusting the tension bolts on the Z gantry, I think it had more to do with me not following directions correctly. I made my MPCNC 38x58" which I now know is ludicrous. I should have made a Lowrider 2, which I still might!
I ignored all the warnings about making an MPCNC too big, I don’t blame anyone but myself. When you release the Primo I will be doing something much more reasonable, around 18x24".
Of course, I’m also going to try to push the state of the art forward with an SKR 1.3, TMC2209s to avoid endstops, a touch screen… It’s going to be a very nice machine when I’m done with it, just in time for the MPCNC Darryl in 2022. 
You will still need end stops, the other way is much less accurate. I have to keep letting people know so no one starts to believe they are equal.
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The dual end stops have another job that I would argue is just as important as squaring up the X&Y (which they do amazingly well) and thats providing a definitive 0x0 point that you can reference on any and all runs thats always the same and doesn’t require precise manual steps. Put some 90 degree back stops on top of your spoil board, set the offset in your CAM software and, well, its pretty nice.
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That’s what I’m doing also. Instead of touching off the material (which might get milled away), I just work from my known location, and I edit my default startup code to establish where the program starts from.
You can do that without dual endstops, or without endstops at all. I pull my machine to one end, against some hard blocks, and then start the machine, which gives me the same reference.
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Dual end stops are damn near essential for this reason alone. The only reason I could see for opting to go without them would be to save a couple of dollars while building out the machine. e.g. rambo over mini-rambo. The price of wire/switches is almost negligible at less than $10.
I also wish that it wasn’t described as an “advanced technique”. You’re going to either be spot on with your build (novices won’t be…) or manually preform the same tasks by setting blocks, etc. At a minimum the recommendation should be to build the machine with the dual end stops in place - even if they aren’t used.
We worked for a long time without them. The mini rambo works fine if you don’t have dual endstops and is a cheaper option.
If I had them, I provably wouldn’t even use them most of the time. I just pull it to the side before I start it. It really isn’t trouble at all.
Configuring it used to be harder. It may not be an advanced technique anymore, but for people who are really looking for dead simple, skipping them does make it simpler and cheaper. Ryan has done a good job of making dual endstops easier though.
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Wouldn’t you be cutting parallelograms instead of rectangles if it’s not square though?
Not really the thread for this but for the people cutting signs and lots laser etching pictures no one will ever notice things being even a 1/4" out of square. Heck even 99% of 3D printers have never ever been tested for square on any axis, all printer calibrations deal with retraction and single axis movement distance…look at all the bad builds with all three axis not being square to anything causing MPCNC’s to be wonky.
Most builds without dual are far more accurate than handheld power tools that most of us use and with a little care very nearly as accurate as dual endstops. To be clear I rarely use them. My lowrider does not have them. The only time I ever bother is when a tool change will be involved on the MPCNC.
For those that measure things to the 0.1mm (0.004") dual endstops are necessary, but I would say that is the extreme minority of MPCNC users.
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Anybody given a thought to what color scheme they are going with? I just got some black and a nice bluish slight indigo pla.
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I 3d printed spacers to align the X & Y axis(es?) and use it every 3 or 4 runs just to check that things are square.
Especially useful if you tend to drag the X or Y axis back to ‘0’ without power. This can cause it to skew slightly.
Yeh, Dual limits otherwise.
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In my opinion and from my own experience Matt, 18x24 would be way too small to be useful. You will get amazing accuracy I am sure, but I think you will find it frustrating size UNLESS you intend to make a Lowrider as well. I guess it also depends on what you envisage using it for. My first CNC had a cut area of 250mm x 250mm (10"x10" ish) And the reason why I made the MPCNC. Everything I seemed to want to cut was just that little too large to fit. I went to 900mm but in retrospect 500mm x 500 would have been the perfect size. I have only 4 times needed to cut 780mm in the past 2 or 3 years. I have not had issues though with 900mm x 900mm at least nothing that warranted pulling it apart again. Only that it is a large area to live with. After I have a working lowrider i intend cutting it down to 500 x 900 and a tilt table with wheels so it can be stowed to one side and moved easier.
Just my opinion. I have seen guys here over the years build and operate their MPCNC in their bedrooms, so i guess it is all horses for courses.
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