Mostics, Upgrade CNC 3018 Pro Router Machine with 5.5w, 3 Axes Desk Top Wood Cutting Engraving Machine with Emergency Stop, X,Y,Z Limited Switch, 3 x 0.1mm Precise Knobs, Gray

As you can see from the image I have been using this machine to make 120 mm square parts for a dovetailed box made from 20 mm solid white ash plank. The machine was capable of doing this pretty much straight out of the box. I scanned designs to free trail easel set them up to print but then saved the gcode and used the candle software provided with the machine to print, I also carved using keyboard controls on the provided candle software. As you can see my first task on this machine is quite heavy duty for a smaller cnc but it has handled it very well. The machine is made up of generic parts and almost fully assembled, instructions are good and I had no problems getting to work only issue was the little 5 volt fan on the controler unit stopped working, these things happen 1 in a million chance in a perfectly imperfect universe. The machine carried on but where the work load was really heavy on the processor it overheated causing the printer to crash destroyed the piece I was working on and then went helter skelter as it lost all memory, as I was there I tried to limit the damage by running over and slaming the emergeny stop that is provided, it worked but broke and the spindle had already traveled to the x axis limit switch and crushed it by the time I got to the machine. It did smell hot but there was no danger just a bunch of broken stuff. I contacted the company after trying to get the parts myself to let them know that a little fan generically made had caused me this issue. I had to replace the controller as it did get a bit warm and the single limit switch and of course the reset emergency off switch which i smashed in a panic. The items in the image are the parts that they sent me with their apollogies, more replacements than needed. Good company much impressed and good machine so far I have not yet used the laser, I do a lot of carpentry but I have not yet used a laser to cut designs, looking forward to it. Very good buy for a beginer and tradesman who wants small intricate artistic work done and would be very good for making circuit boards. Over all good package for price and a decent company to deal with.

This was my first CNC machine and I'd certainly recommend it if you are just getting started and want something that will accurately cut and engrave many materials. I did have a few issues but Mostics support is excellent and they reply quickly, and have replaced a couple of parts I encountered issues with. I will detail the pro's and cons below:This is a complete kit to get started- It has everything you need to begin carving and laser engraving, including the Z-probe, goggles for the laser, and some engraving bits. You just need some raw materials to carve. Styrene sheets and MDF wood is a good place to start learning.The provided bits are mainly suited for engraving. But this is an engraving product. You can try to cut material with the provided bits, and it might work if you do many shallow passes , but you will need to purchase different bits to properly cut materials. This is to be expected, and you will quickly have a large collection of bits. But it would be nice if a variety of carving bits were provided with the set.This product is not really designed to cut thick hard materials. The harder and thicker the material, the more passes you will need to do (with a smaller dept of cut).You can cut MDF in a few passes. You can cut acrylic with the right bit, and slow spindle speeds, you can even cut aluminum if you are very careful with the feed rate and spindle speeds. But this is NOT an industrial CNC machine - There is some deflection in the X-axis linear rails. They are 8mm and under high loads they will deflect. This means if you try to cut too deeply, the force applied into the work will push the spindle up. This will lead to a lot of noise and chatter, a messy cut, and possibly damage to the machine, broken bits etc.Once you get a lot of experience with feeds, speeds and using the right bits, you can still do amazing things with this product. I usually use a depth of cut of 0.1mm as this minimizes the deflection in the linear rails and gives a cleaner cut, but it does of course mean that it takes a long time. But as an experiment I was able to cut a circle out of 1.2cm thick aluminum alloy plate in ONE PASS! Yes, a 1.2cm depth of cut through metal! Of course I had to it set VERY slow, it took 10 minutes to cut a 1cm circle, and I used software called G-Wizard to calculate a speed that would not put too much strain on the CNC machine, and I used a single flute straights cut bit, while providing constant lubricant and flushing the chips out. But it worked! - That said - do not attempt to do that- it was a once-off and I think if I regularly did that it'd cause irreparable damage.The included laser is quite accurate and powerful, and you can do some amazing things with it. At 5.5w it won't cut hard,thick materials, but it can engrave anodized aluminum, deeply carve wood and cut many plastics (beware of toxic fumes!).When I first assembled the machine, I noticed a hairline crack in the motor spindle mount. And a few weeks later it split completely. I contacted Mostics and they quickly dispatched a new mount. I was able to temporarily repair the mount using cable ties until the new unit arrived, and I have not had problems with it since, even after I upgraded the spindle to a higher powered motor.A few months after purchase, the laser module stopped working. As I do electronics as a hobby, I was able to trace the issue. The laser diode was still working ok when connected directly to 12v, but the laser driver module had developed a fault. A diode on the circuit board had blown, and this allowed current to flow backwards and destroy other parts of the circuit. The unit is no longer covered by Amazon's return system but I contacted Mostics and even though the laser driver is quite expensive, they have replaced the circuit.Overall I think this is an excellent product for getting into the wonderful world of cnc'ing! You will get from it what is advertised and more, but it's not an industrial CNC system and if you are planning on using a CNC for business, you will quickly need to upgrade. But it's better to learn on something like this, than crashing an expensive industrial system. I think anyone about to use a CNC system- even if it is a huge industrial system, is well served by having a product like this to learn on

I took a bit of a gamble on this item because it had no reviews at all - it's only been available on Amazon since May 2021. I wanted to drop a very brief review to help others, but bear in mind I've only been playing with this for 48 hours. I've spent one day with the spindle and one day with the laser. Firstly, the quality of the materials was beyond my expectations - absolutely superb engineering and attention to detail. I could talk all day about assembly - took me about 3 hours to assemble, but could do it in 30 minutes now that I understand how it all fits together. Everything works as expected and beyond my expectations - especially the laser which I'm very pleased with. Just a few initial thoughts directed at Mac users (if you have a PC you won't have issues). Spindle Work: Forget about Candle - use Universal Gcode Platform which is available for Mac and arguably better than Candle. To get going with design and cutting use Easel a web based application. Laser Work: LaserGRBL is not available for Mac - I ended up installing a Windows VM via Parallels to get this working. However, the good news is that I think you can do everything you need using Lightburn, which is available for Mac.One small issue I have at the moment is that the Controller Board fan keeps sticking, which is incredible distracting and annoying. If it does not settle down in the next few days I will contact Mostics - either way I'll update my review and let you know.Initial thoughts then - this seems to great VFM - don't forget you're getting the laser module included with this bundle, which is not included with other packages costing a similar amount.PS If you're brand new to this DIY CNC malarky (like I was/am) ensure you buy a good selecting of bits - the included V-shaped bits have very limited use.