New member, just purchased an Altmill 4x4 with the 220v spindle. I’ve been running a Shapeoko 3 XXL since 2016, when I lived in a townhouse and used the finished basement rec room as a shop. Moved to a house in 2018 and my wife and I spent most of last year building an addition and a detached 750 sq ft shop for me. I knew I wanted to upgrade the CNC once I was back in and finally pulled the trigger. Considered the 4x8 but didn’t want to devote the space to it nor wait for it, plus my makerspace here in town has an EBF 5x10 machine that I use when I want to run full sheets. At some point I’ll probably do the tool changer, but also didn’t want to wait for it. I have a ton of shop storage buildout projects to do that I want to get started on immediately.
I don’t really do engraving, I use my CNC for woodworking stuff. Heres an early project I did on the Shapeoko. I definitely want to figure out vertical workholding on the Altmill so I can do more elaborate joinery.
The Shapeoko has been a fantastic machine for what it is, but I gotta say that I’m looking forward to going from the dewalt trim router on a machine driven by timing belts to a 3hp spindle on a machine with ballscrews everywhere. 