Once again, I"m new to this area of the wood shop. I'm interested in getting into sign making (not as a business), and am wondering if someone could objectively give me the goods and bads of the CNC Shark. I'm not looking for a sales pitch, but a realistic discussion. Are there better machines, or faster, or cheaper, or is the Shark the best combination.
Many thanks,
Stephen
Cary, NC
Why CNC Shark?
Moderators: ddw, al wolford, sbk, Bob, Kayvon
Re: Why CNC Shark?
A $4000 machine is hard to justify for a hobby. On the other hand, any CNC is capable of far more than sign making. If the price is no object, the current Mako package is a fairly turnkey system that I find to be a great value compared to the other systems out there. We'll soon be installing a Shark in our college shop where students in Interior Architecture, Furniture Design, and Product Design have access to it. I've been using mine to cut everything from carved surface details to furniture parts to jigs and forms and templates. We make 1/4 or 1/5 scale parts for furniture design models, as well as full size parts if they fit on the table. You can get bits as small as 1/32" straight or swing a 2" diameter 45 degree V-bit. I've been rethinking many of my past furniture designs for how to optimize cutting them out on my CNC. It looks like there will always be a little work to do that the CNC can't do. Still, the work a CNC does enable has quickly inspired designs and solutions I would never have attempted pre-CNC.
I've seen a few come up for sale from owners who bought one but never found much to do with them. I teach furniture design, and easily keep mine busy making parts and solving problems for the students. If you don't have a need or an outlet for what you may do with a CNC, then you probably don't need a CNC. I get a great deal of satisfaction from my Shark though.
I've seen a few come up for sale from owners who bought one but never found much to do with them. I teach furniture design, and easily keep mine busy making parts and solving problems for the students. If you don't have a need or an outlet for what you may do with a CNC, then you probably don't need a CNC. I get a great deal of satisfaction from my Shark though.
Re: Why CNC Shark?
Some posts on this topic that may be of use to you:
http://cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 985#p10721
http://cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 607#p10607
http://cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2166
I haven't looked hard at a different machine for 6 months. Having been a user for a couple of years now - ProPlus and HD - if my budget was the same as when I started, I think I'd be hard pressed to find a better value. Yes it has some warts on it, so do most things I've bought. There may be other CNC systems out there at this point that probably have an equivalent set of warts at this price point. They may be different in nature, but in the end, manufacturers are in business for a profit of some sort. As you can see from the gallery though, a more than capable machine. Combine that with forum and network of fellow users - a combination that is still running and often.
There's a fairly wide Shark user base - hobbyist, small manufacture/shops, schools, artists, toy makers, serious/master woodworkers, etc. To some degree, I think that speaks for itself. Are there other machines out there as capable and in a similar price range - maybe and you should look. As a total package - machine, bundled software, forum, support - I think the value speaks for itself and was hard to pass up the 2 times I investigated it before buying.
You'll find several conversations here on the forum beyond those above. Sometimes a wide range of opinions and spirited - but another strength in my view is that Rockler allows it all to be posted (as long as it's not personal, just outright aggregiously wrong/ignorant, or spam).
On a related note - and important to me when I was 'thinking about' a CNC purchase - you can download fully functional trial versions of VCarve Pro (bundled with the Shark) and Aspire (an upgrade cost associated with this) from Vectric (http://www.vectric.com). The only thing the trial software does not do is enable you to write the file you'd load on a CNC machine. They also have useful tutorials. In my case, I went through all of these and at that point, realized I could in fact create what I wanted to - and then I made the final decision on the machine. I've been able to use my Shark to run any project I've created in VCarve Pro and Aspire.
http://cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 985#p10721
http://cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 607#p10607
http://cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2166
I haven't looked hard at a different machine for 6 months. Having been a user for a couple of years now - ProPlus and HD - if my budget was the same as when I started, I think I'd be hard pressed to find a better value. Yes it has some warts on it, so do most things I've bought. There may be other CNC systems out there at this point that probably have an equivalent set of warts at this price point. They may be different in nature, but in the end, manufacturers are in business for a profit of some sort. As you can see from the gallery though, a more than capable machine. Combine that with forum and network of fellow users - a combination that is still running and often.
There's a fairly wide Shark user base - hobbyist, small manufacture/shops, schools, artists, toy makers, serious/master woodworkers, etc. To some degree, I think that speaks for itself. Are there other machines out there as capable and in a similar price range - maybe and you should look. As a total package - machine, bundled software, forum, support - I think the value speaks for itself and was hard to pass up the 2 times I investigated it before buying.
You'll find several conversations here on the forum beyond those above. Sometimes a wide range of opinions and spirited - but another strength in my view is that Rockler allows it all to be posted (as long as it's not personal, just outright aggregiously wrong/ignorant, or spam).
On a related note - and important to me when I was 'thinking about' a CNC purchase - you can download fully functional trial versions of VCarve Pro (bundled with the Shark) and Aspire (an upgrade cost associated with this) from Vectric (http://www.vectric.com). The only thing the trial software does not do is enable you to write the file you'd load on a CNC machine. They also have useful tutorials. In my case, I went through all of these and at that point, realized I could in fact create what I wanted to - and then I made the final decision on the machine. I've been able to use my Shark to run any project I've created in VCarve Pro and Aspire.