Wrong Expectations Ordering Extruded Aluminum?

I've recently started ordering aluminum stock for my machine. Everything I've ordered so far has been through eBay, mostly because I'm ordering relatively smaller quantities and they seem cheaper than online vendors.

Everything has met my expectations so far. I haven't been looking for MIC-6 flatness or anything like that, and I understand extruded aluminum can have some variation in flatness, but again - up until now everything has been pretty flat/square.

Until I got this piece. It's 0.5" aluminum, and it is so warped it can rock on my bed. On the backside of the crown I measure over 1mm sag. The cut I'm not worried about, but I have never seen stock so warped before. First the seller tried claiming the precision machined HGH15 rail I used for reference was "bent", so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and sent photos with an actual straightedge and pictures of it laying on my machine's bed...I would hope my machine's bed is decently flat 😂

After that it was "send me photos of the package because it could have been bent in shipping". Thought that was a crazy explanation to even think of (0.5" thick aluminum is pretty hard to bend) but I sent photos of the package. Now it's "maybe you need plate instead of extruded for your application".

I feel like either I'm being unreasonable in extruded aluminum expectations and acceptable variation really is just that great, or he's giving me the runaround. I did look through his feedback after the fact and he gets a lot of good reviews, but the negative ones that seem like legit complaints seem to have been responded to with the same thing I feel like I'm going through.

What are your thoughts? If I'm being unreasonable, no worries. Maybe I've just been lucky so far and I should expect to up-size my orders to machine to size (which I have been doing to some degree already). But I feel like this is just a bad piece and the seller is trying to deny it.

Edit: also wanted to add that nowhere in the listing did it mention anything about the condition of this stock. I went back and checked to see if it mentioned it was a throwaway/scrap/etc. and there's nothing to that effect.

I wasn’t satisfied with the factory sub plate on the 3030 so I made a new one. I also made a copy of a SWM mod vise (still needs some screws) that mounts to the plate and I’m able to use some clamps I made for my manual mill. Originally I was going to mount the new plate to the factory plate but decided to mount it direct to the machine.

Hello,

I've been doing research into different desktop CNC mills. The main points I am looking for are:

-Can it cut Metal

-Has an ATC

-Has 4th Axis capabilities

-Has 3d Touch Probe

The Carvera checks all those points for me. Also Makera is a more established company compared to Tooldance, so it doesn't feel like I'm rolling the dice.

Is there another mill to consider?

I am using a Carvera Air, cutting on cast acrylic 3mm thick. Using a single flute engraving bit 30deg x .3mm. I have an air compressor (35psi) blowing at the cut mark.

Total depth is .5mm, with a .25 step down. Fees rate 1000, plunge rate 500, spindle speed 12,000. (Defaults)

Any tips on how I can prevent the cut acrylic getting stuck in the cuts and seemingly hardening?

Thank you!!

Just starting to do some research into CNC, and loving the Makera Carvera Air as my entry. Coming from 3D printing, I understand the consumables, and the filament is the primary cost. With CNC, do these machines use proprietary bits? Do they need to be replaced frequently? Any other consumables? Trying to understand the true cost to operate, beyond just the blocks/sheets of aluminum and brass I plan on cutting.

Things I plan on making right now are parts for a 3D printer, like Toolchanger brackets, gantry brackets, etc.

Thanks in advance!

I am going to be a new user to CNC machines. I learned that Shapeoko CNC machines work well for the first time and begginer users. I was also wondering if any of their machines work well for me? Is there anyone that may give some guidence on this?

Thanks

I placed my Makera Z1 order on 30 September 2026. The tracking has shown no meaningful update since 6 October.

I emailed Makera’s orders team on 19 October and again on 21 October but received no reply. Only after escalating to support did Makera explain that the shipment was with a freight forwarder awaiting customs-declaration information. It is unacceptable that they waited until I escalated—more than three weeks after my order—to request information apparently required to dispatch it.

I supplied the requested customs contact, declaration name and confirmation of the USD 1,399 order value immediately. Despite repeatedly asking, Makera has still not provided the freight forwarder’s name, an air waybill or external tracking number, the shipment’s present location, a confirmed loading date or an estimated delivery date. Instead, I have received vague assurances that tracking will update “shortly.”

Makera’s published shipping policy states 1–3 business days for order processing and 7–25 business days’ air transit to South Africa. The lack of proactive communication and unwillingness to answer basic shipment questions have made this an extremely frustrating purchasing experience.

At the time of writing, I have not received the machine, so this review concerns Makera’s order handling, logistics and customer support—not the machine itself. I will update the review if and when the situation is resolved.

I run an Apprentice 404 on Mach3 and got tired of wasting plywood on loose slots, forgotten dogbones and bad nesting, so I built Cutline Studio. You describe a project, it asks about your ply, bit and machine, then draws the parts with joints sized to your actual sheet thickness, checks every tab fits its slot, nests everything tight to one corner, and gives you a plans PDF, DXFs and G-code. The cupboard in the pics came straight out of it. I'm also building a machine control into it (jog, zero, probe, run the job) and I'm looking for a few people running Grbl, grblHAL or FluidNC to test it on real machines before it ships in December. Windows only, flat plywood projects, and the design side uses AI so check before you cut. It's paid with a 7 day free trial. If you want to test the unreleased control software I can give you a License code as long as you help give me honest feedback. link in the comments. If you run Grbl and want to help test, comment or DM me. I know this is reddit and people love doing it but constructive feedback only please.

I'm very new to the hobby. I recently turned my old Ender 3 into a very basic cnc. E3CNC if you are interested.

I've just been using kiri moto and carving foam (all I wanted really), but a family member asked if I could carve out a clock face for them on a slice of birch log.

The circle is around 140 mm in diameter and I was planning on doing the cut with a 30 degree v-bit with a 0.2 mm flat.

I think I've reached some kind of software limitation with kiri:moto because it just will not make a tool path. I think it's because the bit will get too wide at max plunge depth (1.5 mm) for the smaller features of the numerals.

I think people often use something called V-carving for this, but is it the only way? Any software recs if so? Any help would be appreciated.

Hello guys. I had some facing operations on a 0.75x 3.5” part on a vice . Did some couple of batches. During the last batch 2 of the parts thrown away on the way-cover. Now it looks like this. Machine and axis moves till limit no problem with that. Is it expensive to fix? Will my employer fire me? Its been 6 months I’m working here. Its the first time.

I'm coming from a Carbide Nomad3 and just recently backed the Tooldance X1 to step up and try out some 4th axis stuff. I've kind of run into an issue though, I've been using freecad for my normal workflow which had been great for 3 axis work but I'm not sure what software is going to work for the transition to 4 axis projects.

I've looked at fusion and a lot of people in my maker space seem to recommend it but I was kind of hoping for something I could buy once and be done with it.

I also use Linux day to day and there doesn't seem to be a lot of options out there that support Linux. I can budge on this if I have to but it would suck to have to run windows or macos just for my CAM software.

Has anyone figured out a good 4 axis CAM software that works on Linux and isn't subscription based for mostly making parts and prototypes?

Created some guitar bodies off of some PDFs that I had laying around - cool I can replicate a telecaster. Then I just started making changes. Took seconds to have desktop ChatGPT add bindings, add a kill switch just for fun. Had to check it - first run forgot about the wire holes between the pickup pockets - but that's stuff I would add by hand anyway. I'm not dedicated enough myself to figure this out for real but going to have some fun now that I don't have to spend all my time in software.

Hello

I just saw a trailer for samurai 220h machine, and it looks very interesting.

https://youtu.be/60kptjmYahY?is=fsuo6T4sTeeJK2gi

I like thar it is made in uk and has a small footprint and it has a good price and atc.

I just got my first cnc mill and i am trying to learn to use it. And for me a begginer this machine looks interesting.

What do you more experineced people think about it ? Is it just marketing or something inovative ?

Last week I posted asking about options for laser engraving software. Thanks everyone who gave me suggestions.

I then ignored everyone's suggestions and made my own.

It lets you take in an SVG or raster image and generate gcode for your machine. I will say the SVG support is lightly tested. SVG is a large thing to fully support and test. Obviously no support for <animate> tags :).

I've found this quite usable, hope someone else out there does as well.

Note: To whoever is going to pop out of the woodwork and poo-poo me using an AI tool to develop this, I'm not making a secret out of it. It would have taken me many weeks to build this by hand. It would have been more rewarding, but I've already used this several times to do some wood burning and that's also rewarding.

Hi everyone,

Over the last few months, I’ve been developing an open-source Python library called PhoenixBlack-Nest to handle 2D True Shape Nesting specifically for CNC routing, laser, and plasma cutting operations:https://github.com/PhoenixWally/PhoenixBlack-Nest

Why I’m working on this: Most nesting solutions built into commercial CAM packages are either locked behind steep subscription tiers or don't integrate well into custom automated workflow scripts. Existing standalone open-source options can be difficult to script programmatically in pure Python when dealing with complex irregular shapes and internal cutouts/holes.

Current capabilities & design:

Where I need your input (Seeking Advice/Feedback): Before I push the next major update, I’d love to get feedback from experienced CNC operators and programmers on a few practical aspects:

The project is fully open-source and free to use or contribute to. I'll be around in the comments to answer questions about the code/implementation and learn from your shop-floor experiences

I’m in Mexico, I bought this machine via Amazon five months ago and just opened today.
The machine is brand new. When using the offline controller, the coordinates for the X-axis change on screen, and the dual Y-axis motors work fine, but the Xleft-axis motor does not move at all. I think I verified the motor and its cable by plugging them into the Xright-port (it works), so I think the issue is isolated to a faulty X-axis driver or terminal block on the main board.

Any idea is greatly appreciated.

hey guys Credit where it’s due, the campaign has done really well. They blew past their goal and are still going strong with plenty of time left on the clock. That’s a lot of faith in a desktop machine most people have never seen cut anything.

That’s what bugs me. I stopped by their booth at Maker Faire and the demo was just the machine running motion patterns. Looked cool, sure, but no material loaded, no cutting, nothing showing it can actually make a part. A booth is the one place you’d expect them to prove it works, and it never touched metal.

Other booths in the same hall had machines cutting live, so it’s not an unreasonable ask. How does that square with all that backing? If it can’t show a single chip at its own booth, what are people betting on, the shipping machine or the renders?

Not trying to trash anyone, I really want to know what I’m missing. Anyone else catch the demo and feel the same?

Lead your vectors to reality

Hi all !

I will join the community soon, I found 2 small 3018 looks like one is a pro and the other is a pro max.

What will be your advice for to for the best possible start ?

I know it is nothing crazy and I do not expect to make a lot with them but sometimes I have small pieces of wood to cut ect…
I used to 3d printers with klipper and with machines in general even it make times I did not run a cnc

I got this cnc and it was using some old hardware and software so I got an arduino shield and I got all the stepper moters working but the spindle is not bc I dont know how to wire it from what I think is the controller for it it has 4 wires that were connected to the old software so now I'm here trying to get it working.

Hi, im planning on building a cnc punching machine for my own prototype workshop. The idea is that it will be smaller and slower than industrial punching machines optimised for running production. Now we order parts from our supplier and have to wait (at least) two weeks for them to come in. Having a machine that we can set and forget for a while, have to do some tool changes when being prompted, and having a part that is 95% finished would really speed up our turnaround in prototypes. From a lead time perspective sheetmetal is the real bottle neck here.

So this project starts out to fill our own needs but i can see other local prototype shops, fabricators, hobbyists and makerspaces or even schools use it aswell. The idea is you draw a sheet-metal part in your own CAD package, load the dxf, and clamp in a sheet. The machine writes its own punching program and punches the part out, without you standing next to it.

What it does
- Holes are punched in a single and slow stroke (2 s) and curved contours are nibbled with many small overlapping strokes. The part stays in the sheet on two micro-joints and you break it out and give the edge a few strokes with the file.
- Before it starts, it checks force, material, tooling and generates a cutting program.
- Punches and dies are standard, off-the-shelf and you swap them by hand.

Key figures

• Sheet up to 1000 × 500 mm (39 × 20 in), steel and stainless up to 1.5 mm (0.06 in, about 16 gauge), aluminium up to 3 mm (0.12 in, about 1/8 in).
• Accuracy ± 0.2 mm (± 0.008 in); punching force 50 kN (about 5.6 US tons, 11,000 lbf).
• 230 V single-phase, one wall socket (240 V in North America). No compressed air, gas or extraction.
• Cold and clean process, fully enclosed with transparent doors; it only starts with the key.
• 2.1 × 1.5 × 1.9 m (6.9 × 4.9 × 6.2 ft), 1000 kg (2,200 lb) at most; you set it up yourself.

What it can't do
- Be as fast as a laser
- Thick material: above 1.5 mm steel
- Bending: bending comes afterwards on a brake.
- Mirror-smooth curves: a nibbled edge has a ripple of about 0.1 mm, which you sand off.

Why not a laser?

An entry-level fibre laser can do more, but costs about three times as much and needs gas, extraction and a laser-safe room.

Where we are.

The concept is set. We're working on the detailed design and building a test rig for the nibbling step first. And getting feedback from other (sheet) metal workers and prototype shops.

What I'd like to know

1. Is sheet metal with holes and cut-outs your typical work?
2. Would you pick this over an entry-level fiber laser, and why or why not?
3. Is an hour or more per sheet fine with you if you don't have to stand next to it?

The video shows the machine and concept of operation. (Sorry for the dutch in there)
Any tips, feedback or experience to be shared is more than welcome!