If the maths aint mathing just know there was a span of 1.5 months that I was making this video... During that time i was updating the BOM with other parts... so the numbers aren't 100 percent accurate. but this will give you a very good idea of what you can expect when building your own!
After working in industry where I had to fabricate or have fabricated parts for fixturing test set ups and things like that (engineering technician), once I had a prototype that worked I would either have someone build it or get a business license and use whatever credit I could find to buy up to something like a Tormach or other system that can do a lot in a small footprint with very little support. Service contracts are all part of regularly accepted business expenses so there's not really a reason not to do them - in some manufacturing cases (Carbon3D is one in particular), you can't even buy the equipment, only lease it, and their processes are patented so you're not allowed to copy for profit. I don't agree, but those are what I've observed.
I was on this path for a year until I got a part time job that ended up consuming my life. Content creator building a DIY CNC gantry mill paying the bills as a handyman. It took four months to build the machine, another month to get it working, and then it sat because in using it I discovered that cheapening out on the bearing design had seriously limited it's accuracy to the point where I couldn't hope to produce anything worth selling. Scrapped it and started over on the design that I had wanted to build now that I had the income to afford the parts and the 3D printer to make them.... and my last update was about a year ago because my job has crushed my soul while making me dependent on a steady income and comfortable in misery. Literally the parts have been sitting there for a year in my shop waiting to be put together with just a little fabricobbling. Well, I still have to design the Z-axis, but I have the design in my head, it's just a matter of actually doing it in CAD and printing the relevant parts. THEN I am going to cut all the parts out of pink foam and cast them in aluminum. machine them, then replace any wood/plastic with metal, and tubing with solid 1045 ground shafting(sitting next to it still in the packaging). Well after I get grandpa's Logan Model 200 back together, but I genuinely am almost done with that one. I'm looking at building a plasma table like yours after I get the 10W diode laser engraver working(it's built, just needs the 3D printer electronics hooked up), and the multi-material 3D printer for prototyping ONLY. I plan to make powder-coated steel signs. I DON'T WANT a print farm, and am looking into outsourcing it to SLANT3D using their Etsy plugin. You're absolutely correct about simply buying a working machine versus building one. There is a catch - you have to be able to afford to buy the machine. I can afford to buy a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars in parts over the span of months. I CAN'T afford the up front cost or get a loan/credit. Point of all this rambling is that I kinda know what you're going through, you're doing better than I am (you have customers and a working machine), keep at it, I know you're going to do well.
@@bootstrappyworkshop8367 thanks for the comment. Definitely puts me at ease knowing there are others that have/are going through some of the same struggles I'm going through. Hopefully you can get back to your project soon!
@@Dibulok right, I didn't do that because it was my first time attempting a project like this. There was a lot of learning and troubleshooting. If I did include that in the final cost the numbers would have been skewed. If I were to build one now, I could do it in half the time!
Thanks to share your thoughts and experience, 🙏🏾 It’s very helpful💪🏾👍🏾 It dépend what are your expectations, I know the amount of the price of Langmuir is expensive but you have the security and peace, and this have no price when you WORK with it all day. Time is just si precious, we can’t buy it.. so 6 month is too much even you learned a lot !! I wish you good luck for your work, you are so motivated, and I appreciate it, I am pretty sure you will have suces 🤞🏾🤞🏾
I was going to say, I was going to build my own, but dollar to cents, I spent 1 day setting up my Langmuir Pro, and made over 3k the next day in use. Had I done it your way I would have spent days fabricating the new table. Which if anything went wrong I would have had to trouble shoot myself. So if i took that savings minus having the unit in service an extra day or two, Certainly was better to just buy the Langmuir, than build my own, and I already had the servos, linear controls etc. Also your machine didn't appear to be a complete apples to apples comparison, was yours belt driven or did it use the same linear motion setup like the Langmuir? I am all for building my own stuff, but sometimes the time sink spent developing it just isn't worth it in the end.
despite everything u went through, I loved your videos and we learned a lot from you. I live in Africa Rwanda and i had ideas to start such business since real estate is booming here and providing this service can be lucrative but the cost of owning this machine is still way ahead of my time and the knowledge u had building one i don't have it but if it was something possible i would have gave it a though. i have only 1500$ on my name and building it now also is impossible from what i leaned from your videos but i am still on for the general idea start this business since i see the potential it has. looking for investors to partner with will be the deal for me. So you did well educating us on your journey that is what i wanted to say, Thank u.
@@bigice1774 just pointing out. You can build this machine for about cheaper! Or just won't be as large or versatile as mine. People have made other machines under $500
@@michaelleon4516 I have links to a lot of the components in the description. As far as an entire, spreadsheet...or plans. Not anytime soon, but hopefully in the future
Thanks for this video. I was wondering how much it cost. I bought the XR from Langmuir. Just waiting to finish running electrical to my shop so I can use it.
@@rantiksadventure1920 I went over all if the cousins in the video lol. But I'll give you a break because it's a long one! It ended up being around $5,200 with the majority of the cost going to the hypertherm plasma cutter
Another factor that should be considered is that a commercial piece of equipment has resale value, whereas a custom build does not. At my age, I must consider this when making the build vs. buy decision as my family will be tasked with disposing of my tools and machinery when I'm gone.
@@gaiustacitus4242 yeah that's a good point. Though, I have seen a few diy builds on market place... I always tend to steer clear of them because I'm not sure if the guy who was putting them together knew what he was doing.
@@ThyialIndustries I've watched enough videos of DIY builds to see that most home build enthusiasts know very little about mechanical and/or electrical systems design and fabrication. Very few builders know how to ensure flatness and parallelism of the linear motion system. Of course, they are generally happy if their products are within +/- 1/32 of an inch of the design. The wiring of most DIY builds is certain to cause random mispositioning as a result of electrical noise. That said, many of the commercial designs do not use shielded cables and electronics enclosures, either. Even knowing how to fix any issues I may find I would be very hesitant to purchase a used DIY CNC machine. Buying used machine tools is always a crap shoot. It's almost as bad as buying used audio cables (which is why resellers like Guitar Center will never buy them).
Something else that has value, but you can’t put a price on; is KNOWLEDGE If you bought the Langmuir, you rely on the business for support as long as you have that unit. Since you built yours, you KNOW how it works forever!
That's definitely a major double edge sword. Less you know ever small detail but you are completely on ur own for the most part, but with langmuir you have any issues you send them a email and they help to figure everything out and possibly even send you new parts
Lifetime Warranty = lifetime of the product, or more likely ; the lifetime of the business existing (or a cloud service, or until a data breach occurs)
If the maths aint mathing just know there was a span of 1.5 months that I was making this video... During that time i was updating the BOM with other parts... so the numbers aren't 100 percent accurate. but this will give you a very good idea of what you can expect when building your own!
After working in industry where I had to fabricate or have fabricated parts for fixturing test set ups and things like that (engineering technician), once I had a prototype that worked I would either have someone build it or get a business license and use whatever credit I could find to buy up to something like a Tormach or other system that can do a lot in a small footprint with very little support. Service contracts are all part of regularly accepted business expenses so there's not really a reason not to do them - in some manufacturing cases (Carbon3D is one in particular), you can't even buy the equipment, only lease it, and their processes are patented so you're not allowed to copy for profit. I don't agree, but those are what I've observed.
@@russellzauner I thought about doing something similar but was afraid i would not have enough business to make the payments.
I was on this path for a year until I got a part time job that ended up consuming my life. Content creator building a DIY CNC gantry mill paying the bills as a handyman. It took four months to build the machine, another month to get it working, and then it sat because in using it I discovered that cheapening out on the bearing design had seriously limited it's accuracy to the point where I couldn't hope to produce anything worth selling. Scrapped it and started over on the design that I had wanted to build now that I had the income to afford the parts and the 3D printer to make them.... and my last update was about a year ago because my job has crushed my soul while making me dependent on a steady income and comfortable in misery. Literally the parts have been sitting there for a year in my shop waiting to be put together with just a little fabricobbling. Well, I still have to design the Z-axis, but I have the design in my head, it's just a matter of actually doing it in CAD and printing the relevant parts. THEN I am going to cut all the parts out of pink foam and cast them in aluminum. machine them, then replace any wood/plastic with metal, and tubing with solid 1045 ground shafting(sitting next to it still in the packaging). Well after I get grandpa's Logan Model 200 back together, but I genuinely am almost done with that one.
I'm looking at building a plasma table like yours after I get the 10W diode laser engraver working(it's built, just needs the 3D printer electronics hooked up), and the multi-material 3D printer for prototyping ONLY. I plan to make powder-coated steel signs. I DON'T WANT a print farm, and am looking into outsourcing it to SLANT3D using their Etsy plugin. You're absolutely correct about simply buying a working machine versus building one. There is a catch - you have to be able to afford to buy the machine. I can afford to buy a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars in parts over the span of months. I CAN'T afford the up front cost or get a loan/credit.
Point of all this rambling is that I kinda know what you're going through, you're doing better than I am (you have customers and a working machine), keep at it, I know you're going to do well.
@@bootstrappyworkshop8367 thanks for the comment. Definitely puts me at ease knowing there are others that have/are going through some of the same struggles I'm going through.
Hopefully you can get back to your project soon!
Great video. You forgot to account for your own time searching for parts, travel to store for buying parts, build time etc etc.
@@Dibulok right, I didn't do that because it was my first time attempting a project like this. There was a lot of learning and troubleshooting. If I did include that in the final cost the numbers would have been skewed. If I were to build one now, I could do it in half the time!
Thanks to share your thoughts and experience, 🙏🏾
It’s very helpful💪🏾👍🏾
It dépend what are your expectations, I know the amount of the price of Langmuir is expensive but you have the security and peace, and this have no price when you WORK with it all day.
Time is just si precious, we can’t buy it.. so 6 month is too much even you learned a lot !!
I wish you good luck for your work, you are so motivated, and I appreciate it, I am pretty sure you will have suces
🤞🏾🤞🏾
@@MegaSoyaMan right! Like I said in the end... It may have been more beneficial to just a buy a machine from the start!
Gday, fantastic video and very informative, much appreciated mate, cheers
@@MattysWorkshop thanks for stopping by!
I was going to say, I was going to build my own, but dollar to cents, I spent 1 day setting up my Langmuir Pro, and made over 3k the next day in use. Had I done it your way I would have spent days fabricating the new table. Which if anything went wrong I would have had to trouble shoot myself. So if i took that savings minus having the unit in service an extra day or two, Certainly was better to just buy the Langmuir, than build my own, and I already had the servos, linear controls etc. Also your machine didn't appear to be a complete apples to apples comparison, was yours belt driven or did it use the same linear motion setup like the Langmuir? I am all for building my own stuff, but sometimes the time sink spent developing it just isn't worth it in the end.
@@ltsky311 100% agree. If I did it over I would most likely buy! And yes it's belt driven because it's cheaper
despite everything u went through, I loved your videos and we learned a lot from you. I live in Africa Rwanda and i had ideas to start such business since real estate is booming here and providing this service can be lucrative but the cost of owning this machine is still way ahead of my time and the knowledge u had building one i don't have it but if it was something possible i would have gave it a though. i have only 1500$ on my name and building it now also is impossible from what i leaned from your videos but i am still on for the general idea start this business since i see the potential it has. looking for investors to partner with will be the deal for me. So you did well educating us on your journey that is what i wanted to say, Thank u.
@@bigice1774 just pointing out. You can build this machine for about cheaper! Or just won't be as large or versatile as mine. People have made other machines under $500
Are you by chance putting out the spreadsheet with the links for your build anytime soon?
@@michaelleon4516 I have links to a lot of the components in the description. As far as an entire, spreadsheet...or plans. Not anytime soon, but hopefully in the future
Thanks for this video. I was wondering how much it cost. I bought the XR from Langmuir. Just waiting to finish running electrical to my shop so I can use it.
@@rantiksadventure1920 I went over all if the cousins in the video lol. But I'll give you a break because it's a long one!
It ended up being around $5,200 with the majority of the cost going to the hypertherm plasma cutter
Another factor that should be considered is that a commercial piece of equipment has resale value, whereas a custom build does not. At my age, I must consider this when making the build vs. buy decision as my family will be tasked with disposing of my tools and machinery when I'm gone.
@@gaiustacitus4242 yeah that's a good point. Though, I have seen a few diy builds on market place... I always tend to steer clear of them because I'm not sure if the guy who was putting them together knew what he was doing.
@@ThyialIndustries I've watched enough videos of DIY builds to see that most home build enthusiasts know very little about mechanical and/or electrical systems design and fabrication.
Very few builders know how to ensure flatness and parallelism of the linear motion system. Of course, they are generally happy if their products are within +/- 1/32 of an inch of the design.
The wiring of most DIY builds is certain to cause random mispositioning as a result of electrical noise. That said, many of the commercial designs do not use shielded cables and electronics enclosures, either.
Even knowing how to fix any issues I may find I would be very hesitant to purchase a used DIY CNC machine.
Buying used machine tools is always a crap shoot. It's almost as bad as buying used audio cables (which is why resellers like Guitar Center will never buy them).
@@gaiustacitus4242 🤣 yes a lot of good points!
I recommend buying a used plasma table with z axis and water table for $400 like I did! That’s the way to do it. Hope that helps.🙂
🤣 that would be nice. If I could find one
Something else that has value, but you can’t put a price on; is KNOWLEDGE
If you bought the Langmuir, you rely on the business for support as long as you have that unit.
Since you built yours, you KNOW how it works forever!
@@nemesis851_ yeah, that's a good point. Probably one of the biggest reasons why I decided to build in the first place
That's definitely a major double edge sword. Less you know ever small detail but you are completely on ur own for the most part, but with langmuir you have any issues you send them a email and they help to figure everything out and possibly even send you new parts
Lifetime Warranty = lifetime of the product, or more likely ; the lifetime of the business existing (or a cloud service, or until a data breach occurs)
I recommend using a magnetic plasma holder just to be safe if the torch for some reason get stuck on a metal part it can broke and that part it’s 🤑
I have one picked out! Just waiting till I'm done with moving before I get too crazy 🤣
🤜🏻🍺👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Yes sir