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r/CNC•
audioobsessed

CNCRP benchtop pro vs PDJ Pilot Pro vs Saturn Series 2

Looking into purchasing one of these machines but leaning toward the first two because of the issues that seem to be popping up around Fine Line Automation and the manufacturing of the saturn.

CNCRP is 2' x 3' (https://bit.ly/2SUtO4z)

PDJ is 26" x 50" (https://bit.ly/2ts5icW)

Saturn is 4'x4' (https://bit.ly/2NgTkfn)

Does anyone have experience comparing these machines? Which has the better rigidity? The PDJ has nice hiwin rails but that wont matter if they aren't assembled straight. The first two are ball screw driven, the saturn is rack and pinnion.

We are a cabinet shop that ends up doing a bunch of machining as well. I would say the machine will see aluminum 30% of the time (cutting faceplates and enclosure parts), 25mm baltic birch paneling 50% of the time, and solid hardwood the other 20% of the time. The hardwood is mostly in a boring scenario (say putting 5/16 holes through 3" of hickory). Ideally one of these is something I can run at least 4-6 hours a day, 5 days a week for 2-3 years.

Any advice?

Posted Feb 16, 2019, 5:23 PM UTC

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psppb•

All three would do the job but if you get one of the pro CNCRouterParts kits you can expand it later on.

1
liqish79•

I own one of the Saturn 2 4x4 machines and I absolutely love it. The steel frame is very rigid and sturdy with the consideration of the class of machine it falls in. With that being said, I bought mine in late 2017 which was well before some of the more recent complaints have been cropping up. There is a pretty active community of machine owners on cnczone.com. Additionally, Nate the owner, is notoriously slow about responding to communication if you read the forum posts; however, from my personal experiences he was always responsive to me, and when I did break a part on the machine as a result of my carelessness, he had a new part sent overnight to me the next day.

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When I was doing the research before purchasing my Saturn 2, the CNCRP Pro machines looked to be a very excellent choice. they were are very well reviewed, and the support from CNCRP looks to be really good. In fact the only reason I ordered the Saturn 2 over the CNCRP was the all steel frame. Based on the recent forum posts, if I were to have to make the same decision today I would hands down go with the CNCRP Pro 4848.

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I cannot comment on the PDJ as I am not familiar with that company or their product. Though as far as your comment about the PDJ having HIWIN rails, the CNCRP machines also use HIWIN rails for their movement. As far as comparison on the Rack vs Ballscrew, the larger CNCRP 4848 uses a Rack and Pinion as well.

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For running a business, unless you have someone on staff that has a decent amount of experience setting one of these machine up and running it, time and effort related to support should be a decent concern. Again, I cannot speak to PDJ, I can tell you from what I have read on CNCRP they have pretty decent support.

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naser404•

No ATC upgrade :(

1