- 7(X) x 7(Y) x 2(Z) inches travel capacity
- PVC Frame, Steel guide rods and precision linear bearings provide maximum accuracy and rigidity
- New Nema 17 Stepper Motor included, 2 Phase, 6 Wires, 1.3A
- M8 x 1.25 Stainless Steel Lead Screws with ball bearng end support
- Effective backlash elimination with brass Anti-Backlash Lead Screw nuts
Specifications for this item
- Brand Name
- Zen Toolworks
- UPC
- 895550002150
- EAN
- 0895550002150
- Item Weight
- 18 pounds
Product Features |
Product Details
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Product Description
Assembly instruction for this product is available online.
NOT INCLUDED - This is just the CNC machine with motors. You will need a 3 Axis Stepper Motor Driver to manage each motor, a spindle/cutter (a Dremel would work) and a DC power supply for the driver. You will also need a computer with a standard printer port and CNC software. - You will also need a way to mount and secure the spindle/cutter tightly to the Z-axis plate on the machine. We offer a Spindle Kit complete with a mounting frame for this machine. We also offer a 3 Axis Stepper Motor Driver that we use with our CNC systems.
You can see some video demos of this machine in action. Just go to YouTube and search for "Zen Toolworks CNC"
You are looking at a DIY kit of a CNC carving machine. Now you can build your very own CNC carving machine to do relief carving, letter cutting, inlay and all other interesting features to enhance your woodworking, PCB or other projects.
The body of the machine is constructed with high density PVC boards. Steel guid rod, linear bearing and stainless steel lead screws are used to construct the moving parts. The anti-backlash brass nut design will virtually eliminate all backlashes. New Nema 17 motors(2 phases, 1.3A, 6 leads) for all three axis are also included. The install is very easy, if you have a bench vise and a power screw driver, that will really help. Assembling the CNC is very fun and only takes around 3-4 hours to complete. You will be amazed by what can be achieved by this machine. Finally, you can build and own your very own CNC machine for a price that's within your budget!
Online tutorial link will be provided upon purchase.
International Customers: You are responsible for *any and all* additional fees, customs taxes, penalties, interests, charges to your shipment.Important Information
Seller Warranty Description
Seller is responsible for defective parts, no return can be accepted after assemble.
Seller is responsible for defective parts, no return can be accepted after assemble.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
120 of 123 people found the following review helpful
By astainless
Zen Toolworks DIY CNC Machine Review:
Short reviews are great but I decided that mine should be a bit longer and in depth so anyone who reads it will have a better idea of what exactly a Zen Toolwork CNC Kit is. In short It is a GREAT item. If you want a short review see below.
Short Review: A Must have. One of the Best Investments I have ever made as far as tools go. Buy it!!!
Long Review:
A MUST HAVE for anyone who wants to get started with CNC with an excellent well made precise and affordable machine. If you want to design prototypes, carve foam, plastic metal or wood (this machine is perfect for doing wood engraving as it has a fantastic detail level even when down to extremely small designs with the right bits) or even if you just want to make small custom and/or precision parts on occasion for models or RC vehicles; or perhaps just do a little custom engraving once in a while this machine is more then able to handle the task without emptying your wallet. And it's a Kit! So you get to have a great time building it!
Arrival: From the time it shipped to the time it was at my door was 2 days. I live in NJ and the CNC kit came from CA so that was very fast shipping!!!
Upon opening the box I found everything very well packed, very tight and secure. I did a parts count and everything is where it should be with a few extra screws, bolts and washers.
Parts:
The material that makes up the body of the machine is very strong. Much stronger then I would have initially though. The box must have weighted in at over 40 pounds, as the body material is very heavy and sturdy. Anything that was not made of the gray body material (such as the driver screws or the rails) was steel or stainless steel.
Quality: All parts except the motors are brand new. However in the description it does say that the motors are used. Considering that the Stepper motors are probably the most expensive part of a CNC machine this is where the real savings are as the motors while used are very well made and appear to have a lot of life left in them. I don't think I will be burning out any of these 3 motors any time soon. So everything came as described or better. For the price paid the quality can not be beat and surpasses what most people would expect for a CNC machine priced well under $1200 even under $300 as Amazon has them listed at an absurdly low $299.95. As far as CNC machines go less then $300 is near free when you compare it to others of the same size. This machines ability appears to on par and in many cases better then the "cheap" desktop models others are selling for $1100 on up. After building it and seeing what can be done I can say that this is one of the best deals out there for any type of CNC machine or tools. All moving parts have multiple ball bearings so nothing is dragging. Even after reading all the positive reviews I was still pleasantly surprised at the sturdy design and well made parts.
Ease of Assembly: All you really need is a cheap Walmart $1 Hex Key set, a small vise, a Phillips screwdriver, a power screwdriver (saves a lot of time but not really needed) and some common sense. Total tool cost for what is needed to assemble this kit if you don't have any tools at all (everyone has screw drivers right?) would be less then $30 and that is with a cheap power driver or about $10 to $15 without the power driver. The tough part is getting the small side of the driving screws to fit the ball bearings as it is a tight fit and they need to be pressed into the bearing. I found it easiest to get the driving screws into the bearings first as I do not have a drill press handy (a cheap $40 one from Sears could do it) and then use a small vise to gently press the edges of the bearings into the body parts. If you have access to any kind of drill press this can be done really easy using the press to put the driving screw into the bearing after it is in the body. It took me about 4 ˝ hours to assemble and I had to back up a few steps because I forgot to check the alignment of a few holes (this means I put a few panels on backwards because I was not paying attention) and had to disassemble a few steps back to reposition a few of the body parts about 3 or 4 times. That was my fault however. The only customization that needs to be made is a mount for your cutting tool. I have a dremel tool so fabricating something was easy enough. Even a quick fix however would be fine because once attached you can use the machine to make a better mount. I will say I had a great time just building this machine. I am already tempted to order another one just to build it. Maybe I can talk a few friends into buying them and letting me do the assembly. Everything was easy and well made and fit where it was suppose to fit. When you read the online instructions for assembly it says that you should take your time and it does not have to all be built in one day but once you start you just get into it and have such a good time that you really want to finish it all at once. This was a 0% frustration build and very fun.
You will still need to buy a power supply and driver card but they can be found cheap online. You will have to make your own interface cables for the driver to talk to the motors but it only takes about 10 min a cable (You will need 3) if you want to wrap it nice and make sure it is all insulated. This is the one area you don't want to be cheap on price or time about (I spent about an hour doing cables and about $10 for wires, tape and connectors at Radio Shack. Get the color variety pack. It helps to color code). If you cross a line you could fry out your board or your stepper motor so make sure everything is separated nicely and insulated well. Most importantly make sure you have a male/female Printer cable! I did the whole build, wires and all; and at 1:30am I was looking forward to a dry run with just a sharpie to check out the level of details that can be done and to make sure everything was working correctly after building the unit and getting all excited about running it when I realized I had no printer cable. Plus it was snowing so badly that everything was going to be closed the next day so I had to wait a few days to get one. These are all over EBay if you just type "CNC Cable" in the search so if you don't have one you can get one shipped for less then $10 if you look online. If you have any mom and pop computer shops nearby they may have one there if you look and odds are it will be free or only be a few dollars as the cables are not used much and just take up space. Everything went together really easily. Electronics as well.
Size: This is a desktop CNC Machine so it is small enough not to be in the way, about the size of a large desktop laser business printer or about 1 ˝ times the size of a desktop printer/scanner/copier and 2 times as high; which is great if you do not have a lot of room. I currently have mine sitting on a rolling laptop table and it takes up about 60% of it. 100% with the card and power supply but that is because I have it mounted to a Plexiglass base as I am in the process of building a housing for the electronics) Do not let the size fool you however. The work area sounds small on paper but once it is built there is more working room then initially thought. There are many things that can be fabricated with a machine this size that would surprise you. If you check out Youtube there are some good postings of some of the basic things this machine can do as well as a great video of a detail engraving on an aluminum block. While Zen Toolworks appears to be a young company and this CNC machine is still a fairly new product, I expect to see a lot more of these videos soon as it is the least expensive machine you can buy and one of the best investments anyone can make for their shop. This desktop CNC Machine is just big enough to make almost anything you could want a small 3 axis CNC machine to make in the work area AND the worktable is raised enough so that a larger then 7x7 item could be fabricated and/or engraved in sections without the frame getting in the way. It is small enough to be out of the way if you have a small shop or even an apartment with limited working space.
Level of Detail: The first thing I did once I got the machine built was to use a small metal bar and attached it as a mount with some screws to hold it in place and some zip ties for a pen so I could do a test run on a sheet of paper. I used Mach3 and jogged the unit manually to see how accurate it is. Jogging produced a good level of detail but the small amount of time that it takes to tap a button doesn't allow for a real test of the machines detail levels as you can not get really fine levels just manually jogging the machine. So the next thing I did was to use Mach3's Lazy Cam feature and just typed out my Fiancés name, picked a font and did a drag and drop. It took about 5 min to do the 8 letter name. I had the machine set for a fairly small font with the lettering outlined so it was a hollow letter which is why it took that long to make. The font size on paper would be similar to a #10 font size if you were to use a printer. Just using a cheap pen and only being held in place with zip ties I was able to produce an extremely accurate and very fine level of detail. No misses, skips or miss alignments. It doesn't sound like much but considering the small size and type of font once you see it done it is very impressive. To get an idea find a hollow text font and in size 10 print out a name. This machine did that with a pen and with a much thinner line going point by point without missing a beat. Let's say that after that I was very impressed. Not only was it perfectly drawn the round parts of the path where actually round and not just short lines. Read more ›
Short reviews are great but I decided that mine should be a bit longer and in depth so anyone who reads it will have a better idea of what exactly a Zen Toolwork CNC Kit is. In short It is a GREAT item. If you want a short review see below.
Short Review: A Must have. One of the Best Investments I have ever made as far as tools go. Buy it!!!
Long Review:
A MUST HAVE for anyone who wants to get started with CNC with an excellent well made precise and affordable machine. If you want to design prototypes, carve foam, plastic metal or wood (this machine is perfect for doing wood engraving as it has a fantastic detail level even when down to extremely small designs with the right bits) or even if you just want to make small custom and/or precision parts on occasion for models or RC vehicles; or perhaps just do a little custom engraving once in a while this machine is more then able to handle the task without emptying your wallet. And it's a Kit! So you get to have a great time building it!
Arrival: From the time it shipped to the time it was at my door was 2 days. I live in NJ and the CNC kit came from CA so that was very fast shipping!!!
Upon opening the box I found everything very well packed, very tight and secure. I did a parts count and everything is where it should be with a few extra screws, bolts and washers.
Parts:
The material that makes up the body of the machine is very strong. Much stronger then I would have initially though. The box must have weighted in at over 40 pounds, as the body material is very heavy and sturdy. Anything that was not made of the gray body material (such as the driver screws or the rails) was steel or stainless steel.
Quality: All parts except the motors are brand new. However in the description it does say that the motors are used. Considering that the Stepper motors are probably the most expensive part of a CNC machine this is where the real savings are as the motors while used are very well made and appear to have a lot of life left in them. I don't think I will be burning out any of these 3 motors any time soon. So everything came as described or better. For the price paid the quality can not be beat and surpasses what most people would expect for a CNC machine priced well under $1200 even under $300 as Amazon has them listed at an absurdly low $299.95. As far as CNC machines go less then $300 is near free when you compare it to others of the same size. This machines ability appears to on par and in many cases better then the "cheap" desktop models others are selling for $1100 on up. After building it and seeing what can be done I can say that this is one of the best deals out there for any type of CNC machine or tools. All moving parts have multiple ball bearings so nothing is dragging. Even after reading all the positive reviews I was still pleasantly surprised at the sturdy design and well made parts.
Ease of Assembly: All you really need is a cheap Walmart $1 Hex Key set, a small vise, a Phillips screwdriver, a power screwdriver (saves a lot of time but not really needed) and some common sense. Total tool cost for what is needed to assemble this kit if you don't have any tools at all (everyone has screw drivers right?) would be less then $30 and that is with a cheap power driver or about $10 to $15 without the power driver. The tough part is getting the small side of the driving screws to fit the ball bearings as it is a tight fit and they need to be pressed into the bearing. I found it easiest to get the driving screws into the bearings first as I do not have a drill press handy (a cheap $40 one from Sears could do it) and then use a small vise to gently press the edges of the bearings into the body parts. If you have access to any kind of drill press this can be done really easy using the press to put the driving screw into the bearing after it is in the body. It took me about 4 ˝ hours to assemble and I had to back up a few steps because I forgot to check the alignment of a few holes (this means I put a few panels on backwards because I was not paying attention) and had to disassemble a few steps back to reposition a few of the body parts about 3 or 4 times. That was my fault however. The only customization that needs to be made is a mount for your cutting tool. I have a dremel tool so fabricating something was easy enough. Even a quick fix however would be fine because once attached you can use the machine to make a better mount. I will say I had a great time just building this machine. I am already tempted to order another one just to build it. Maybe I can talk a few friends into buying them and letting me do the assembly. Everything was easy and well made and fit where it was suppose to fit. When you read the online instructions for assembly it says that you should take your time and it does not have to all be built in one day but once you start you just get into it and have such a good time that you really want to finish it all at once. This was a 0% frustration build and very fun.
You will still need to buy a power supply and driver card but they can be found cheap online. You will have to make your own interface cables for the driver to talk to the motors but it only takes about 10 min a cable (You will need 3) if you want to wrap it nice and make sure it is all insulated. This is the one area you don't want to be cheap on price or time about (I spent about an hour doing cables and about $10 for wires, tape and connectors at Radio Shack. Get the color variety pack. It helps to color code). If you cross a line you could fry out your board or your stepper motor so make sure everything is separated nicely and insulated well. Most importantly make sure you have a male/female Printer cable! I did the whole build, wires and all; and at 1:30am I was looking forward to a dry run with just a sharpie to check out the level of details that can be done and to make sure everything was working correctly after building the unit and getting all excited about running it when I realized I had no printer cable. Plus it was snowing so badly that everything was going to be closed the next day so I had to wait a few days to get one. These are all over EBay if you just type "CNC Cable" in the search so if you don't have one you can get one shipped for less then $10 if you look online. If you have any mom and pop computer shops nearby they may have one there if you look and odds are it will be free or only be a few dollars as the cables are not used much and just take up space. Everything went together really easily. Electronics as well.
Size: This is a desktop CNC Machine so it is small enough not to be in the way, about the size of a large desktop laser business printer or about 1 ˝ times the size of a desktop printer/scanner/copier and 2 times as high; which is great if you do not have a lot of room. I currently have mine sitting on a rolling laptop table and it takes up about 60% of it. 100% with the card and power supply but that is because I have it mounted to a Plexiglass base as I am in the process of building a housing for the electronics) Do not let the size fool you however. The work area sounds small on paper but once it is built there is more working room then initially thought. There are many things that can be fabricated with a machine this size that would surprise you. If you check out Youtube there are some good postings of some of the basic things this machine can do as well as a great video of a detail engraving on an aluminum block. While Zen Toolworks appears to be a young company and this CNC machine is still a fairly new product, I expect to see a lot more of these videos soon as it is the least expensive machine you can buy and one of the best investments anyone can make for their shop. This desktop CNC Machine is just big enough to make almost anything you could want a small 3 axis CNC machine to make in the work area AND the worktable is raised enough so that a larger then 7x7 item could be fabricated and/or engraved in sections without the frame getting in the way. It is small enough to be out of the way if you have a small shop or even an apartment with limited working space.
Level of Detail: The first thing I did once I got the machine built was to use a small metal bar and attached it as a mount with some screws to hold it in place and some zip ties for a pen so I could do a test run on a sheet of paper. I used Mach3 and jogged the unit manually to see how accurate it is. Jogging produced a good level of detail but the small amount of time that it takes to tap a button doesn't allow for a real test of the machines detail levels as you can not get really fine levels just manually jogging the machine. So the next thing I did was to use Mach3's Lazy Cam feature and just typed out my Fiancés name, picked a font and did a drag and drop. It took about 5 min to do the 8 letter name. I had the machine set for a fairly small font with the lettering outlined so it was a hollow letter which is why it took that long to make. The font size on paper would be similar to a #10 font size if you were to use a printer. Just using a cheap pen and only being held in place with zip ties I was able to produce an extremely accurate and very fine level of detail. No misses, skips or miss alignments. It doesn't sound like much but considering the small size and type of font once you see it done it is very impressive. To get an idea find a hollow text font and in size 10 print out a name. This machine did that with a pen and with a much thinner line going point by point without missing a beat. Let's say that after that I was very impressed. Not only was it perfectly drawn the round parts of the path where actually round and not just short lines. Read more ›
39 of 46 people found the following review helpful
By Paul
If you buy the "complete" package approximately $175 of the cost will be for the Artsoft Mach 3 software. This software is required to control the CNC. This software runs on Windows XP although there are a few ports to 32 bit Vista. AFAIK there are no 64 bit ports.
When I contacted Zen they told me I should "buy an old Pentium with XP". Fair enough - but this should be obvious up front. The "complete" package should really include a five year old computer - with a parallel port (USB to parallel will not work). So be aware, the computer you have at home probably will not work - unless you have an old XP machine in your attic.
Finally, if you post questions to the ArtSoft Mach3 support groups be prepared for very experienced folks who are very happy to give you responses that show how clever they are -but are not particularly useful.
I'm not saying this is a bad product or Mach3 is a bad product - but it does have some very significant restrictions and constraints - that are not obvious until after you buy.
When I contacted Zen they told me I should "buy an old Pentium with XP". Fair enough - but this should be obvious up front. The "complete" package should really include a five year old computer - with a parallel port (USB to parallel will not work). So be aware, the computer you have at home probably will not work - unless you have an old XP machine in your attic.
Finally, if you post questions to the ArtSoft Mach3 support groups be prepared for very experienced folks who are very happy to give you responses that show how clever they are -but are not particularly useful.
I'm not saying this is a bad product or Mach3 is a bad product - but it does have some very significant restrictions and constraints - that are not obvious until after you buy.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By C. Frederick
Amazon Verified Purchase
The kit got to the east coast in lightning time. The kit is very well manufactured, and relatively easy to put together. The documentation is new, and a little lacking, but Zen has already made improvements in the week I've had my kit. You are buying this from an American small business owner, who must spend all day on Google supporting his product. If you have a question, it will be answered directly by him, in less then an hour. It is also supported via Google groups with a forum of some knowledgeable people as well, it's very newbie friendly.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful customer support.
Just wanted to say how great Zen Toolworks' customer support is. These folks got me the part I needed, even though it wasn't part of the normal kit they sell. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Brent Thorne
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great place to start for home CNC
I wanted to learn more about CNC machines so I figured I'd start with a kit. This particular kit was the least expensive and has all the same design attributes as a large (3 axis)... Read more
Published 2 months ago by TuscolaMatt
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excited!
Just finished assembling my mill. It looks good, feels solid, and was fun to build. I'm just waiting for my stepper drivers (which I purchased from Pololu), and I'll be up and... Read more
Published 3 months ago by R. Long
5.0 out of 5 stars
More fun than a barrel of monkeys:)
Had a project that required some engraving (v-cut style), and I knew I didn't want to try to do it by hand. Ordered a 7x12 kit from Zen (actually 7. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Jason R Blakey
5.0 out of 5 stars
zen 7x7 kit
kit went together like a dream every part fit perfectly could not be more satisfied
it seems very well made
it seems very well made
Published 3 months ago by letitridek
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best DIY CNC Option for the Money
After attempting (and failing) to design and build my own CNC machine, I decided that I would learn the most by purchasing an existing kit to better understand how everyone else... Read more
Published 3 months ago by JakeD
1.0 out of 5 stars
Just a box of 300 mostly plastic parts.
I just opened this item. There is no instructions of any kind. Except for motors, nuts and bolts all parts are plastic. All I have is a shipping address, not even a phone number. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Bill
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exceptional value.
Would highly recommend this machine for the beginner. Easy to assemble, instructions clear and concise. Excellent support online for anyone wanting to get into CNC machining.
Published 4 months ago by R. Cantu
5.0 out of 5 stars
ZEN TOOLWORKS 7X7 CNC KIT
Fast delivery and good price. Assembly easy with online instructions. Extra parts included. Only problem was one screw that was threaded wrong and had ridges instead threads. Read more
Published 14 months ago by notslim
5.0 out of 5 stars
A video overview of the ZTW 7 x 12 (not 7 x 7)
Customer Video Review
Length:
1:09
Mins
Published 16 months ago by J. Cook
