Hey all… I’ve been lacking in updating you all on the development of our Dominator CNC machine.
I’m extremely happy to say that we’ll have our prototype at workbenchcon’25 this year. Next weekend in fact.
I’ve spent the last several days putting together the very first. Wiring up our conversion kit now on the mechanics.
I’ve already thought of a dozen different 3d printable accessories to make your experience with our machine that much better.
We carved the gantry plates few days ago out of 3/4" thick cast acrylic. This is so we can ensure it is the correct design we’re wanting and they are so nice.
The 3d printed Y plates have also gone through a couple iterations now but we’re narrowing in on the perfect design with the perfect features.
If you’re able to join us at WBC’25, please do… if not… be prepared. Now that the first machine is assembled, we’ll be ordering our aluminum plates soon.
Oh, stay tuned for pricing coming at the end of this week… and possibly even opening up for pre-orders!
So exciting!! Thank you for the update, can’t wait to add one to my shop! It looks fantastic, and it’s giving me all kinds of ideas as well, with all those 80/20 rails to affix endless things too. Soooo many fixturing/work holding ideas, I need to start a list . Thank you for everything you and your team do to create such a welcoming, educational and positive environment for makers.
I’m wondering if you’ve run analysis on the machine’s stiffness given these slotted extrusion profiles. The slots on the X axis cross-member (compared to a box-section) make me a little worried about the torsional rigidity. The AltMill and most shapeoko routers, for example, generally use box sections.
We’ve worked hard to ensure the machine is extremely rigid. Our main gantry extrusion is indeed a true 80x160mm 8020 extrusion with tons of internal structure.
In this image I’ve got one of our smaller rigidity upgrades that showcase the amount of thought we put into this machine. I’ve already sat upon the gantry, even with the acrylic gantry plates, and there is no flex. When we replace these acrylic with properly machined aluminum the rigidity will only improve.
We have similar rigidity upgrades for the bed as well. Although our image at the top shows only 3 horizontal bed extrusions, there are smaller upgrades that increase the framework and overall rigidity.
We should have the electronics fully installed either today or tomorrow and hopefully i can take a ride
The comparison of the gantry is astounding! There is nothing else remotely similar in its internal structure. That single picture truly speaks a thousand words!
I don’t know how long the Dominator X axis is but an 80/20 80x160mm 60" long would cost me $327. Ouch! But worth it.
That picture is worth a thousand words isn’t it? The advantage to the big 80/20 is mass and lots of very strong places to tap for cap screws. You can even have 80/20 cut it to length and tap it for you.
The AltMill Mk2 which is what you get now, has a horizontal piece in the middle. The Y has the same. Their engineers claim that their extrusions, which are custom for CNC are actually stronger than like sized 80/20’s. That’s what they say based on their finite element analysis models.
The XCarve Pro has 25mm ball screws on the Y, at least 16 on the X. The X extrusion looks pretty massive. In fact the XCarve looks beefier than the AltMill, the Onefinity or the Shapeoko.
It’s not necessarily apples to apples comparison. The 2020 style extrusion is designed to be a catch all solution for people who need modular structure quickly. It has a fantastic strength to weight ratio and it’s why it’s so popular and widely used. It’s also very expensive.
The other custom designed extrusions may technically be ‘weaker’ (complicated term in the engineering world - I’m simplifying here) than 2020 style extrusion, however there is always a trade off being considered. Cost is a huge one. Weight is another. Once you have your design, your die, and your fab process hammered out, a custom extrusion can likely be more cost effective for large fabrication runs.
The real challenge comes in making sure you’re not over engineering your product. It’s cool to have a CNC that can survive a nuclear strike, but if it never sees more than simple cutting forces, you just don’t need that level of strength.
Really comes down to design, application, and economics. Over engineered products are awesome, until you have to pay for them.
Here is my AltMill’s gantry extrusion… it definitely matches the 3d model i have of their machine from their website.
I agree it is custom designed for cnc machines, but dispute the claim it’s better.
There’s also a tradeoff their extrusion doesn’t have near as many strong connection points which is really our goal. We want the ability to encourage innovation in our customers and having tons of t-track and attachments points all over the machine means options for customers.
NewsVan is correct with regards to the costs. I have priced out custom extrusions and they are better long-term cost-wise, but also carry with them MoQ’s that are beyond our little business’ capabilities right now.
If we can grow larger with community support, a custom extrusion is definitely in the cards and something that I’d design to easily swap out with the 8020 extrusion we’re using today.
I never like to leave anyone behind and always try to find ways to give customers the option to upgrade.
I designed the Dominator to be the “second” or sometimes “third” machine someone would purchase. We’re all CNC-vets here and know what we want in our “next” machine. Sprinkle that with community desires and the Dominator is born.
We are working on more of a “starter” machine but that’s at least 6-mo off as we’re ramping up for the Dominator shipping in the next few months.
The starter machine’s goal is to hit a price point that invites new folks to join the hobby. Something that entices them in and allows them to get pretty far down the CNC road before needing to buy their “next” machine which is where the Dominator comes in.
I really like the idea of a “starter” or a “mechanical only” Dominator. Over the years I have built way to many controllers, just because I could, and would love to be able to purchase a mechanical only version of the Dominator and use one of these setups on it.
My last build was a Mach 4, 6 axis, ethernet controlled box that controls an x-carve that could use a new home and the Dominator would be perfect for this.
A mechanical only version of x-carve was how I was introduced to CNCs to begin with, a 500x500mm mechanical only x-carve that came with a dremel mount.
Keep up the great work on this though, and can’t wait to see honest reviews/tests on this.
. Thank you for everything you and your team do to create such a welcoming, educational and positive environment for makers.
