Bought March 2017.
I ummm and arrrghed and thought and dithered and procrastinated about buying a CNC since inventables started sending out CNC’s to various makers for over a year and a half. The issue was and still is, I did not really want to build one as you have to do with the X-Carve and also by the time I convert to NZD, pay for shipping, plus import duties and then pay GST on top of all that it became very expensive very quickly.

Then I came across a small business located in the small west coast town of Westport called Vertigo Technologies Ltd who assemble CNC’s and the price range was comparable to what the X-Carve would have been. And I have the advantage of local garantees and support. Finally the machince comes fully built all I have to do is plug it in and learn how to drive it. However I still dithered…

Then they put it on special taking $400 off the price, and they threw in free shipping with in New Zealand so you know it twisted my arm. And those that follow me on facebook know I like blue… So guess what will be showing up in my basement in the near future…

I also bought the laser head for it as well so it is going to be interesting in the months to come what will be produced. The hardest part is definitely going to be learning to drive the design software which they recommend FUSION 360.

So the same size or carparable size X-Carve in NZD would a $2300.00 now add shipping which I can only estimate to be at least a couple of hundred. So $2500.00 import duties is probably and other couple of hundred so we are $2700.00. and now add 15% GST which is $405 so we have a total of $3105.00 and as stated i would then have to build it once it arrived.

I got the M1 with the Laser cutter head for around the same price. Its built and has the laser, and I have local consumer guarantees and warranties etc. I am also supporting a local company.

Tool Sponsors
Now those that get upset with tool sponsors and all that … I bought this with my own money, Vertigo Technologies Ltd were kind enough to ship it for free and I got a bit of a discount on the laser cutter head.

I have bought all my tools with my own money… including my Bosch Glide Saw… yes I got emails complaining that I was a sell out and sponsored by Bosch… no I bought that with my own money as I have bought the M1 CNC.

Vertigo CNC M1
We have Designed the Vertigo CNC M series machines with simplicity and ease of use in mind, our CNC’s are shipped completely assembled and ready to be used right out of the box.

The M series CNC’s are capable of machining materials such as wood, plastic, carbon fiber & aluminium.

The M1 has a cutting area of 610mm wide x 610mm deep x 75mm high (you can use a 75mm tool and still have 75mm of clear Z axis travel!), meaning you’ll have a large working area for cutting and machining your designs. The overall size of the CNC is 750mm wide x 750mm deep.

The M series uses lead screw drives instead of belts (which is what the X-Carve has) this means it can’t slip like belts can and do and it is more accurate. From Vertigo’s website;

Vertigo Technologies Ltd

We have chosen a different way to drive our machine, using lead screw rather than belts that have been used in CNC machines of the same class. We have found that opting for the lead screw design gives us superior tolerance and accuracy over belt driven machine. The M series CNC’s utilise high quality 10×10 acme lead screws and custom designed anti-backlash nuts to help increase both precision and wear resistance over other similar CNC’s on the market. After rigorous testing with different types of stepper motors we have opted to use a 0.9-degree NEMA 23 stepper with 400 steps per revolution, high precision, high power and low current draw per phase which helps keep our DRV8825 drivers nice and cool.

Specifications: