Look like some pretty decent Chinese imports. The 4x8 has hiwin rails, Italian spindle, servo drives (1600ipm!) and vacuum table for $17k. Out of stock. Will be interesting to see if the can actually get some available to sell.
The 2' x 3' looks like a machine sold under the Legacy brand some years back. With 3 hp spindle and over 300 ipm cutting that is impressive for the price.
I took a closer look at this machine and found that it has a single stepper drive for the y axis center located. A little disappointed that it is not dual y drives at this price range.
Grizzly makes some adequate machines. They are usually me-too type machines that a Chinese factory makes for other companies. Grizzly just orders the off the shelf machines with a few features they want and there you have it. As I said they make adequate machines but not the best. If just ok is good enough then Grizzly is your maker. I have had a few Grizzly machines over the years but I have always sold them and got something better. I am not knocking them but just realize they make middle of the road machinery, not too bad not too good.
IF you are considering buying a CNC Router then you need to figure out your purpose before picking out a machine. If you are going to make hobby level stuff then a Shapeoko will do you. If you are going to go into production then other machines are better for you. The real issue for CNC machines if the CAD/CAM software. There are speciality programs for cabinet makers, there is Vetric Software for 3d carvers. There are countless others like Solidworks, Fusion 360 and many many others but they require a lot of training and a lot of time to master. The pay verrsions of CAD/CAM software is from $300.00-several thousand depending on the features and the number of users.
So figure out what you want, then shop and compare, then buy the machine and the software.
Or do (read DON'T) like I did. Saw one work and said "I want one of those" and ordered without doing much research and checking. Once I saw what was involved I wished I didn't jump in so quick. But not being able to let it collect real dust (not sawdust) because I like my wife and didn't want to give her a reason to harp and chastise and say "I told you so" I slowly started a new learning curve. Thanx to forums like this one and the very good people (that's my admittance I needed you guys) willing to help I can do some basic things. Like gdonham1 says -- do your research and decide what you want to do or need ................... and then go at least 1 size bigger.
I like lurking here to learn, commenters provide insight based on knowledge and experience given freely. Thank you.
I know what I want based on many hours of videos, readings and questions. Just a matter of getting my ducks, i.e. dollars, in a row.
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