A few months back, I made the leap into the world of CNC machines. I spent a lot of time looking at different options beforehand and comparing costs. The ShapeOko 2 has the lowest cost to entry of any that I could find, without building my own from scratch (which is a LOT more work).
The ShapeOko 2 comes as a kit that you put together. This sounds pretty daunting, but you don’t have to have any specific knowledge of CNC mills to build it. There are fantastic instructions online and a very active forum of users that are extremely willing to help you if you run into problems.
Personally, I would recommend this machine to anyone interested in 3d carving.. Watch the video for more info, and if you’ve got any more specific questions, leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them!