Quote Originally Posted by Don McLean View Post
I wrote a big long post with responses to a number of quotes but then realized that it was overkill.

We really don't know what it is you want to cut with the CNC router part of this.

You could do some very nice wood carvings at a very slow speed with a hybrid machine, but forget about aluminum.

If you could give some more details and perhaps some pics of the cad files of what you want to make and what you want to cut exactly, the advice would be more relevant.

Trakyan, you are overly optomistic. Also, when you bump up to a router, things cost alot more. The speed of a filament printer is slow compared to a proper CNC router and very very slow compared to a commercial laser. IMO, filament printers are not made as spartan as they are in order to increase speed, they are made this way to reduce cost, and because beefier components aren't necessary to achieve the goals.

Unless you are talking about an XY area that is very large, I don't see an advantage in combining the two machines, and I think you would be better off to keep them separate.
People can and have milled aluminium with converted 3d printers. I'm not saying it was ideal, I'm just saying it's doable. Check out thomas sanlader's video where he converted his mendelmax to a cnc. The "router" was the bit that gave out in the end, since he was using a rotary tool not proper router. That being said, you can do better than a mendel style frame for milling. And I don't know what sort of desktop routers you're thinking of that have higher travel speeds than 3d printers, they usually go a fair bit slower as they have to cut through material as they move, 3d printers don't face any noticeable resistance when they move. That aside, a lot of them are powered by lead screws of some sort (acme, ballscrew) which limits their speed compared to belts.