A desktop CNC router takes your designs from screen to physical object with a level of precision and repeatability that hand tools can’t match. Inlays that would take hours by hand take minutes. Repeating a design fifty times is no harder than doing it once. And the machine doesn’t get tired at 11pm when you’re rushing to finish a batch.

But choosing your first machine is confusing. The market ranges from €200 kits that arrive as a box of aluminum extrusions and stepper motors, to €2,000+ turnkey machines with automatic tool changers. The spec sheets don’t tell you what matters for the kind of work you actually want to do.