Hey all,
I’ve been looking at getting a 4th axis for my benchtop pro, but am having a very hard time justifying the $2,470 bare bones price tag (no electronics, no mounting kit). What am I getting for that price that would justify Avid over an aftermarket rotary such as the Onefinity for $675 or Scienci Labs for $431 or Chinese variant or even home made that I coiuld custom fit to my CNC?
Thanks.
Ours has a 10:1 gear reduction and a nema 34 motor (Stepper or servo) it does come with all of the mounting hardware.
Ours is production level unit that can handle whatever you throw at it:
Eric is underselling it 
I contemplated DIY’ing a rotary but eventually got the Avid. It has WAY more metal and features than I would have ended up with, because “bare bones” includes a pretty hefty reducer and chuck, plus a full independent frame made of extrusions to you can adjust it to be true to your other axes, plus very robust linear rails for the tailstock and thick aluminum plates for mounting the head and tail stocks. Plus everything you need to auto-home it to zero degrees.
Plus, it’s plug-and-play with the Avid electronics and comes with Avid’s great support team 
(I’m not saying you should buy it, that’s up to you to decide if you need what it offers. I’m just saying, the price is justified)
I have the Avid rotary (60”) installed in my Pro machine (ex, servos).
I have two things to say about it:
I have the 48” rotary embedded in my machine with a servo driving it on EX Control. It is an absolute tank! Jesse made some adapters about a year ago to replace the standard 4 jaw chuck. These allow the use of regular wood lathe chucks and jaws like the Teknatool Nova chucks. This really opened up a lot of possibilities for work holding.
The price is not cheap, but it’s a buy once - cry once deal and you’ll never regret it. I don’t know of the others you mentioned, but the weight alone dictates quality. I don’t know what the assembly weighs, but it has to be close to 40 pounds. It is very solid.