When I bought my ShapeOko2 mechanical kit for US 300 I paid 100 shipping and 90 on import taxes. At the time the added value to surrounding components was less than today. An Arduino, shield, stepper drivers, emergency stop, cooling fan, wiring etc can be found locally at the same price level of Inventables but without the shipping and taxes. My ShapeOko2 with NEMA17 motors is performing well for what I do with it.
Today is a different situation, you can still choose to go for an Arduino but the X-Controller delivers 4A against 2.2A max for the Pololu 8825 steper drivers and you still have to do all wiring yourself. The X-Controller makes life easier and you do not have to make all the mistakes I made before your machine works. Downside is that it will cost you more on shipping and taxes.
So you still can go cheap, a mechanical kit is less than the US 300 I paid and you get better parts than before. Add your Arduino to stay on the cheap side OR you pay more and get more, no reaon to feel bummed about.
Sent them an email on wednesday still no responce! 
I didnāt think they shipped out until the end of September. Theyāve usually been fairly quick to respond when I first emailed them about some questions I had. Hoping they can get back to me sometime today.
hmm wide maker slide? What is that? Sorry new to cnc machines, hence why I was so excited to order one!
Actually nvm I think it is one of the upgrades to the new xcarve, makes it stiffer I beleive?
Still no response! Hoping it is just because they are busy
Being neighbors with USA you still have it better than most.
As others have noted international shipping is killer (especially after conversion rates).
Mine was $487.07 shipping ($650 AUD).
Whole thing including shipping was $1,742.97 which works out to $2,325.99 AUD, that bit me quite hard as I totally forgot about conversion rates and freaked out when I saw a massive hole in my bank account.
Hi @KaseyHellawell I am so sorry we didnāt respond the same day. I looked up the case and it was accidentally assigned to someone that was on vacation. I just responded and will alert Phil of the issue.
Iām also going to bring this situation to the head of our marketing department to see what we can do about adding a Canadian distributor to help reduce the cost of shipping. My guess is if we ship a truckload at once it will be cheaper than individually shipping each unit from the US.
Weāll send a case of maple syrup back with the truck!!! 
Thank you kindly for the reply! I sent a reply to the email! Hoping we can figure something out!
Thank you!
If I opt to not get the dewalt 611 and purchase it locally, where can I find the mounting hardware?
Yeah I just saw that. Looks like Iām better off gettin it here! What credit cards do they accept? I see visa and Mastercard but donāt reconize the rest. It seems like they do not accept Visa debit cards as mine refuses to work.
KaseyHellawell, I also went down this path and found an alternative.
check out http://openbuildspartstore.com/ and http://www.openbuilds.com/
cheers from downunder Aus
you just need a friend to ride with you and share the driving!
Man do I know how you feel, I paid the near two grand Canadian for my X Carve, without the waste board, and donāt forget the custom fees.it was rough justifying the purchase as I am just a hobbyist. Believe me it was worth it. The quality of the build material is tops in my book. I also bought a lazier upgrade from Jtech, having issues with that but thatās a different story. Even with that I am super happy with the purchase. I do not regret it for one second.
Did they ship it usps ?
Hey thanks for keeping track and helping out! After multiple hours on the phone with my bank and multiple emails to inventables I was finally able to figure everything out and purchased the new xcarve! They took good care of me! I just hope it ships soon!
I sure hope so! I was originally going to buy the old xcarve as it was on sale and was what I could afford. I had to scrape all my pennies together to afford the new ONE! Iāve already got a few projects Iād like to do. And a few people interested in having work done! Came up to about 2000$ canadian by time I was done. I had to remove the wastebaord sideboard clamps and all of the bits though
Also thank you for being an active member of this community! Seeing all of your beautiful projects has given me tons of inspiration.
Welcome to gang my fellow Canuck !
Iām hoping to get mine in the next few weeks as wellā¦ fingers crossed. Look forward to seeing your projects on the forumā¦