Society of Robots - Robot Forum
Mechanics and Construction => Mechanics and Construction => Topic started by: jj911 on November 18, 2009, 09:49:39 PM
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What cnc mill would any of you recommend?
i am going to either go with the sherline 2000 which is about 3000 dollars, or the syl x4 with would come out to around 5000 dollars.
the sherline would definetely do the job, but would not cut larger pieces. any recommendations?
EDIT: after looking more into the sieg KX3, i feel more comfortable with the price, and the size of the machine. the only problem is the spindle speed.
according to http://www.siegind.com/product.php?id=40 (http://www.siegind.com/product.php?id=40)
the max spindle speed is only 1500rpm
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I have the sieg 2x and it works really well manual with plastics and aluminum. Say good by to most steels without coolant or cnc, also the y axis is really short. I've been wanting to convert it to cnc but college takes priority.
Bane
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IMO, 1500 RPM is plenty for hobby work. I use my lathe quite a bit, and I've never ran the spindle over 1100 RPM.
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I have a Sieg X2 converted to CNC with flood coolant and I love it. Aluminum and mild steel are fine. Slow RPM is one of the bigger issues when using small end mills but otherwise it's a solid machine. If I had a touch more money, I'd have gone for the X3 to get a larger work envelop - the y axis is only 4 inches on the X2. I use EMC2 to control it and I run a GeckoDrive g540 driver with 380 oz/inch steppers and the CNC Fusion ballscrew kit. If you get an X2, you should stiffen where the column attaches to the base a bit - that plus coolant makes it far easier to run steel.
If you are willing to go to $5k in price, I'd head over to cnczone.com and ask around there. I bet you can get a killer mill for that price and they will certainly know the details. Remember that tooling can be horribly expensive. You also need a good vice for holding work as well as a dial indicator and ideally a dial test indicator. Then you get into collets, end mills, fly cutters, 1-2-3 blocks, parallels, etc. It adds up fast.
Personally, I'd set the price you are willing to spend and work backwards. Spec out your minimum tooling, then see what machine you can get with what's left. If you are frugal, you could get a 4th axis in there which makes it far easier to cut gears, pulleys, etc. Very useful all around. Saving a couple of hundred bucks elsewhere can get you the needed parts for a high-speed spindle + vacuum table for milling your own PCBs and doing high-quality engraving too. I'd also make sure you account for an enclosure and coolant - I prefer flood with a good enclosure - it both makes for higher quality work and a lot less mess to clean up. Good luck in whatever you decide!
-Mike
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I second *everything* webgeek said, good words. And I would add, be careful of some of the *deals* on cnc machines, I think many of the cnc machines are junk. But the ones you mention are popular and good buys. I have geckos too and I love them, I had the old xylotex type stepper amp and it sucked. I rarely go above 1500rpm too but I can go to 10k with my taig spindle and "Rick Lane" motor.
pics of my homebuilt cnc is at http://www.colinmackenzie.net/ (http://www.colinmackenzie.net/)