For those who have milling machines at their disposal... (not @ work) Which one did you choose & why? Does anyone have a CNC machine? If so, which one & what software do you use? ALSO... Where do you get the raw metal to use on these machines? Can you tell, I want my own Mill? (Thanks to Greg who got me to notice some are reasonably priced.)
I have a taig, the 2019CR-ER with the Xylotex 3 axis CNC board/stepper motor kit running mach 3 (www.machsupport.com). I would also suggest getting the http://www.newfangledsolutions.com/ plugins for mach, as they are very handy. This is the best priced intro desktop setup as long as you are willing to do your own initial setup. Anyone who sets up the 3 axis setup per my setup can have my setup files for mach 3 that should get you going very quickly (other than port selection and motor tuning, that is entirely up to you) For software, deskCNC works decently, as does visual mill and Bobcadcam depending on how much you want to shell out. Alibre has a free version that is fairly powerful and getting better all the time And from www.cartertools.com you generally get ~10% off list price on taig stuff. I have put probably close to 500 hours runtime on my mill in the year and a half that I have owned it... still running good. There is a local metal supplier that I use (search for alcobra metals)(call your local shops and ask if they know of any local metal reseller, they will usually sell scrap to us hobbiests) there is also metals express (google it) and online metal supply, however shipping is a killer and aluminum prices are going through the roof. Also, make friends with your local machinists, they will often let you on to play with their software after hours...
I will be purchasing a Sieg X3 from grizzly in the next couple weeks. I will be cnc'ing it with cncfusion.com's ballscrew and double ball nut kit + headstock air cylinder and gecko motor drivers. I'm also purchasing a littlemachineshop.com belt drive upgrade to reduce noise. I haven't decided which rotary table to get, but it will be cnc'ed. I haven't decided on which steppers to use though. I'll be running mach 3 as well, though I may upgrade in the future. SW 2007 for cad. I decided on the X3 because it's bigger than the taig, but still small enough to move around occasionally (~400lbs). I get materials from my school's shop, because they buy everything in bulk and I get it cheap or free from them.
To put it simply, you get what you pay for in mills. You can buy a cheap harbor freight job but you will have all kinds of slop and runout issues that can be fixed, but it does take a lot of work and some more $$$ to do it...
I bought a Sherline 4500 lathe (about $600 mail-order) and a Sherline 3480 vertical milling column (about $162 mail-order). This lets me use it as either a lathe or a mill, and Sherline has all the parts I need to upgrade it to CNC later (when I can afford it)... Carl
There is a ton of information about getting a mill for various hobbies. I made my decision based on: Price, Expectation, and Size. I wanted a mill that I could afford, for me that meant non-CNC and R8 tooling since there is lots of cheap tools available. Second was expectation, I'm not going to be making huge things, 3-6" max size, also my tolerances are not very tight. I'm not making items that my life depends on or will be used in a commercial setting. Third was size, I needed to put in into my basement. So no knee mills that weigh 2,000+ pounds. I selected a Harbor Freight "Mini-Mill" with one add on the belt drive (from littlemachineshop.com) in my mind it is a requirement, the gears are really noisy. I still wear hearing protection. Another thing that is not mentioned in many places is the larger machine, the larger the tools, the more expensive it will be. When you get a mill expect to spend as much on tooling as you did on the mill. So likely you will spend $300-$500 on tooling to use the mill. My suggestion is buy tools as you need them, if you don't have a project that needs a ball end mill don't get one. Also be realistic while a $600 vice would be great would a smaller imported one be almost as good ? Things that I have gotten lots of use from: A 2" screwless vice 3/8" end mill holder (and set of 3/8" mills) An edge finder cheap set of parallels( 1/2" to 7/8") Test indicator Also I really liked the videos from "Swarfrat.com" he uses an X2 mill not a fancy mill.
Is that the X-3? It is a good choice at the price... very popular, I hear it is out of stock in a lot of areas now. I almost went that way, but I managed to save my pennies for a Tormach. I wanted the cnc, and almost bought a cnc X3 from Syil. I still wouldn't mind having an X-3 to use for drilling and angled drilling... because I hate losing position on a standard drill press.
