As Stepper Monkey said, you're not going to get this thing CNC'd for $500 (unless you score a bunch of stuff for free). You'll be mildly hard pressed to get it going as a reasonably equipped manual mill for $500 I think, but doable.
I have a HF Micro Mill (Sieg X1), and this was my initial purchase list to get me going for manual milling operations:
From LMS:
2249 Spare Parts Kit (Micro Mill) 19.95 $ 19.95
3088 Cutting Fluid, Re-Li-On 4oz 3.95 $ 3.95
2034 Drawbar, 2MT x 3/8-16, Micro Mill 9.95 $ 9.95
1242 End Mill Set, 6 Piece 2 Flute 15.95 $ 15.95
2653 Starter Kit, Micro Mill 73.95 $ 73.95
1243 End Mill Set, 6 Piece 4 Flute 16.95 $ 16.95
From ebay or LMS:
Set of MT2 collets
2" screwless vice
And that was just basic stuff to get started, and didn't include the items I already had from owning a lathe (drill bits, calipers, micrometer, files, etc).
A lot of fun when you go get it to the usable point, and start making your first cuts though!
Now I just need to get my CNC'ing done...
Cheers,
David  |