Honestly i have no real 'need' for a cnc mill, it is more of a 'want'... I have been thinking of making a couple of enclosures for my nixie tube clocks, probably out of aluminum or wood. I would like to make small circuit boards using a proxxon tool as a high speed spindle. Also I would like to make some small flashlight parts out of aluminum on a mill with a rotary table, but i would think that the programming for that would take a long time to master.
I don't mind taking small cuts in things due to the smaller motor and less mass of the X1, but i have read up that there is more to it than that. I have read that for some metals sometimes it is not good to take too shallow cuts because of heat or something like that, and for that you need to have a heavy duty machine.. But to be honest with myself probably the only metal will be aluminum...
from what i see on smithy's page the 622 (KX3) has a work cube of 11" x 5.25" x 10" while the 516 (KX1)has a work cube of 9.45" x 4.3" x 9.45". It looks like around an inch less in each dimension is lost going from the Kx3 down to the KX1. That would be acceptable to me, since i am looking mostly at making smaller things (altho bigger is always better)... I do have a CNC router table that i can use for larger things made of soft material, however i have to hump the thing out to the garage to use it and bring it back inside when im done so i dont have rust issues, so it gets used not much... That is why i am looking for a little CNC mill. I measured and i would have to remove some overhead cabinets to have the height clearance for the KX3/X3 mills, the KX1 would sit niceley on the workbench that i have now... I was originally attracted to the X3/KX3 (but the size of the mill has been an obstacle), but then after seeing the nice things lots of people on here have been doing with a taig, the idea of a smaller mill doesnt look too bad.
My question i guess should be is it worth to have the 'convenience' of the smaller mill that can be moved easily, will fit the space with room to spare and costs around $1000 less, or is it worth it to go for the bigger mill, bigger $$, which will be a little cramped but will probably be a substantially more capable machine for future 'expansion'? I have been very impressed with what i have seen hoss do with his x2 monster, but i know i wouldnt have the time to build a machine like that.. From the pictures, it looks like the KX1 may have a more sturdy column then the X2, more similar to the X3 than the X2. I dont know if that will translate into being more or less rigid than the X2, but if it is strong enough to do accurate work in aluminum, pcb's (with appropriate spindle), it sounds pretty attractive. If it can do anything at all in steel (even slowly), that's a nice bonus...  |