Just another small dose of reality:
You should probably start small. Your mistakes are less expensive on a small machine, and trust me, there will be mistakes.
I have never seen a machine with that work envelope using stepper motors.
I can guarantee that you can't build a machine capable of machining aluminum that size for $6K, just no way you can even buy the raw materials for that, let alone put them together.
I see two options for your price range:
If you want to build your own and learn how its done, start small, look around this site and you will learn LOTS. It will give you a better perspective on what it costs and what kind of capabilities a machine with a certain construction has. Once you have a real list of parts, you will see that $6k will dry up pretty fast.
If you want to be machining serious metal right off the bat, you will save lots of money by buying a used machine. I'm not sure what $6k will get you, maybe a nice knee mill. 2HP, work envelope around 20x12x6. Would be a lot more realistic first step. I know there are a lot of nice VMC's going for around $15k on ebay and the like.
Start reading around here and you will get up to speed.
Good Luck
Matt  |