I have used an old bridgeport vertical mill for some time now to produce small motorcycle parts. It works great for the most part, however for repeat jobs where precision is required, logos etc, it can difficult especially on intricate shapes.

I realize the Taig 2019 CNC is nothing by compare to the bridgeport in terms brute force. However would it be a worthwhile investment? I have experience with CAD, however the CAM aspect will be a first.

Anyone else on the same level? Any remarks on the learning curve?

Also, for the price, are there any other offerings I should consider over the taig?

I actually also make aftermarket motorcycle parts with some of the tools in my shop. I havent owned a taig before, but I did have a cnc harbor freight micro mill that I did use. I found it would not even come close to being profitable for the parts I was making. Too slow, not rigid enough, and unless all I was doing was engraving it wasnt worth it. Now for home shop stuff or one offs for myself it worked ok as time wasnt as big of an issue.

If retro fitting the BP for cnc is not an option I would consider going to the X3 mill, which is what I have now and is much more capable of machining out parts quicky, and in volume.

Time isnt a huge issue, mostly it will be used for designs such as cutting a 2" Suzuki pattern into 1/2" 6061 etc. I would like to be able to be able to perform repeat operations where I can cut using one size end mill to perform the entire operation. Mostly it will be for my own enjoyment, but over the next year or so, it would have to pay for itself at the very least.

I looked into retro'ing a BP, its just more of a head ache than I have time to deal with.

I did look into the X3 however its about twice what I am willing to spend. It does look as though build quality is significantly better.

The other thing, just out of curiosity, why is it that it is nearly impossible to find online images of parts made using a taig mill?

I did some additional research... The X3 is a pretty generic mill (funny what I would find if I stopped for a second to read)

I can purchase harbor freight version (PN93885) for 1029$. I can also purchase the conversion kit for between 550-900$. Everything else can be purchased from xylotex for 425$.... Unless I am forgetting something this only puts me above my initial budget by about 500 tops.

Seems like a win-win situation, more powerful mill, better steppers (425oz vs 280) and It lets me get my hands dirty.

I would concur that for general motorcycle parts use, an X3 would be the best choice, much more flexible for doing larger jobs in the future, but for the job you describe here a Taig is well more than up to that task and can be had complete and ready to run for well under $2K with Mach software included. Even if the Taig were only dedicated to light badge manufacturing it would pay for itself rapidly, a good way to "bootstrap" into CNC - paying for itself and maybe a larger mill as well eventually.
I have a Taig and find it is an amazing machine, probably the best bang for the buck of any machine out there - bar none - with a cutting capacity that is quite surprising for a machine that small, though certainly not quite up to the big mills capacity. My Dad's X3 will cut things all day that the Taig could not, or would be too painfully slow at for production. Alloy badges are no problem for either of them to rip right through.

i think you will find for the extra money you will have a machine very capable of doing lots of different things. It will prob be a little much just for engraving parts, however I am sure you will much more uses for it :)

I do have future plans for it, that is certian. I was just using "engraving" as an example. If It could handle cutting the entire part all together and replace most manual aspects that would be excellent. I went ahead and purchased an X3... now to begin gearing up for the conversion. Hope I made the right decision!

Thanks for the help

wow! you dont waste any time at all!!! you wont be disapointed with the mill IMO.

here is a pic of my set up
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?p=302144#post302144

although this is an older pic before I was finished the conversion so dont mind the mess.

here is a pic of a triple clamp that was made on a X3 cnc set up. This all of the same part just went through different polishing stages...

No, I really didnt waste much time at all. I decided that anything less substantial would be sub-par to my requirements. I figured if I waited much longer, my mind would change yet again.

With the large amount of collective knowledge on the X3 conversion how hard can it be?

I see you went with the KDN conversion kit... the CNCfusion premium ball screw kit is probably the direction I will be heading.

Do it right the first time, or do it right the second.

Also, forgot to mention your setup looks very nice... perhaps one day I will be in the same position as you.

Your top clamp looks quite professional as well, do you have any more pictures or even perhaps video of your machine at work?

How long did the conversion take, final build cost, anything you would do differntly?

I've been to his shop, and its really a nice setup.. i dont think he's gotten to the taking video stages yet.. other projects and whatnot... i cant say as to what he spent, but i do know that he ordered most of his system put together for him from somewhere...

Yes I went through KDN, I ordered the gecko vampire drivers, stepper (276oz/in for X&Y and 400ish for the Z) and powersupply through automation direct. All of my electronics were shipped off to Ken, and came back to me in an nice enclosue already to run. the motors were all wired up perfectly and were basically plug and play. I had to install the ball screws, motor mounts for all 3 axis.

The triple clamp was actually cut out by Ken on his X3 cnc, which he does do some awesome work! the polishing was done in my shop later.

I have only had my mill up and running for a couple months right now and I havent really made anything on it. I did hook up a pen to the spindle to test out some drawings but I am short on material right now to really cut anything. I ordered in some other equipment to work with plastics and that has taken up some time, as well as a kit car build.

I have some parts that I sell on www.kosracing.com that you can see although they are pretty basic parts, some are anodized as well.

The biggest thing I would have done differently would have gone with a 4th axis and a better motor for the mill that has a little more power. I will probaby do that later on though. I still need to build the enclosure for the mill and finish the plexi enclosure for the laptop.

The last mod i need to do to the mill is cut a hole in the Z column so the ball screw can travel inside it some to increase my travel, as I did loose some travel installing the screws on the Y axis.

I dont know the full cost of conversion as I had done it over a couple of months. The Z axis is mounted inside the back enclosure of the mill, so I had to grind out the back of the mill for the motor to fit, which is different from the cnc fusion kit as they use a pulley system. This is my second cnc mill, and I had the same sort of set up on that one as well, so I steered away from any pulley set up, and went with a direct drive....that is just personal preference though.

The ballscrew kit from KDN was already preloaded and functioned flawlessly, they are not the ground ball screws, but as of right now they seem to be perfect. Using mach3 the tables rapid at around 70 IPM very smoothly.

My last mill i used the xylotex board for and the stock lead screws, so on this project I upgraded both and I am very glad I did.

Think i covered your questions but if you have any more just let me know.

Dan

Thanks for the elaborate write up, I could not have asked for a better response.

In the not wasting any time mentality, I ordered the conversion kit.

I decided to go for the "Premium" precision ballscrew conversion kit from CNCfusion.

So guess this just leaves motors, drivers and the powersupply, any suggestions?

Do you find the 276 oz/in X,Y steppers to be adequate? With the ballscrews it should be alot more efficient, so I wont need to go for the 425 oz/in steppers as I had planned initially....any thoughts?

Thanks
-Greg

I went through automationdirect.com for my steppers and power supply. I will have to hunt for the part numbers if you want.

After some discussion with Ken, we decided that the 276 would be more than enough for me to go with on my X and Y, and the 400+ for the Z. The reason we went with those is that, is like you mentioned the ball screws are much more effecient, fit in the budget and overall make it a very nice machine.

Thats awesome that you have already went ahead and purchased everything..you are not far away now! what drivers do you plan to use?

At the moment I think I am heading in the same direction as you. Likely I shall go with Gecko 203V's as they seem to be fairly redundant, making them almost safe in my possession.

What are you using for a power supply?

Im in a little over my head here, but Ive learned a great deal so far.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36678

CR,

The link above steps though what I am doing on my mill. Gecko 203V, power supply, board, etc. one of the board members Richards is detailed some information that I am following. It includes parts and pictures.

Smitty