Been lurking in the background for a couple of weeks, great site. I have a zillion questions but will start with only a few:) I am interested in buying a Lathe-master mill, it seems to meet the size requirements i need. I make allot of motorcycle parts, and recently got onto making model steam engines.Would you recommend this machine? whats good and bad? Would it be possible to fit a conversational control , for 3 axis machining?


http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/9733/7045webfrontuh8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

As always, the money tree, did not produce much this fall, so one thing at a time. I have looked at used 2 and 3 axis retrofit Bridgeport's, but the good ones are way to much for me, and i really don't have that much space.Any help and/or advise will be very much appreciated, thanks.

WOW, not even a welcome, thanks for all the help and infrmation:stickpoke

I know nothing of these smaller mills, is fitting a conversational control that strange of an idea? As a machinist running many kinds of larger CNC's for over 20 years, i miss not machining at work now, so a small mill at home would be great, thought this was the place for some advise:confused:

Welcome to the board and the addiction. Its like my old boss at the machine shop said its like crack, once you start you dont want to stop, you want more and more and its expensive at times. Some of the programs have conversational functions to them, i know that Mach 3 has some stuff available for it that is conversational, pockets, islands, hole rows, etc. There are alot of people that know more about this than me though so I'll let them chime in about options.

Thanks Max, yeah, i didn't really think i would miss it so much, but it's something you take very much for granted.When working in the garage i have lost count of the times i have said, damn i wish i had a mill :) So the search is on. I will find something eventually, i don't mind doing my own retro-fit etc, i know nothing of how to do this however, i hope to get the info from here,should that be the route i take.Still researching, i had no idea there was so much out there to choose from.Later.

ne-oubie,
cnczone seems to get pretty light traffic most days, so responses are sometimes slow in coming.
Do yourself a favor, and look at a couple of other options. First, the Industrial Hobbies mill (www.industrialhobbies.com). It's very similar to the Lathemaster, but with a much larger work envelope, and *much* beefier construction. Cost-wise, if you factor in shipping cost, it's not a lot more money. Trust me, you don't want to make the mistake of under-buying here. It'll cost you more in the long run.
I recently struggled with the same decision. I have a mini-mill I CNC'd but I long ago outgrew it. I wanted something bigger, and didn't want to find myself a year from now wishing I'd gone just a little bigger. After figuring out exactly what I wanted to do with it long term, including a first-rate CNC conversion, I ended up spending a bit mroe money, and springing for one of these:
http://www.metalorwood.com/store/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=15587
I'm hoping it'll show up in the next few days. With this machine, if I do outgrow it (which I can't even imagine), I'll *never* have the space or budget for anything bigger. I'll have $7K in it by the time I have all the tooling, vise, rotary table, collets, clamps, VFD, CNC conversion parts, etc., but I know it'll be able to do anything I'll ever need to do.

Regards,
Ray L.

Ray

That link made firefox flipout here, in fact the process needed to be killed in a rather brutal way. Anyone thinking of buying there might want to check that sites security certificate. Possibly it's just poorly coded, giving firefox problems. otoh my computer could be having a 'moment'. Thought a heads-up was warranted in either case.

Ray

That link made firefox flipout here, in fact the process needed to be killed in a rather brutal way. Anyone thinking of buying there might want to check that sites security certificate. Possibly it's just poorly coded, giving firefox problems. otoh my computer could be having a 'moment'. Thought a heads-up was warranted in either case.


That's kinda wierd.... Works fine in IE. Anyway the mill I got is a Birmingham BP1649C, which is a full size knee mill with Taiwanese head and Chinese base for $3775 delivered, only a little more than the IH with variable speed.

Regards,
Ray L.

Strange stuff indeed. If I choose to accept the sites security certificate it works fine. Guessing the certificate is self assigned or issued by an authority my browser does not recognise. Invalid or expired certicates pop up occasionally but this is the first time in several years of mozilla/firefox use that the browser has reacted so violently to this issue. Hopefully it doesn't become a trend.

Sorry for dragging this thread OT.

Link worked fine for me, anyway, thanks for the tips Ray, i have gone back and forth on the full size consideration, and your right long term it's a better deal,even after the retrofit.I really do not have that much space, but i guess i could make the space. Not having to worry about limitations is always a good thing, but no machine is going to be big enough, sometimes:rolleyes: I really only want to do smaller parts now, thats why i was thinking a smaller machine.I had looked at the IH turnkey system, but i don't what to spend that much in one shot.As i said earlier, i think it would be fun to do my own retro.just not a clue where to start on the electronics side.For me, i have ran many CNC machines, and when there working, great, but if something goes wrong, the systems guys fixed it, and then back to pushing buttons.A machine that does 2 1/2 axis machining with a conversational control will be fine for what i need. Actually,I really liked the MX3 Prototrack from Southwestern Industries i ran for some time, very user friendly, and you could run offline if needed.I will keep looking,no desperate hurry, just want to make sure i buy right.

just my experiences on this.. i went with the grizly x3 cause it was on sale at the time i was ready to buy, and i got a cnc fusion ballscrew kit, geckos and mach3, absolutely more machine than my skills can use right now.. plenty big enough for anything i'm gonna need.. oh sure i'd love to have a full size briggy, but i just didnt have the $$$

with everything all setup, and running a 48v powersupply, i'm getting reliable rapids of 270IPM and can cut t6061 with amazing(to me anyway) speed and accuracy... if i draw it, it can cut it.. now i'm looking into a 4th axis.... dont forget to factor in a coolant system of some sort, it'll help you in the long run and will let your endmills live longer.. i'm using everything from a 1inch 4 flute all the way down to a 1/32 inch, and they all work beautifully...

That X3 has a lot to offer for the price, and after a cnc conversion, would be just the ticket:) I am pretty naive as to what people use for programing, thats why i would like to go with a conversational control, i really don't want to have to draw my part, have to generate tool paths etc, then import to the machine.Am i way off base expecting too much? The machine controls i used to run, could do very complex parts without the use of a cad system,yes they have made things easier/better, just not convinced i need it at home for what i will be doing. Thanks for the replies, hate to ask again, but does anyone have a small mill running from a non cad system PC based control?

I would consider a Tormach mill, unless the process of retrofitting itself interests you.
Certainly you can be up and producing parts quickly.

I did a conversion of a PRAZI mill, interesting and challenging, learning experience but not cheap, nor quick.

I also did a lathe, cnc a PRAZI as well.

I now run the tormach and the lathe and am making parts. I use alibre for design and sprutcam and visualturn to generate code

Hope this is helpful
Wayne