Hi,

I'm looking for a good precision mill for cutting tiny jewelry waxes. Most jewelers seem to prefer the Model Master mill, but I have a chance to buy a Benchman mill at half the price. Would this work for me,or would the resolution be less than desirable? Please excuse my ignorance in this area!

Larry

Don't know much about the Benchman, but have you ever considered the Sherline or Taig line?

-Speed

For a low priced mill, I'd take a Taig over a Sherline any day, there's greater potential down the road if your needs change. You can make jewelry parts on either, but depending on your needs, you'll probably want higher accuracy for multisided milling.

I've got a Minitech Minimill 3 Pro which I use mainly for jewelry, I think the Minimill 2 with the jewelry package is a better deal than a ModelMaster IMHO. Minitech uses conventional components and software (Mach3) in it's mills so it's easier to get help if things go wrong. ModelMaster likes to keep things proprietary so you have to deal with them for everything.

The Benchman 1000 looks like it'd be a capable mill for jewelry, is that the one you're looking at? I'd like a higher speed spindle on it though, I use a NSK which is good up to 20K rpm although I usually am @ 12K with wax. Make sure you get a 4th axis too. I've never seen a Benchman in person and I don't know anyone who has one so I can't speak for its control software, customer service, parts etc.

I don't know what pricing is, but I've learned the hard way you get what you pay for and you don't get what you don't pay for.

Check out 3dcadjewelry.com, a forum with more info about mills from jewelers who actually use them.

Hello to anyone in CNCZone community. I have been purchased Micron mill from MODELMASTER for a year. Onething I tell to anyone that DO NOT buy from them, their machine is too lousy be buided,specialy 4th axis rotary table.Nathan.

the benchman is from light machines corp,they were good machines with a granite epoxy base

I don't have a cnc mill ---Yet! From everything I've learned in researching it myself, 5,000 rpm is just not enough for the tiny engraving bits jewelry uses. More like 20,000 or even more, is what I'm hearing. Tell me I'm wrong, but think about it, too....It's a lot of money to buy wrong.

Proxxon mf70 cnc for small work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvmLNzo3iTg&feature=related