It sounds like a small mill will work for my purposes. I am not interested in building the mill myself. People are saying that we should shy away from sherline as most of our cutting will be aluminum with some being stainless or brass. The Taig was recommended but all the sites I keep seeing it looks like we would have to add controllers etc. to it to get it to work.

Is there any links to something like a sherline that is a little better for cutting hard metals and comes as a complete package.

Thanks

It sounds like a small mill will work for my purposes. I am not interested in building the mill myself. People are saying that we should shy away from sherline as most of our cutting will be aluminum with some being stainless or brass. The Taig was recommended but all the sites I keep seeing it looks like we would have to add controllers etc. to it to get it to work.

Is there any links to something like a sherline that is a little better for cutting hard metals and comes as a complete package.

Thanks

look into the sieg kx1 / smithy 516 / novakon nm70 machines. they are all basically the same machine and are quite capable in aluminium and even stainless as a few people have shown.

novakon offeres a number of configurations from about $2900 with no control box to about $3800 with a 3 axis contron WITH software. they have 4th axis kits coming for an extra $100 which includes drive and rotary table.
http://novakon.net/3.html

i have one of these i set up with a geck g540 and have been doing some small tests and it seems to happily eat aluminium and is quite accurate as well. ill be milling my first useful part in the next week or so (waiting on an home built enclosure and tooling).

The BEST BUY in starter CNC is the $1700 DG1 Taig/Gecko. Some assembly/hookup is required, but you essentially get a ready-to-go reliable and capable CNC mill ready to connect to your computer and make chips.

http://deepgroove1.com/cncmill.htm

CR.

The BEST BUY in starter CNC is the $1700 DG1 Taig/Gecko. Some assembly/hookup is required, but you essentially get a ready-to-go reliable and capable CNC mill ready to connect to your computer and make chips.

http://deepgroove1.com/cncmill.htm

CR.

ive read a few posts about him not having the greatest support and the like. not sure if they were the rarity or the norm though. dont know anything else about him.

for the price though, if it meets the needs, its pretty nice.

Don't buy the DG1 $1500 in house controller version. HE DOES NOT WARRANTY his controller and it is crap. The Superb little Taig mill is warranted by Taig. The marvelous GECKO controller is warranted by Gecko. The only thing DG1 suppies in the $1700 version are a box, PSU and some cables. THESE have no reported problems, and if they did, they are relatively cheap items to replace.

CR.

I purchased another Taig and this time straight from Deep Grooves site. It has been three months now since I ordered it and he still can't help me get it running. I have tried every thing to get the steppers to run and not just chatter. I even sent the big aluminum box back to him. He said he changed some things and sent it back to me. It came today, I plugged it in and only the Z axes wants to think about working right. Any ideas out there?
Rich

now, i'll start by saying that i'm not at all familar with the particular unit that your working on, but if you say that the steppers are chattering, it almost sounds like thier cogging, or missing steps. My first thoughts are that the drive voltage/current isnt high enough, or that perhaps the steps are too fast... the only other thing that i can think of is if there is something thats keeping them from turning.. are the motors on or off of the machine?

I purchased another Taig and this time straight from Deep Grooves site. It has been three months now since I ordered it and he still can't help me get it running. I have tried every thing to get the steppers to run and not just chatter. I even sent the big aluminum box back to him. He said he changed some things and sent it back to me. It came today, I plugged it in and only the Z axes wants to think about working right. Any ideas out there?
Rich

Rich,

If you're using Mach 3 and windows XP, have you gone through all the Mach 3 optimizations in Windows XP? These are VERY important with many PC's out there.

Dave

Hi;
I bought a taig from Deepgrove about 8 months ago with his controller. It set around for 7 months before I got around to setting it up. When I did I found that the controller was not working properly. I sent it in for repair Paul sent me a new controller at no charge.
It works as it should.
I would say that Deepgrove has treated me well.

Hi;
I bought a taig from Deepgrove about 8 months ago with his controller. It set around for 7 months before I got around to setting it up. When I did I found that the controller was not working properly. I sent it in for repair Paul sent me a new controller at no charge.
It works as it should.
I would say that Deepgrove has treated me well.


Maybe you could help Rich "tbrich" figure out what's up with his since yours is working perfectly?

Dave