Looking for a 4 or 5 axis CNC machine for a hobbyist
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Be careful using cheap routers for this kind of thing. I bought one with a 4th axis to do something similar and, although it's fine for 3 axis on light duty 4 axis sucks:
1. The 4th axis it came with is utter crap, with metal workpieces it just doesn't have the guts to hold a piece for indexing much less drive it for continuous operation through a cut.
2. There's not enough Z clearance even with the spindle backed right off to fit an A/C axis trunnion table.
I don't really trust the look of the PocketNC, just looks way too dinky and slow for me.
The cheapo 3040 style 5 axis machines out of China look like rubbish too, there's a reason there aren't many demo videos of them cutting metal and, in the ones that are, they're super slow indexed work that look and sound awfully chattery - they simply aren't rigid enough to cut clean.
On my long range project list is making a trunnion table with hypocycloidal reduction drives which have enough guts to work, and changing up my router to a box style with the gantry running along the top of the sidewalls instead of being built up from the base to get a little more stiffness and height. But I can't help but think it might be a lot easier - and probably cheaper in the end - to look at converting something like a Hafco knee mill or Optimum bench mill to CNC and mounting the trunnion on that.
Originally Posted by RCaffin
