Capabilities of mini mill @ $2500

[jl123]

Hello, I want to get into milling and am looking to buy a mini mill for around $2500US. I'd wondering what all a mini mill is capable of doing. I'm a newbie to this stuff. Will a mill cut all the way through a block or cut throught sheet metal or would I need a flojet or laser cutter?

Can a mini-mill do something like this?

I'm want to be able to mill copper and aluminum.

Thanks!

[Com]

$2500 is more the enough, I own a mini mill that cost £250 new and it can cut aluminium etc, Im sure you will be able to cut somthing like that with a mini mill, although you will probably have to cnc the mill to get somthing like that made.

[jl123]

Yeah I'm looking at a cnc mill. Know of a place to buy bits from?

[JFettig]

For a cnc, depending on what exactly you want, that could be done, I buy a lot of my end mills from jtsmachine. Do you have experience with these machines?

Jon

[jl123]

Nope, just getting into this. Just to simplify my reason for posting...what bits would I need to make something like in that picture I linked to?

[WayneHill]

Can you give us more information about the part?
What is the size of the part and material?

Without specifics, Two larger endmills to do the roughing and finishing.
And two smaller endmills to rough and finish the details.

Drills for the holes. Can use an endmill for the counter bores.

And a good CAD/CAM system to make it all work

[ViperTX]

Following Wayne....you'll need to CNC the mini-mill or whatever mill you use...depends on the size of the part and material type. At a minimum you could use a rotary table and do all the milling manually.

[Com]

i think somthing like this would do the job you want :
http://www.taigtools.com/cmill.html

[jl123]

Hey com that's exactly the mill I was looking for. I found one on ebay for 2 k with a taig controller. 4 axis controller btw if I decide to upgrade.

This project is no bigger than 2.5" X 2.5" and would use copper.

[dberndt]

if these are just heatsink/watercooling parts for pc's, Which would be my guess at what the part is, then a taig will serve you fine.

[Halfnutz]

I think you should get the square collum lathemaster. 1500.00 Check it out, if you have the room, this is the best bet going. A big mill can make small parts, but a small mill cant make big parts. Good Luck! ( The Taig looks like a nice little mill, but I think youll be looking at a bigger one after a while. )

[jl123]

Originally Posted by dberndt if these are just heatsink/watercooling parts for pc's, Which would be my guess at what the part is, then a taig will serve you fine.

Yeah they're waterblocks for PC cooling. Is there a good informative webpage on what a mill is capable of and what each bit can do etc?

I want to thank all of you for your input and help. Great forum!