Need help on choosing/buying a decent CNC mill

[dammachines]

Originally Posted by pstockley I've just bought a PCNC1100 including 4th axis and it should arrive this week. Where are you located?

I've had my PCNC1100 for about three weeks now. It is very well made and looks tough enough to handle anything I'll throw at it for a long time. So far I've only cut a few parts on it because it took me a while to get it moved to the basement and have the 220V electricity run. (I wasn't expecting it till the middle of this month, but was excited that it was delivered early - just not prepared.)

I was also looking for a mill to begin a home based/hobby business on the side. I started out two years ago with a Taig CNC mill, and it was a good start, but not large enough to do what I wanted. I'm not sure how other companies selling mill/drill conversions at similar prices will be able to compete with this mill as it is definitely built for CNC from the ground up.

The control software is Mach2, which you may already be familiar with.

I'll post more info when I've had more of an opportunity to work with the mill.

Dave.

[acondit]

bjlsailor,

Check out Industrial Hobbies:

http://www.industrialhobbies.com/

It isn't cheap but it looks real good. Aaron even has a forum here on CNCZone:

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=284

Alan

Originally Posted by bjlsailor Hi Folks: I thought I'd jump in even though I'm a newbie at metal working. I ended up last week ordering the model: ZAY7045L because the Sieg X3 models were back ordered. My original intention was to get a Shop Task Eldorado 3 way machine but those were back ordered too. I also figured I could get a dedicated 9 x 30 mill and this mill for about the same as the 3 way machine. http://www.lathemaster.com/HEAVYDUTY...E%207045FG.htm The only issue though is that while the shop task machine has a ready to go 3K CNC conversion kit -- I haven't seen anything tailor made for this Rong Fu R45 clone. Anybody out there know of folks or companies that are doing Rong Fu conversions to CNC? Thanks bjl

[cnc_fred]

Originally Posted by ThaiCho Hey fred... I'm from Regina, Sk ... I did look at this mill, I liked the features it had ecspecially the dovetail Z axys... this machine is re-sold by a few different company's Grizzly is one of 3 or 4

Lathemaster in the USA is currently the only company selling the Seig X3. What you must be thinking of is the Seig X2, which is also called the Mini-Mill, and which a bunch of companies sell.

Since you are a machinist, and have access to CNC machining equipment, you don't need to spend a ton of money CNC'ing your machines.
What you could do, to get your feet wet, is buy an X1, a Micro-Mill, from Harbor Freight. You could learn on it. You could use Gecko's as your drives, when you are making your control box, because then that portion of your CNC effort could be used with whatever bigger mill you end up buying and CNCing.

There is at least one fellow that CNCd a Seig X3, while using the stock screws, and he's happy with the results.

[jlv3901]

We have some mills and a lathe from South West Ind. that have the Prototrak type control. Mills seem tough enough, convert my -g-code into its events without too much trouble, good travel, cat40 tool holders, not sure what we paid though...seems like $8000 was about it for the smaller one.

[pstockley]

I will be using my machine mainly for hobby stuff, but having said that, I still have reasonably serious requirements regarding accuracy and ridigidty. I make parts for race cars and also steam engines.

I have owned a bunch of manual mills and the bottom line is bigger is always better. Once you've owned a bigger mill you won't want to go back. Doing reasonably serious work on the small mills just takes too long. I looked at getting a bridgeport but couldn't fit it in my workshop so it was out. If you have space, an old CNC machine is definitley the way to go. However, I haven't found one that weighs less than 4000 lbs and good luck getting it running on 220v. Also they are pretty massive for home use.

While the Tormach isn't perfect, it does have some big advantages over converting a smaller mill. Firstly, it looks very robust for its size. It has ground ballscrews which to me is a must. Especially if you want to make production parts to any kind of tolerance. I liked the fact it uses Mach as a controller. If the stepper's prove to be too slow or miss steps, I can always add some servos.

Anyway, until I use it in anger, this is all just theory. I am welding up a stand at the moment and will keep you posted on progress.

[ThaiCho]

Originally Posted by pstockley I've just bought a PCNC1100 including 4th axis and it should arrive this week. Where are you located?

Hey there pstockley...

You must be the customer Greg Johnson was talking about from Ontairo that has the CNC 1100 on a truck right now being shipped to you. He said there are 3 of these machines in canada thus far... I'm waiting to hear back on a quote for (machine, shipping & taxes) delivery to where I live.

I've done some research on the Sieg X3 and others that people have mentioned in this thread, but all of them need to be CNC CONVERTED & a controller bought for them.

One gentelman in this thread mentioned that I could use the CNC machines at my shop to do work on and by a manual mill for now.... I wish that were true. Our machines are running almost 24/7 and the CNC mill is backedup by over 1000 hours worth of work... so I know I wouldn't be able to snag any time on it... the rest of our shop is backed up about 400-500 hours... kinda hecktic working at a swamped machine shop... but I'ld rather have work to do and OT avail then none at all...

I still think for the price.. this mill is the BEST option for me... and even if if does not work out or need to sell it.. I'm SURE it will retain resale value.

Looking forward to hearing from you once your making chips. =)

[JOE65]

I'm having this one delivered tonight with the industrial hobbies kit to follow

[jrslick22]

Originally Posted by bjlsailor Hi Folks: I thought I'd jump in even though I'm a newbie at metal working. I ended up last week ordering the model: ZAY7045L because the Sieg X3 models were back ordered. My original intention was to get a Shop Task Eldorado 3 way machine but those were back ordered too. I also figured I could get a dedicated 9 x 30 mill and this mill for about the same as the 3 way machine. http://www.lathemaster.com/HEAVYDUTY...E%207045FG.htm The only issue though is that while the shop task machine has a ready to go 3K CNC conversion kit -- I haven't seen anything tailor made for this Rong Fu R45 clone. Anybody out there know of folks or companies that are doing Rong Fu conversions to CNC? Thanks bjl

Same mill, want to do the same thing, does anyone know of a CNC kit for this machine