New comer needs some advice.

[DeusExMachinas]

Hey everyone! I am hoping to get some advice on getting into a benchtop milling setup..

A little back ground.. I'm a full time student, and electronic's technician by trade currently. I had worked in a machine shop for a couple years in the past.. as a "jack leg" more or less - no formal training, but I feel comfortable in my basic machining skills.. and most importantly I love it.

Anyways, I have been looking and reading about benchtop mills for hobbyists and light duty I have made the decision to buy one. I've read a lot, and I still don't know what is the best fit for my purposes.. I bet this sounds familiar

So a lot of what I would like to do is make housings for custom electronics, engravings, milling copper clad boards for PCB work, maybe small automotive parts - motor mounts, etc.. basically anything and everything lol.

Getting down to what I really want to know.. I like the Syil X4 Speedmaster. It seems like the best of everything I would want as an be all solution, but it is quite pricey. If one could afford such a machine. It would be pointless since you would be too broke to afford tooling as in my case

However, I do like the G0704 by grizzly.. this seems like a solid machine, and the price is very good. I have not been able to find any solid information on CNC'ing it. This would be my main goal. Is there a "sort-of close-to" turn key CNC solution for this machine? Or would an X3 be an easier alternative. They look very similar.. as far as I can tell it is only a difference of table size/travel distance and spindle speed.

Basically, I would like to make the move to a CNC benchtop machine without having to make a lot of custom parts. I don't mind putting in some work.. but my time is limited and I would like my few hobbying hours spent making vs.. trying to get something to work.

Any and all advice or insight is greatly appreciated!

[Al_The_Man]

My take would be depending on what career you want to pursue? If electronics technician is your future, I would say do it the hard way, IOW turn-key may get you what you are looking for with minimum of effort, but you may not learn as much as picking up motors here, drives there and putting it together as a learning process, it may take a bit longer but the experience gained in the area of electronics and other fields may prove invaluable if that is the direction you are going.
If a machining career is in your future, then the quick way may be the best.
Just from personal experience.
Al.

[DeusExMachinas]

Yea, I could definitely see the advantages.. but in my case I'm in line to transfer into an undergrad in electrical engineering in the near future. It's definitely my thing, but I thoroughly enjoy machining as mechanical would have been my next choice if I hadn't found my love of electronics.

I would very much like a turn-key system, but would probably prefer a manual machine that has a good cnc conversion kit available. At least one that has all the machined parts and ballscrews in the kit. I would enjoy figuring out the drives and controller.. I've read up on a lot of what gecko and keling have to offer. Doesn't seem to bad.. I would just hate to get hung up measuring and designing parts for my machine.. which I would have to manually mill out before hand. Then if I ran into problems in the installation.. well you get the picture.

Anything out there for the G0704 or similar mill? I've got around a 5k budget that I must limit myself to for now. Would I be far off from assuming around 1500 for the mill.. 1k for the cnc conversion? At least then I would be left with enough to buy some basic tooling, vise, etc..

Saving for the Syil would seem all and well.. but what I see is just a pretty machine. It is a good one.. but not for the price when a little work could be done to another entry level benchtop. Ugly I can deal with as long as I get the functionality I need

[hoss2006]

bdtools and cncfusion have kits for the 0704, those and a few others are linked on my site
under the menu "cnc kits and pans" here. g0704.com
These are the mechanical aspect of the conversion, ballscrews and motor mounts.
Hoss

[Nater]

I've got around a 5k budget that I must limit myself to for now. Would I be far off from assuming around 1500 for the mill.. 1k for the cnc conversion? At least then I would be left with enough to buy some basic tooling, vise, etc..

You're about dead on the $$. It just depends on how fancy you're going to go, and how fast. For example if you do "upgrades" like moving to ballscrews & a smoothstepper you're adding $100's to the cost of the conversion.

I'm taking it slower and will add those goodies down the road, to ease the pain on the wallet, not to mention learn what I really want/need. With the mill delivered and some basic tooling, plus knick-knacks you forget to budget, I'm in just over $2k. Add CNC kit + ballscrews and I'll be up to $3k. Tormach Tooling and 4th axis after that, you'll quickly get to your $5k as a hypothetical.

But you'll have one badass rig that should last a great while.

[DeusExMachinas]

Awesome.. thanks for the input guys. I definitely feel better about the G0704 route that I was looking to go down. Taking it a little slower isn't a bad idea either.. my bank account would surely appreciate it

Btw, hoss.. I've been looking at your site and you-tube videos. Really cool stuff your doing with these mills.. just got done watching a vid where you were testing out a 5th axis. Too cool man.. too cool!

[RTTIM]

I agree with the others that if you have the time, doing your own conversion is the way to go.

Hoss's site is a great resource - pretty much all the info you'll need is there. He also offers a DVD with more complete documentation, that from what others have said is well worth the reasonable cost he charges. There are also several other threads here on G0704 builds that have a lot of good information.

I did not have the leisure of time to do it myself and was able to find an outfit that offers a turnkey complete conversion on the G0704 at what I felt was reasonable price. It will be here on Thurs., and I plan to do a thread on it when I get it set up. Unfortunately, I won't have time until Saturday to start setting it up, but if all the planets line up just right I might even be able to make some chips sometime this weekend.

Tim

[hoss2006]

Btw, hoss.. I've been looking at your site and you-tube videos. Really cool stuff your doing with these mills.. just got done watching a vid where you were testing out a 5th axis. Too cool man.. too cool!

Thanks a lot.
It makes a nice head spacer.
Hoss

[hoss2006]

I agree with the others that if you have the time, doing your own conversion is the way to go.

Hoss's site is a great resource - pretty much all the info you'll need is there. He also offers a DVD with more complete documentation, that from what others have said is well worth the reasonable cost he charges. There are also several other threads here on G0704 builds that have a lot of good information.

I did not have the leisure of time to do it myself and was able to find an outfit that offers a turnkey complete conversion on the G0704 at what I felt was reasonable price. It will be here on Thurs., and I plan to do a thread on it when I get it set up. Unfortunately, I won't have time until Saturday to start setting it up, but if all the planets line up just right I might even be able to make some chips sometime this weekend.

Tim

I forgot about the new turnkey 0704, thanks for the reminder, I added a link to it on my site as another choice for folks.
Can't wait for your thread on it.
Hoss