Noob recommendation request

[cwm9]

Originally Posted by Crevice Reamer Have you got your computer lined up?

Yes, that part is not a problem. (3 Ghz, 4GB, 2TB HD, Core Duo, XP)

[Jaime128]

The travel on my mini mill seems a bit short. I'm not sure if the ballscrews and cnc will help with that or not. Hopefully the guys can help with this, for me too. My father also thought I should have gotten the larger x3 after we saw it in person, but I hate moving stuff, and even the mini mill is till not light either. If you ever need a mini lathe, the 7x14 feels great. If you don't have anything, the little extra room feels just right. Maybe someday I'll upgrade to the larger stuff, but I'm learning a lot from these two as they are and you can't go wrong when your heart just feels happy about the choice you made.

Man, if I knew, I would of taken a plane to Hawaii myself with that thing. I have always wanted to visit! Maybe I'll visit you someday. I have never been there, but I hear all the great stuff about it though. The really funny thing, you say the houses are costly...hmmm I really don't want to buy where the volcanos can bury me anyway, heheh...

[Crevice Reamer]

Originally Posted by Jaime128 The travel on my mini mill seems a bit short. I'm not sure if the ballscrews and cnc will help with that or not....

Don't get double ball nuts--They will reduce travel by at least one inch.

CR.

[cyclestart]

Originally Posted by cwm9 Original Poster

Point taken. Apologies for my part in the thread hi-jack.

Several people seem to prefer the x2; is there a reason why? From my point of view ATM it doesn't seem to offer much more than decreased travel distance and an increased pricetag?...

I do like the X2's extra heft. The limited y travel is a bit of a pain. My machine struggles with steel but would likely out perform a Taig in this material. Note my machine is a DIY, not a Syil. Some rigidity mods in current config.
A lot of x2 owners enjoy modifying their machines. A modders dream in some ways. A non-modders nightmare possibly? In the opinion of some.

but I'm clueless as to how difficult mechanical assembly will be. I'm sort of expecting with a CNC ready unit that I basically bolt the motors to the motor mounts and... that's it? Attaching steppers to the CNC-Ready Taig isn't all that hard, is it?

Nema 23's are the most common for this class of mill. Wouldn't expect any issues.

[cwm9]

Originally Posted by cyclestart Point taken. Apologies for my part in the thread hi-jack.

... oh my!

No, I didn't think you had hijacked the thread at all, it seemed quite reasonable to me. When I went back and read what I wrote it did seem kind of rude, so I edited the post and deleted that line. If I thought you'd hijacked the thread I'd just have told you to get your own... I already got 95% of the help I need... Anyway...

That's great news that it shouldn't be that hard to add the motors, that makes me more and more confident.

I thought if I used table alignment dowels to line up my work pieces I could even turn them 180 to effectively double the y-range to about 11" for non-critical work... (e.g., when my wife inevitably asks me to mill her new kitchen cabinets out of raw wood...) Most of the parts I need to machine in aluminum will be pretty small, maybe 3" long by 2" wide.

The fact that the Z travel is .5" longer than the Y travel is great, because it means I can rotate the piece 90 degrees and keep milling.

I'm getting more and more confident this is my unit unless someone comes up with a good major argument in favor of an X2 or other machine.

I think it only remains to be seen if their standard shipping is cheaper or if would be better to ship FOB via DHL Hawaiian Express.

[Crevice Reamer]

There are some upgrades available for Taig mills. They make this nice Tool plate for the X axis:

http://www.peck-polymers.com/store/Category.asp?Cguid={B6BFCB2B-1797-4729-8930-DAE783362CB4}&Category=ToolingPlate%3ATaig


They also make a very expensive 16 inch Z extension and a large Y extension. Of course, for the cost of these, you could buy an entire X3 mill From Grizzly.

CR.

[Stepper Monkey]

Xylotex boards work fine, they are pretty rudimentary, but they are where most of us started and a lot of people never even find the need to upgrade. There are better systems out there if you want to spend more money, and there are new options coming in the same price range (the Gecko boards will raise the bar for what a "basic" board is shortly) if you want to wait a bit. But there is certainly nothing wrong with the Xylotex choice.
Those huge steppers are an awful fit for a Taig sized mill, though. Wrong speed/torque curve entirely. Bad fit for the mill and for the board, too, as a Xylotex won't even properly drive them. 250/oz range is a much better balance of speed and power for that combo.

As for the spindle drive motor, the belt size doesn't limit you until you get well over 1/2 HP, so there is a lot of room there to play. While perfectly functional for most, the only real weak spot in the whole Taig package is the included AC motor, and the reason for it's inclusion was simply in keeping with price point. DC motors will offer you better power/weight ratios and speed control, but at a much higher cost. There are however several simple DIY bolt-on replacement options using scrounged surplus motors and/or electronics to solve that problem yourself very cheaply if you feel the need to upgrade later. There are a few threads on here about that.

[lovebugjunkie]

Originally Posted by cwm9 . I saw the Romaxx WD-1 and the IMService Servo units... These seemed to be in my price range. I wasn't sure if these were any good, or if they could even be used for aluminum... Also they're in my size range (tabletop). included?

I have the Romaxx HS1 and very happy with it. Ron has been ask a few times if his machines can handle aluminum see his response here:

http://romaxxcnc.proboards59.com/ind...play&thread=80

Give Ron a ring, he is easy to talk to and no BS involved.

IMO opinion the HS1 would have no problem in cutting aluminum with light cuts. The only thing to watch for is the electronics are located in a pull out drawer under the table. Any stray bit of metal might short something out. I don’t thank it would take much to put some type of protective shield around it tho.

I’m eyeing his new WD-1, it would make a nice addition to my HS-1.

[cwm9]

Originally Posted by lovebugjunkie Give Ron a ring, he is easy to talk to and no BS involved.

Thanks. I did already; here was his response:

Originally Posted by Ron Hello, If you are wanting to machine molds from aluminum billet, you'd actually need a milling machine. Thanks, Ron

You were right -- no bs! For anyone that wants an excellent router solution for mainly wood applications and OCCASIONAL light cut runs in aluminum (as per his statement in the link you gave), I'd say he's a good bet. He's certainly honest.

[awerby]

[I noticed that your questions about the Taig/Microproto went unanswered; I'll try to clear up the distinctions between the two models.]

How much would a Taig Micro Mill run me if converted to CNC w/servos? w/steppers? (I understand stepper motors can loose steps?)

[Not too many people run servos on a Taig, although it can be done. Flashcut offers a turnkey retrofit package, but it's not cheap. If you're good at this sort of thing, you can put together a servo system yourself; a good driver to start with is the Gecko 320 drive. Yes, steppers can lose steps if overdriven or improperly tuned, but once you dial them in they generally work pretty well.]

I see there's a microproto product that says it is a CNC micromill... http://www.microproto.com/MMDSLS.htm Is that really the same mill with the same capabilities only CNC?

I'm a little confused because the microproto site lists the MicroMill DSLS 3000 price as $2995, where as the Taig site lists a 2026ER CNC mill price as $2155... but they look like the exact same machine! eh?

[There are some differences: the 2026 has a shorter travel in X (10" vs. 12") and the DSLS 3000 uses a different control system, with encoders on the stepper motors that feed back positional information to the drives. If it falls behind more than (I believe) 8 half-steps, it will trigger a "limit switch" error that stops motion, which can save your part (although the original zero position will be lost). The 3000 goes faster than the 2026 (about twice as fast) and it also comes with a relay box that turns the spindle on and off from a M3/M5 command, as well as one additional AC receptacle also controlled by a relay (M8/M9). It also includes a license for Mach3, the highly-regarded Windows-based CNC control software.]

...



As to the Vivaek, I went and read the thread... everyone wants to know if anyone has tried them yet. I did some research, and here's what I found:

They appear to be importing this:
http://www.cnlike.com/en_ProductShow.asp?ArticleID=117

Vivaek has internal photos up at: http://site.vivaek.com/cnc_pictures.html

The Vivaek comes with ball screws. I don't know how high quality they are, but the manufacturer web site states .01mm/.0004" The Sherline and Taig come with leadscrews, which I understand to be less accurate and not to last as long.

[The Taig (and Sherline) leadscrews are actually pretty good; ballscrews are harder to make accurately, and tend to have more "drunkeness" - variability in the pitch. It's commonly stated that ballscrews will eliminate backlash, but that's not always true; it takes some preloading to accomplish that.]

Is the difference between a mill and a router unit that the mill has a head driven by a belt and a router unit is directly driven by a motor?

[No; the main difference is the intended use. Mills are designed for removing metal; routers are intended for softer materials. Mill spindles have more torque and go slower; router spindles go a lot faster, but have poor torque at low RPMs.]

If that's the case then I assume the Vivaek is really a desktop router (it actually says that on the manufacturers website), and the ball screws may be... inappropriately accurate compared to the rest of the build?

[Maybe, maybe not.]

Regardless, I think "tried and true" is better for me than "buy and hope..."

[The 30-day warranty doesn't seem to show a lot of confidence on their part... Taig includes a 2-year warranty with their mills. Of course, if you put a third-party control on it, the warranty won't cover that, and you'll have to get tech support from whoever sold it to you.]

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com