Help choosing a small CNC mill

[Job]

Hi all and thanks in advance for your help,

To introduce myself quickly, I’m new to milling (CNC or not), but I’m an engineer and would like to work home on a project (that is totally unrelated to my work).
I would need to mill some complex parts with a CNC machine (since it is prototyping and I will sure need many tries, manual milling would take way too much time) that would.

Describing quickly my needs:
- Most in brass, some in hard steel (0.5 t0 1 mm sheets to cut springs).
- Flat parts, would be approx 40 x 40 x 10 (thick) mm.
- Accuracy needed is approx 0.1mm, better accuracy would be very welcome as it would avoid refinishing parts to avoid friction. Accuracy is much more important on brass than steel.
- Milling time is not a factor.
- Machine fatigue is not a factor as it’s prototyping, part size is extremely small.
- 4th axis would be useful but is not required. Typically having a 4th axis as an option that could be added afterward would be perfect.
- I’m in UK, so is the machine is in US (I guess most are), a light one would be much better to avoid deterrent shipping cost.
- Price is of course a factor lol.
- As I'm a newbie, an easy to use machine, with not too much software cost is better !

[ataxy]

whats your budget?

[Job]

Thanks for your answer.
I would say "what it takes" as I can afford to put serious money, but would prefer to avoid if possible.
Typically 5000 USD would be fine, less better, but it would be stretched 2 or 3 fold in case I really need.

[ataxy]

well if you want to stay in the 5k i would say the syil x4 or that new kx3 that whe are starting to ear about but this will give you only a machine without tooling now since you say you would be able to spend more if you add in a 3k more you will get the cutting fluid and 4th axis and some tooling, so basically you could go with a tormach tooling system a good set of coated hss cutter or else if really you want to spend more and dont care about the price then you can go with a tormach, industrial hobbies, or smithy witch are going to give you way more stiffness and precision then a x4 or kx3 but it does come with a price tag that is double that of the x4 and kx3 if you so go with the small mill i highly, and this is a pov, that you get a nice set of carbide cutter to do the finishing of the part, some will argue the need for it but like i say it a personal point of view.

- Most in brass, some in hard steel (0.5 t0 1 mm sheets to cut springs). all the mention mill will be able to work those material
- Flat parts, would be approx 40 x 40 x 10 (thick) mm. all the mention mill will be able to work those material
- Accuracy needed is approx 0.1mm, better accuracy would be very welcome as it would avoid refinishing parts to avoid friction. Accuracy is much more important on brass than steel. all the mention mill will be able to give you those accuracy but the larger mill will be able to give you the result you want in faster time.
- Milling time is not a factor. go for a smaller machine and get better tooling
- Machine fatigue is not a factor as it’s prototyping, part size is extremely small. again a small machine could do the job here and give you more money for better tooling
- 4th axis would be useful but is not required. Typically having a 4th axis as an option that could be added afterward would be perfect. thats your call but here you would get a stonger and better fourth axis if you go with a bigger machine as the rotary table would be bigger and of better quality, forget about putting a 8inch rotary table on a small mill
- I’m in UK, so is the machine is in US (I guess most are), a light one would be much better to avoid deterrent shipping cost. yes
- Price is of course a factor lol. if its is, again you will get a better work hose out of a bigger one but with proper setting up and tolling the small mill can give you really good result.
- As I'm a newbie, an easy to use machine, with not too much software cost is better ! the software to operate any of those machine is not the problem here as mach3 wich operates all of those machine is only ~150$ the price of software come down to your choice of cad/cam
Reply With Quote you want price quote or to reply with quote of what you said

[Job]

Thanks a lot. Have been spending hours looking and did not find this one (which looks better than all I have already found)

I have just found this website, I don’t know if prices are ok (take into account 20% VAT), but at least, it’s just 200 miles away from where I live.
I have seen the KX1 also, since it’s only small parts (the size of a coin), I guess it would do the job, no ?

http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Additi...Hobby-CNC-Mill

Since I do not need to mill more than 1 cm of thickness is there any engravers that would be able to accurately cut brass and steel?

Would the software give with the machine support a 4th axis?

[ataxy]

Thanks a lot. Have been spending hours looking and did not find this one (which looks better than all I have already found)

I have just found this website, I don’t know if prices are ok (take into account 20% VAT), but at least, it’s just 200 miles away from where I live.
I have seen the KX1 also, since it’s only small parts (the size of a coin), I guess it would do the job, no ?

http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Additi...Hobby-CNC-Mill

Since I do not need to mill more than 1 cm of thickness is there any engravers that would be able to accurately cut brass and steel?

Would the software give with the machine support a 4th axis?

yes mach3 supports up to six axis
the kx1 is a relly small machine and will definitly show more sign of flex wich can in turn affect the precision of your part, again better quality tooling will help but up to a point due to the fact that those machine a really small

this would be a better choice
http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalo...CNC-Hobby-Mill

[Job]

Thanks,

By milling more slowly and doing more "rotations" would that go through with decent accuracy?
Since I don't really care about machining time (but my wife will care about the size of the engine in the living room ).

How much do these machines retail in America?

Est-ce que tu es Quebecois ou Canadien francophone ?

[rowbare]

If your search takes you towards a Tormach, here is a link to a recent thread started by a UK user where they discuss shipping etc: Tormach Mills in the UK?

[ataxy]

oui je suis quebecois

i do not have price of the kx3 in front of me but i just bought, and i am waiting for it to arrive, a x4+ with coolant, 4th axis and a tormach tts and with the shipping and taxes it came down to 7900$ i did not need to buy tooling much since i allready have a BF20 clone and i got alot of end mill allready but i would say that if i had none i would have to spend at least 1k to 1.5k more

[Job]

Thanks,

Tormach looks great too, but with taxes and shipping, it would cost twice the kx3 (as USD is now rather strong!).


(je suis un Francais expatrie qui bosse pour une banque cadanienne )

[ataxy]

yes i am quite happy that i bought mine while my cad was closer to the usd your other option to the kx3 would be like me the x4+ wich you can get from

http://www.syil.co.uk/

pour quelle banque travaille tu?

[Job]

Je te mél .

By the way how capable are little machines like an X2.

I had also found the link of this machine :

http://www.centroidcnc.com/oems/mho/mho_index.htm

Anybody has tested it or know the price?

Thanks