Used Milling Machine or used Milling Machine

[lmoreira]

Hi Guys,
I am new to all this, and as such need a bit of advice. I decided to build my own diy CNC Machine, but my problem is the mechanical side of things, and looking at parts I will be spending around £400 to £600 pounds to do it. I am an Electronics Engineer so the electrical/Electronic and programming part of it would be no problem.
Yesterday I was browsing around Ebay and I just spotted a few milling machines, that although are not great and are used, probably would be a good base to start from. They are around £300, and the only thing I need is to add the servos and electronics and I would be away.
I have a lot of projects that I can not get going because of not having the mechanical parts for them, and having a milling machine of my own would definitely improve matters.
What do you think?

this is the type of machine I found:
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/pr...hes-milldrills

thanks in advance for all your help
Best regards
Luis

[One of Many]

You would be much happier with a square column bench mill than those round column types.

For instance, once your setup is complete and you find you need to raise the head, it swings out of position, then it is back to setting up again. The short stroke quill makes that even more of a pain when trying to maintain spindle alignment and differing cutter lengths.

The round column type heads are also more prone to shift while cutting, IMHO making them a lighter duty machine with a higher probability for unexpected cutter grab, limiting its capacity to keep it, the part being cut and the user...... content.

The money you save may test your patience, the fuss is somewhat expected for the budget territory. Sometimes something is better than nothing. When you have experience on industrial scale mills, trying to use one of these round column bench mills is beyond frustration!

DC

[lmoreira]

Hi One of Many,
thanks for the advice, I understand what you are saying. what I can do is buy it as cheap as I can get it, remove the Z axis and fit a new Z axis to it with improved linear rails and bearings.
I only intend to machine small plastics and aluminium parts.
But the fact that I can have instant X and Y axis, just requiring servos is attractive.
thanks for your help.
Best Regards
Luis

[lmoreira]

Hi Guys,
I found this one on Ebay, could you please comment?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Chester-Millin...QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks
Luis

[MrWild]

If this is the envelope you require, then it may be okay. But it is VERY cheap. Cheap isn't a good thing in a milling machine because quality suffers. You will have a LOT of backlash which makes adapting it to CNC almost impossible. Sure, you can add the electronics and servos, but in the end you have just CNC'd crap.

Cheap also infers aluminum constuction over cast iron. Mass is your friend. Overall, if I couldn't twist the dials and get a feel for a machine like this, I wouldn't buy it. Just asking gfor a lot of added expense.

[One of Many]

This is what I had in mind, or something like it.

SEALEYSM2502

The round column style go through the head casting. I doubt it can be adapted to linear slides easily.

DC

[cam1]

Can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse, is something to keep in mind when you are looking at this class of machine tool. In some cases you would be better off to start from scratch as opposed to fixing something that was never intended to work.

regards