Cheap cnc mill

[brewtus]

I am currently looking for some information about mills. I am wanting to start making custom car & motorcycle rims and I would like to find a cheap cnc mill that can make them. Does anyone know where I could find a cheap mill capable of doing this? Speed doesn't matter, it can be real slow with a small material removal rate. The cheaper the better! It can be used too.

[philserveng]

any used machinery dealer will be able to help, look in the yellow pages. just remember you get what you pay for, the more you can afford to pay the better. For example, choose an Okuma Cadet before a Kia.

[JDenyer232]

Originally Posted by brewtus I am currently looking for some information about mills. I am wanting to start making custom car & motorcycle rims and I would like to find a cheap cnc mill that can make them. Does anyone know where I could find a cheap mill capable of doing this? Speed doesn't matter, it can be real slow with a small material removal rate. The cheaper the better! It can be used too.

Define cheap. How much are you looking to spend? Speed will most likely matter for your application. A vertical machining center can do a complex rim in roughly 40 hours or so. A cheapy underpowered machine will take much longer. Also the machine will not be as rigid, the results will be tool and chatter marks on your rims. If you are really serious about doing this then I recommend you do some research on machine rigidity. The machine will end up being a beefy machine for you application no matter what. An aluminum blank for a large motorcycle rim can weigh hundreds of pounds, your not gonna fit that in a tiny cheesy cnc mill. Just my thoughts, hope this helps.

[prelude1911]

I have a CNC Lagunmatic Vertical Mill for sale if your interested.

[SRT Mike]

Originally Posted by brewtus I am currently looking for some information about mills. I am wanting to start making custom car & motorcycle rims and I would like to find a cheap cnc mill that can make them. Does anyone know where I could find a cheap mill capable of doing this? Speed doesn't matter, it can be real slow with a small material removal rate. The cheaper the better! It can be used too.

The problem with doing things like wheels is that you need a relatively big machine if you don't want to have to index the fixture... and since you must use coolant, you really want a fully enclosed VMC. So you are looking for a machine with 20" in Y, even better 25" or 30" in Y. I doubt you will get something for less than $15k, and that would be a pretty great deal and would be a 15+ year old machine.

Remember you also need hubs - and that's lathe work all the way.