Newbie- Starting from scratch, advice please

[ROV CNC]

Gday all,
looking around this forum for the right place to start.
I have read a bit on the bench top mill thread already
I am looking to buy a turn key system soon, leaning towards Sieg KX 3 or the like. unless someone can recomend a better system. Someting that could work on a V8 head would be handy.
Budget to be around $10.000 AUS, mainly working scale models intended work. and prototyping. also to pay itself off over 5-10years from my shed very casual production. mainly Ali and maybe some Stainless.
but what programs to use, is mach 3 as good as im reading.
Can i design with CAD to mack3 then mill?
Are teig, sieg, x3, basicly the same machine?
And links to get me started learning, reading, researching
any advice will be much appericated

Whats demos to try, what program does tool paths, what programs design. and all the newbie questions.
I will do my best to research myself, but age old questions may be asked sorry.
Im 35 my experiance is welder fitter to electrical tech, jack of all but never turned metal, cant wait thou.
Im in no hurry to buy the wrong thing and looking for level advice.
Thanks ROV

[keebler303]

I like mach3, you can download it for free and see if you like, there are others if you want something different.

The progression is CAD > CAM > Controller

CAD is autocad, turbocad, rhino, solidworks, pro-e, etc, etc.

CAM is artcam, surfcam, mastercam, etc, etc.

Controller is mach3, EMC, etc, etc.

There is a dedicated CAD/CAM section here you can check out. There is really a huge selection of software. Go for what fits your needs and your budget. You can go from free up to the price of your house, depending on what you need.

I would recommend downloading a lot of demo's so you can see which ones have the features you need and the interface you like.

A good place to start reading is the vertical mill/lathe build logs. That is where a lot of problems/quirks are worked out and you will get an idea of what to look for in a machine, as well as how all the pieces go together. I don't have any experience with benchtop machines so I can't recommend one.

Good Luck
Matt

[ROV CNC]

Cheers Matt
Found 1 person doing a KX3 install.
Cheers with the CAD, CAM, MACH, sequence is there not one program from start to finnish ?
Next i need to define some of the Bits, tool chucks and collets, sound like different collets for each sizt bit,. not a standard drill chuck ?

Apperciate the help
ROV

[keebler303]

If you are doing some fairly basic machining, you can use the wizards in mach to go directly from idea to cutting. There are some CAD programs with CAM "add-ins" so that it all works together. Can't give you a list but I know they are out there.

Drill chucks are for drilling! They are generally held together with a jacobs taper and are not designed to resist side loading when milling. Does the KX3 have a spindle which accepts tool holders or is it just a collet chuck (like ER16 or something)? Anyway, you will need a different collet for each size shank of bit. You probably only need a few to start, then you can buy more as you feel the need.

Matt