Help out a Noob?

[Col. Gentlemen]

I need help deciding what kind of CNC mill and lathe I need.

I'll be using them first to learn with, then to make real my ideas, sometime next year I'd like to do small scale custom work.

I don't mind if the lathe is used and dirty, but I'd like the mill to be new or refurbished.

So far as much as I know is that I need at least a three axis mill, I don't know what size I need, whether I need a DRO, etc.

I'd also like if someone could recommend a basic set of tools for the lathe and mill, just some to get me started.

Thanks in advance.

[sirkossorg]

Hello, and welcome!

There are lots of people who can help you here, but they will probably need a little more info.

Generally the questions that you will be asked are: What will you be using it for? What size and type of materials will you be working with? What type of speed/precision do you need? What is your budget?

If you can be a bit more specific, I'll bet you'll get exactly the advice you need here.

[Col. Gentlemen]

Hello, and welcome!

There are lots of people who can help you here, but they will probably need a little more info.

Generally the questions that you will be asked are: What will you be using it for? What size and type of materials will you be working with? What type of speed/precision do you need? What is your budget?

If you can be a bit more specific, I'll bet you'll get exactly the advice you need here.

I'll try to be as specific as possible, but like I said, I'm a noob to this.

I'll be using it for gunsmithing.
I'm not sure what sizes of materials I'll be working with or what materials I'll be working with, I was hoping another CNC equip gunsmith could help me with that.
Ditto for the amount of speed variation and precision.
As for budget I'm hoping for it to be under 4k for the mill, but I would be willing to spend more if large gains in capability were possible.

Thanks.

[awerby]

then the Taig mill might do what you want. It's small but well-built, and you can get the CNC version with a 4th axis and tooling for well under $4k. The manual version is a lot less. If you're just starting out at this, it would be a good choice, since it will do a lot without taking up a lot of space - or money.

As for the lathe, you'll probably need something pretty big, at least if you're dealing with rifles.

Andrew Werby
ComputerSculpture.com — Home Page for Discount Hardware & Software

[Col. Gentlemen]

then the Taig mill might do what you want. It's small but well-built, and you can get the CNC version with a 4th axis and tooling for well under $4k. The manual version is a lot less. If you're just starting out at this, it would be a good choice, since it will do a lot without taking up a lot of space - or money.

As for the lathe, you'll probably need something pretty big, at least if you're dealing with rifles.

Andrew Werby
ComputerSculpture.com — Home Page for Discount Hardware & Software

I'll look into Taig.
Should I be looking for used lathes or is it worth it to get one new?

[awerby]

Should I be looking for used lathes or is it worth it to get one new?[/QUOTE]

If price is no object, then a good new lathe would definitely be best. But otherwise, it's like buying a car - what would you rather have: a new Hyundai or a used Mercedes? Even a new lathe can have problems, especially if it's a really cheap one, but they are different from the problems a used lathe will have, even if it was originally quite expensive. If you're getting a used lathe, take someone along who knows a lot about them, to check for worn ways, loose or chipped gears, odd sounds, etc. And if you're getting a used one, look for one that comes with a lot of tooling, since you'll need it, and it costs a lot if you're buying it separately.

Andrew Werby
ComputerSculpture.com — Home Page for Discount Hardware & Software

[Col. Gentlemen]

If price is no object, then a good new lathe would definitely be best. But otherwise, it's like buying a car - what would you rather have: a new Hyundai or a used Mercedes? Even a new lathe can have problems, especially if it's a really cheap one, but they are different from the problems a used lathe will have, even if it was originally quite expensive. If you're getting a used lathe, take someone along who knows a lot about them, to check for worn ways, loose or chipped gears, odd sounds, etc. And if you're getting a used one, look for one that comes with a lot of tooling, since you'll need it, and it costs a lot if you're buying it separately.

Andrew Werby
ComputerSculpture.com — Home Page for Discount Hardware & Software

Price is certainly a factor.
I was thinking of refurbished lathes from the internet, since I don't think there are many places near me that sell used lathes. I just don't know where to look.

[PriddyShiddy]

I'll throw in my couple cents since you seem to be where I was a year ago.

I decided to start making small motorcycle parts so I picked up the Grizzly X3 (G0463), and the basic mill tooling package from littlemachineshop.com. the first and most important thing I can say is whatever you are planning on spending on tooling will be equal to the sales tax + shipping, of what u will actually spend. my x3 was $1100 delivered and I passed that on tooling a LONG time ago.

learning on the manual mill (the first time I touched a handwheel on a mill in my life was removing it from the x3 to strip and clean it) was pretty easy and fun. I spent more time reading on here and other forums then cutting but was making parts within a week or two

DRO for manual mill was a MUST for me learning. I went cheap since I planned on going CNC ASAP. I bought the igaging scales with remote read out and mounted all three readouts on the head like a real dro... kinda. it let me zero, switch from metric to inch and be much more accurate than I could have manually counting the handwheel turns. total cost was less than $200 (i count as tooling)

didn't take a month before people were bringing me jobs and I had to buy a couple 5" vises to hold 16" parts for machining. then came radius cuts- there went another $100 for a cheap rotary table. then two weeks later when it broke I had to spend $350 with rush shipping on a phase II 6" rotary, plus another $100 for a good 4 jaw chuck. lots of other small things I never thought of like radius gages, high end stuff to replace my HF starter crap like starrett center punches, bore gages, indicol dti holder, 1/4 parallels to hold already chamfered parts... the list never ends

at that point (2 months in) my tooling cost about $1500 on top of the mill.

fortunately I had work which helped cover some of the costs, but this week (10 months later) I spent $600 to make $400 worth of parts. long story, but it happens. I now have all the tooling I bought for this job to use forever though (lol, well till it breaks, wears out)

I never even got to making MY parts before the time and error associated with manual milling "production" parts was overwhelming and I started converting to cnc Build Thread Here . smartest damn thing I have done. learning to CAM has been a challenge but I'm making 8 parts that took 40 minutes each manually, in about 45 minutes including took changes. thats a LOT nicer.

There are a lot of options on mills and they all have their purpose and place. I think my x3 was the best choice for me since its the "easiest" to convert to cnc for the price. I say easiest because there are kits available that require little to no machining and I didn't have time to play around and make my own.

today I can cut for an hour and only have a thou or so of error. on a $10K machine I would be pissed, but on a machine with a total investment of around $3500+ I'm impressed.

I personally would never waste time or money on anything with 6" of z travel (taig) but there are thousands of people that would say a similar thing about my X3. its a learner mill for me. crashed several times already learning cnc, blown 4 fuses being an idiot when drilling, so far I have grossed about $3000 and still haven't made MY first part yet and just "finished" the cnc (only $500 made since converting)

I normally would not talk about money but I wanted to give u an idea of costs compared to income starting out. I am still waiting to find a GOOD deal on a used 12x36ish lathe, but might settle for a 10x20 new. still waiting to have time to make my first parts for my designs, still waiting to figure all the CAM stuff out better, and I'm sure as hell still waiting to actually TAKE a dime from the company I'm $5K and a few thousand hours into.

hope this helps inspire ideas or for planning.

sorry about any the typos, this is on my phone with swype and I need to get back to work at my day job so I can afford to keep paying to work at night

[Col. Gentlemen]

That's a lot of good information, thank you.

[txcncman]

@Priddy - Please copy what you wrote to a journal. And then repost it to every thread you see like this. Only this I would have liked to see different is that you went to a couple of formal classes along the way. Keep up the good work though.