Newbie- CNC desktop Mill for prootyping? cost effective?

[kieranstone]

HI I just stumbled across this forum after hours of surfing around.
Great Site by the way - soo much information.



Anyway, I'm hoping some of you can assist with suggestions for a desktop CNC.

I am looking at options for prototyping. My main requirements will be for plastic components smaller than A4 in size.

These components will need a fairly high tolerance - 0.1mm

The Parts I can draw in Solid works.

I was thinking of going down the SLA route for prototyping, but I would much prefer the ability to keep prototyping in house and speed things up.


Anyway - any sugegstions would be gratefully recieved

[awerby]

Originally Posted by kieranstone HI I just stumbled across this forum after hours of surfing around. Great Site by the way - soo much information. Anyway, I'm hoping some of you can assist with suggestions for a desktop CNC. I am looking at options for prototyping. My main requirements will be for plastic components smaller than A4 in size. [That's a standard 8.5" x 11" piece of paper? It's common to find mills in this category that are that long or more, but less wide. But there are some that would work. The Roland MDX-40 and the ACT Desktop Mill 3 both have working areas that are about that size.] These components will need a fairly high tolerance - 0.1mm [That's not so high; either of the mills I mentioned would have no trouble staying within that.] The Parts I can draw in Solid works. [As long as you can export as STL, there are a range of programs that can write toolpaths for 3d objects in that format.] I was thinking of going down the SLA route for prototyping, but I would much prefer the ability to keep prototyping in house and speed things up. [While you might come up with some parts that are too complicated to be done (or done easily) on a CNC machine, it would probably make sense to do the majority of them that way (subtractively), and farm out the ones that can't be done any other way but additively. The advantages are that you aren't dependent on someone else's schedule, you don't have to share potentially sensitive part information, and you can use real materials instead of expensive SLA feedstocks.] Anyway - any sugegstions would be gratefully recieved

[I've got a range of alternatives on my site, from the ones I mentioned above to Taig, Sherline, and Flashcut machines. Any of these can cut plastic; figuring out which of them best suits your needs is a process I can help you with.]

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[awerby]

Originally Posted by kieranstone HI I just stumbled across this forum after hours of surfing around. Great Site by the way - soo much information. Anyway, I'm hoping some of you can assist with suggestions for a desktop CNC. I am looking at options for prototyping. My main requirements will be for plastic components smaller than A4 in size. [That's a standard 8.5" x 11" piece of paper? It's common to find mills in this category that are that long or more, but less wide. But there are some that would work. The Roland MDX-40 and the ACT Desktop Mill 3 both have working areas that are about that size.] These components will need a fairly high tolerance - 0.1mm [That's not so high; either of the mills I mentioned would have no trouble staying within that.] The Parts I can draw in Solid works. [As long as you can export as STL, there are a range of programs that can write toolpaths for 3d objects in that format.] I was thinking of going down the SLA route for prototyping, but I would much prefer the ability to keep prototyping in house and speed things up. [While you might come up with some parts that are too complicated to be done (or done easily) on a CNC machine, it would probably make sense to do the majority of them that way (subtractively), and farm out the ones that can't be done any other way but additively. The advantages are that you aren't dependent on someone else's schedule, you don't have to share potentially sensitive part information, and you can use real materials instead of more expensive but less durable SLA feedstocks.] Anyway - any sugegstions would be gratefully recieved

[I've got a range of alternatives on my site, from the ones I mentioned above to Taig, Sherline, and Flashcut machines. Any of these can cut plastic; figuring out which of them best suits your needs is a process I can help you with.]

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com