Look around for a gently used HAAS. Try to stay under ten years old. LOTS of these have been sold sold there is a good supply of used machines. More importantly, service is easy to find.
Looking to get a CNC metal mill for a maker space. I used a Tormach 1100 at TechShop before they folded. Something that size would meet the needs but something with slightly more Y travel (Tormach is 9.5 inches) would be nice.
Have a lead on a Milltronics MV17 but it isn't currently hooked up and needs some minor repairs. The fact that it hasn't been running recently has me a bit worried it may need more work and I don't want a huge project. The other issue is size and weight. 6000 lbs and approximately an 82" cube for size. Just moving this is going to be a serious job.
What are the options in between these two examples with rough price? We will probably be going with a used machine and there is a person locally that rebuilds and sells machines but doesn't have anything like this right at the moment. I don't have much experience with these type machines but have a fair amount of experience with mechanical stuff. Set up LinuxCNC for a small desktop system. So we are willing to do some work, just don't want a complete rebuild or need to do continual work on a totally worn out machine.
Any advice on this will be greatly appreciated.
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Look around for a gently used HAAS. Try to stay under ten years old. LOTS of these have been sold sold there is a good supply of used machines. More importantly, service is easy to find.
Those are a lot bigger than what I need or can deal with. I don't need to be able to put 1 ton on the table! Looking for something about 3000 lbs or less and max of $10,000.
Would a Bridgeport style machine do what you want? There are machines that are slightly larger, the 3V and 4V class machines. They normally have a 10x54 table with a 32 x 12.5 work envelope, normally about 3200 - 3500 lbs.
Jim Dawson
Sandy, Oregon, USA
Look at the pm940, you can get it CNC equiped out the door and it's within your budget. Customer service is great as well. http://www.precisionmatthews.com/shop/pm-940m/
Yes, a Bridgeport size machine would be fine and about the right size I think. That's a manageable weight. I hear that sometimes Boss machines can be found for a good deal with a bad control box. Adding a Linux CNC control box or something else might be an option for those. Can you provide a bit more detail on this option?
I got a small PM Mathews manual mill for work and am pretty happy with it. I will check out the PM-940.
Just checked out the PM site. When I click CNC mills it says nothing is available. Maybe a website issue?
There are quite a few of the BP Boss machines around. Not much to a controls upgrade, especially if you can use the original motors and drives. All of the hard (and expensive) work is already done, you only need to hang a compatible controller on them. I just helped another Zone member upgrade his machine by phone and email. That particular machine had an Anilam controller and DC servos on it, so it was pretty much like my machine and I knew all of the little details. I don't know that much about the stepper driven machines, but there have been upgrades done on them also.
I think that a PB Boss would be a good choice if you can find a deal on a machine that is in good mechanical condition.
Jim Dawson
Sandy, Oregon, USA
Check out the Shopmaster-
https://www.shopmasterusa.com/
It's not listed on the website but if you contact Matt directly he can quote it for you. If you'd rather you can pm me your email and I'll send you the information although the price may be slightly different now, it's still well under your budget. You'll have funds left to stock up on tooling.
I have seen machines go for less than scrap price and up. I paid $1000 for my machine with a failing controller, it came out of the R&D shop of a large local manufacturer. Mechanically near new condition, got the old controller working with a $30 computer power supply. I could have picked up a Boss 5 stepper machine from a local guy for $500, but I didn't need another project at the time.
Bottom line is you just have to look around and find a deal. I use Search Tempest to search all of Craigslist, Ebay, and Amazon with one mouse click. https://www.searchtempest.com/
Jim Dawson
Sandy, Oregon, USA
I built my own ''Fog Buster'' style coolant system. Puts out fine droplets rather than a mist. I normally apply about 1/2 cup/hr, but it's adjustable up to almost flood. Since I do a lot of aluminum, I run kerosene in it, I don't like water based coolants. But works fine for steel also. Without a full enclosure, a flood coolant system is not practical.
Coolant or not depends on the steel alloy you are running, mostly feed fast enough so the cutter isn't rubbing thus work hardening the material.
Jim Dawson
Sandy, Oregon, USA