comparison shopping

All.

As some of you may have guessed, I am currently shopping for a CNC mill. I would like to get one for the following purposes: relief cutting on rubber, PC board routing, small metal boxes, gears and other small mechanical parts, and silver utensils.

I would like to be able to cut some types of steel as a reserve capability, and I would like to have some of the effects of a lathe as a reserve capability, hence considering 4th axis.

As I am a novice at milling of any sort I would rather not gamble on buying one from an Ebay auction unless I absolutely must. I may consider a reputable Ebay dealer if you know of one, but the following come all from on-line stores:

So far, I found these compromises:

a) MAXNC 10 Closed loop vertical micromill (MAX NC 10 CLB) $2345 4th Axis rotary table for above $ 495

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$2840

b) Taig 2019 CR-ER (ready for Nema 23) $1055 Xylotek 4-axis control (with 4 Nema 23/269 oz-in motors) $575 Sherline 4th Axis rotary table $470

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$2095

c) AcuMotion ProCNC milling package 5000CP with these extras: (Sherline mounts, 250 oz-in motors for 3 axis, 4th axis driver, 268 oz-in motor on 4th axis) $2314

Would anyone be willing to either help me narrow the choices down further, of inform me of a possibility that I have not considered.

Thanks,

The Eternal Squire

Reply to
The Eternal Squire
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If you don't mind spending the extra cash, Tormach has a pretty neat CNC mill for sale now based on a mill-drill. price is $6800.

Haven't heard anyone who owns one, but they sound real neat and would give you a lot more capability than the MaxNC's and the like. Better investment. Good info on the site about them too. Check out their design guide... inspired me to want to build my own CNC mill.

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The Eternal Squire wrote:

Reply to
Adam

[The MaxNC's closed loop stepper system is the best thing about this one, but it has a tendency to generate "servo errors" that shut down the system somewhat randomly. If you replace or at least isolate the low-quality spindle motor which causes interference, it can help, but some owners have done that and still battle this constantly. Aside from that, its all-aluminum construction, small-diameter screws solid-coupled directly to the motors, and two-bolts-out-of-four motor motor-mounting scheme tend to make machining metals as hard as steel pretty difficult with this machine.]
[I'd say this one is the best overall choice of these three alternatives for what you've got in mind. It's bigger than the other two, and also costs the least. Taig's frame is quite heavy-duty for its size, and the engineering is good; it has beefy bearing blocks and half-inch diameter screws. There's a lot of steel used in the slides, particularly the Z-axis box ways. With the pulley-driven ER spindle you get low runout, plus low speeds and lots of torque for steel milling, or high speeds for softer materials and small cutters. The Xylotex control has 8x microstepping, which is good for reducing stepper resonance, and these motors have plenty of holding torque. I've heard some complaints about lost-step errors over certain speeds, but generally the Xylotex system gets good reviews (I haven't tried it myself, though.)]> ---------
[This is a Sherline #5400 mill with a third-party motion control system attached (which I can't really comment on, except to note that the motors seem powerful enough.) Sherline's products are all well-constructed, with good fit and finish. But they are somewhat light-duty, especially compared with the Taig, and smaller, especially in X (9" travel vs 12" for the 2019 CR). Like the MaxNC, they have 1/4" leadscrews, although they do a better job of mounting them. One excellent feature of the Sherline is its variable-speed DC spindle motor, which is powerful for its size and relatively quiet. For milling steel, though, rigidity counts for a lot, and the Sherline's Z-axis in particular is not as robust as the Taig's. Sherline builds the rotary table used in all three alternatives listed above, although MaxNC and Taig use their own mounting plates on it.]
[If you wanted to combine the best features of all the above, you might consider getting MaxNC's motion control system and Sherline's spindle motor, and mounting them on the Taig frame.]

All the Best;

Andrew Werby

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Reply to
Andrew Werby

Andrew,

I looked through your website. I also did surfed for the components you suggested, but I could not find where the Sherline variable speed spindle motor could be found. It also looks like I would have to do a fair amount of disassembly and reassembly to change the TAIG spindle to a Sherline spindle. And then, what would I do with all the spare parts? I did find a Mini Mill R8 variable speed head instead.

d) MAXNC 22160 (4 axis closed-loop control system) 975 MAXNC 4th axis adaptor for closed loop system 495 TAIG 2019 CR/ER 1055 Mini Mill r8 variable speed head 250

Would you be willing to walk me through creating a hybrid mill, or even to build one for me from parts you may have on hand? Failing that, I would likely go for Plan b

The Eternal Squire

Reply to
The Eternal Squire

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