OT: Roland subtractive RP machines

Does anyone out there have any experience of the Roland MDX-40 milling machine? I'm bullying my bosses about getting a milling machine for rapid prototyping some our designs - any coments?

Thanks

Lee

Reply to
Lee Bazalgette - factorydesign
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Lee,

Before you fork out all that money have a look at this. I am contemplating buying one of these myself. Certainly just a fraction of the price of any RP machine. In my opinion it is the worthiest of all the cheap machines I came across. It is definitely not a drill press with servo motors.

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What I like the most is the independence from proprietary controllers since everything happens on your PC. Also, the price point is unbeatable. They have lots of documents on their website. It answered many of my questions. It seems that they are actually modest about their machine's capabilities.

I am not associated with them on any way.

Good luck Attila

Lee Bazalgette - factorydesign wrote:

Reply to
bertok

Hi,

Thanks for your response. After a quick look it would appear that you need to get CNC software in order to run that one - something like CamWorks - but with the Roland one the software is included, plus you get a fourth axis too as far as I can make out!

LB

Reply to
Lee Bazalgette - factorydesign
[I've been using one for a while, and I like it a lot. It's not meant for cutting metal, but for plastics, wax, and other soft materials it works well. It's pretty fast, and it comes with all the software you need in order to create a toolpath from your model and mill it, without any expert machining knowledge being required (although it never hurts). It comes standard with a 4th-axis rotary table and tailstock, as well as an automatic tool-setting system that keeps you from breaking the expensive little hair-thin endmills it can use (because it has a 15k rpm spindle). For an extra $495, you can get a piezo-electric probe that lets it double as a scanner, handy for reverse-engineering projects or getting parts to fit with pre-existing objects. While no mill will give you the design flexibility of additive RP machines, there are other advantages like manufacturability, good surface quality, and the ability to use a wide range of non-proprietary materials that make "Subtractive Rapid Prototyping" worth considering. ]

Andrew Werby

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(an authorized Roland distributor)

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Andrew Werby

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bertok

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