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CNC Mill or Router?
This year, my team found itself with extra money in the budget, and we would like expand our program by getting either a a cnc mill or cnc router. We most likely will not be able to get both of them within the foreseeable future, since this is happening under some strange circumstance.
Our budget for this would be about $4000-5000. From your experience, is a cnc mill or cnc router more useful to have by itself? What size of each would be sufficient for an average team? |
Re: CNC Mill or Router?
What equipment do you currently have? If you don't have a manual mill then get that first.
Does the machine have to be new? |
Re: CNC Mill or Router?
You won't get as much for your money if you go cnc mill. I too would say to get a manual mill first but you need to pay attention too all the tooling you will need to make use of it. You will want someone with experience to help with training for that. I think you may want to go cnc router.
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Ideally a used Bridgeport or clone with dro then.
Skip CNC for now. |
Re: CNC Mill or Router?
So, I'm still not really clear. Would a cnc router or a manual mill with a dro be more useful in my situation?
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Re: CNC Mill or Router?
Here's something to consider: Does your team have anyone with enough CAD skills to justify the purchase of a CNC-anything? If not currently, is it likely that you can develop those skills?
If your team / school / mentor base isn't likely to support creating and sustaining the CAD skills needed to feed the CNC [mill or router], why not stick with manual mill? |
Re: CNC Mill or Router?
I would vote 7x12 lathe and Bridgeport. If you shop around on Craigslist you can get the latter for $1500ish, and a DRO/ tooling for another $1500. Then Spend $1000 on a lathe and tooling and possibly $1000 on a Shapeoko 3 if you really want a CNC.
The Shapeoko is nowhere near the quality of an industrial CNC router, but for FRC use it's fine. |
Re: CNC Mill or Router?
For standard sized shaft work, the mill can easily be used as a lathe. Put the part in the spindle and clamp the tool in a vice.
This is assuming you can't have both. Quote:
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I suggested the Shapeoko because for the price and value you can't beat it. The new Shapeoko 3 can cut aluminum out of the box without issues. If the OP is considering one, looking at the videos of it cutting aluminum are enlightening as to its capabilities. |
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We've just started assembling it fully knowing we will need to upgrade some items. From the research I've done, it can handle aluminum if you purchase the correct end mills and use something like Inventor HSM to create efficient cutting paths. We're planning on publishing a white paper documenting our assembly process and any modifications needed to make it work well. Cost is around $1500 for the kit to assemble from Inventables - https://www.inventables.com/technologies/x-carve So far the assembly instructions include videos and pictures and has been relatively painless. |
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How often are you threading parts anyway? The shapeoko will be fine for a few parts, but for meaningful qty you'll need to keep the machine running nonstop. I really like the shapeokos for the price, and 973 is considering getting one for our pit, but they're more of a supplement than a workhorse compared to what a $5k or more router can do. We're getting off track anyway. For OP I stand by get the best manual mill for the price you can, then get a lathe as well as possible. Don't get a small mill, get a full size Bridgeport or clone. |
Re: CNC Mill or Router?
I too agree with Adam here, if you would like help finding good deals on machine please PM me and I can go over details with you.
The issue with a CNC router is that it will not replace an actual mill, but you can do milling with it with effort if you really are heavily inclined to get a CNC first. I would pick a manual mill+lathe and find a laser cutting sponsor(even just paying a shop to laser cut sheet for you is cheap enough to be well worth it) over a CNC router every day of the week. BTW you can follow G-code on a manual mill by hand via DRO(just try and avoid angles and curves that can be finished by hand later) I'm almost infamous around central California for buying lots of machines on the super cheap. EDIT: you are not far from our shop in Davis, I would be more than willing to meet sometime over the next week or two to go over the many options you have before you and the methods 1678 has used to build up our shop in the last few years. |
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Check Craigslist as there some mills and a digital read out not to far from you. Also check the Central Valley.
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Can confirm he gets good deals, I hear he bought 3 shopping carts of bowling balls for only $10! |
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I keep hearing on CD that for manual mills, a Bridgeport/clone is THE gold standard. So is there something similar for lathes, CNC lathes, CNC mills, and CNC routers?
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I watch a lot of auction sites for machines and what not. Bowling alley was going out of business and 46+ bowling balls for $36 after fees is a steal. Was thinking we could get a robot billiards league going or something, I have some other plans for some as well. Who knows, maybe it will be useful on a robot mechanism? |
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It will pay to find a way to bring mentors into your team that have experience with machine tools. Perhaps you have sponsors that are machine shops/employ machinists and you could get them to help you evaluate a prospective machine. At a minimum definitely take Devin up on his suggestion to help guide you in the right direction. Used machinery can be super hit or miss. There's a lot of old lathes out there that were made to a much higher standard of quality than new lathes are (that is not the case with mills), but there's also a lot that are going to be worn out pieces of junk, or require a good amount of tinkering by your team to tune them up and keep them in good working order. |
Re: CNC Mill or Router?
Thank you all so much for all of the input that you have given. I spoke with the rest of the team members today and we decided that we are definitely going purchase a manual mill with a dro. We have a sponsor that lets us use their laser cuter, so we were originally leaning in this direction anyways.
We do not really see a need for a lathe at this point. To my knowledge, we have never designed a part on a robot that justified the use of a lathe, and we would rather spend the money to buy another control system. |
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We have a Dayton 2lKP9 we got over 6 years ago and never used. It got wired up in the wrong room. We are getting it moved into our lab soon! Is there anything we should buy to prep for it? Is it a decent mill?
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Here's a fun post showing a guy refining his process to make anodized paintball gun triggers - https://discuss.inventables.com/t/al...-anodized/9924 |
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If it is still near-new, I would sell it and look for a Bridgeport. If that's not possible, you could definitely work with it- it just takes longer than the Bridgeport. |
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Since its a piece of crap what should be expect to use it for? |
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