Even better:
http://littlemachineshop.com/product...ly_special.php
One of our mentor has it, and I gotten to run a few parts on it it; pretty solid little machine. And as with any machine good sharp tooling makes a world of difference.
If you can house one, any Bridgeport or clone is infinitely better then any Chinese import desktop milling machine. If you don't have room for one, have a look at the RF45 Mill or similar and if even that is out of your budget LMS'
http://littlemachineshop.com/3960 is a decent option.
And as the said above, having a guy that really knows how to run a machine is usually more important then what kind of machines to get.
Quote:
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Many schools / teams decide that CNC is the way to go, as a way of compensating for their inability to actually operate a milling machine. They let the computer make the decisions, and the result is just fine. I am of the opinion that having one or two kids on the team become excellent operators is a far better method.
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This is interesting... seeing that CNC is a LOT more expensive and personally I find manual milling for basic parts compared to CNC usually as simple and sometimes faster. Though our new off season bot is almost 100% CNCed... heh.