Quote:
Originally Posted by DeepWater
I tend to agree with the others comments. The Taig is just a bit too small. Not only is the work envelope limiting but the rigidity of the machine itself limits the cuts you can make. For the same ~$2500 you could get a manual dovetail mill/drill. Take a look at Industrial Hobbies. I don't have nor have I ever used or even seen in person one of their mill/drills but their website sure makes a strong case for their mill/drill over the similar well known Rong-Fu and cheaper house brand imports like Enco, Grizzly, Turn-Pro, etc. For the same ~$2500 you are considereing spending on that Taig CNC mini-mill you can get the Industrial Hobbies basic manual SQUARE COLUMN mill/drill. It is a beast though compared to the Taig so you aren't going to be bringing it along to competition.  If you search around on their website there is a photo of a popular hobby type Seig X2 mini-mill (Harbor Freight, Homier, Grizzly, Micromark, etc.) sitting on the table INSIDE the Industrial Hobbies mill/drill. The Taig mini-lathe is about the same size as the Seig X2 mini-mills but the Taig is a little less "beefy" if you ask me. If you have the $ consider one of the Industrial Hobbies packages with DROs and power feed included with the mill/drill for about $3700. If you don't have the extra funds for the DROs and/or power feed up front you can always add them later for ~$1500.
So as others have said you are probably better off starting with a manual mill and required tooling first and then step up to CNC later if needed. Never underestimate the cost of tooling. You could easily spend another $2500 on tooling.
As luck would have it Industrial Hobbies has ready made CNC retrofit packages for their mill/drills for ~$4500 which includes software.
As I said I have absolutely no experiance with the Industrial Hobbies machines but I am strongly considering one for myself. I figure for ~$4000 I can get a really nice manual mill/drill with DROs and power feed delivered to my door. Once setup I can later add CNC for ~$4500 if I want and have a really nice setup for a total investment of ~$8500. I have the tooling covered since the Industrial Hobbies mill/drill has an R8 spindle as does my existing Seig X2 mini-mill.
If anyone has any hands on experiance with the Industrial Hobbies machines I would love to hear your opinions of the machine. |
Team 116 bought one of the Industrial Hobbies mills last year. We bought the CNC upgrade kit this year, and are currently in the process of installing it. The mill is an absolute beast, and wonderful to work with. It is twice as heavy as the Rong-Fu RF-30 or RF-31 mills (or all the Rong-Fu clones that are out there from Grizzly, Enco, HF and others), and much sturdier. The square column is very stiff, and I could not find any measurable flex under heavy machining loads. The stiffer design helps with better surface finishes than we can typically get on the smaller mill-drill machine we have without a lot of extra work. Unlike the smaller mills (which can use 120-volt single phase), you will need 220-volt, 3-phase service for the I.H. mill. The 30" table travel envelope is larger than any other machines of a comparable size, and that has already proven to be useful. The I.H. mill uses standard R-8 tooling, so if you have already been collecting tooling for any of the typical mill-drill machines, it will transfer right over. Otherwise, you should plan to easily spent as much for tooling as you will for the mill. Having the head tilt option is one thing that we have not yet had the opportunity to take advantage of so far, but I have a few plans...
My only regret is that we waited for as long as we did to get the I.H. mill - I wish we had bitten the bullet and purchased it it at least five years earlier.
-dave
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