Quote:
Originally Posted by Dick Linn
That ZX45 mill you posted appears to be one of the many Rong Fu RF-45 square-column mill clones. Here's a brief intro: http://www.fignoggle.com/machines/rf...mill/index.htm
Many folks do good work with these (assuming this is the 700+ lb. machine) and also retrofit them for CNC. Look/ask around here: http://www.cnczone.com/
I'm of the opinion that one needs to learn the basics of milling before venturing into CNC. A DRO is a definite plus. |
I agree. That RF-45 is a nice mill for what it is. It's a real piece of machinery that you can do real work on. It's going to be far more rigid than the other choices.
Those two CNC mills are hobbyist toys. You're going to have a very limited work envelope and it's going to take a very long time to cut aluminum. It will do it if you ask it to, just be prepared to sit there for a very long time.
Do you really need CNC? If you don't need to make radii/splines/etc you really don't NEED it. If you want to put holes in a plate for a gearbox you can easily do that with the manual model you linked. It might take 10 minutes longer than the CNC mill, but it'll work just fine. If you're looking at anything requiring serious material removal the manual mill is going to beat the pants off the CNC one, even accounting for the added time of manually doing it.