A small CNC mill for parts, prototypes, electronics. . .

[Simone OMC]

I notice a lot of questions about leveling up shop tools on this forum, and since build season is starting soon, I thought I would let you all know about a new small CNC mill that might be relevant to your interests.

The Othermill is a desktop 3-axis CNC mill, with full CNC functionality and an excellent learning curve for new machinists. It's great for prototyping circuits, cutting 1/8'' thick aluminum sprockets, and fabbing small parts. It's rigid, dependable, and comes with motion control software you can download for free.

It runs g-code, .brd files, gerbers and .svgs, and it a great tool to have in your arsenal. You can use it to fab emergency parts in the pits, cut down on your parts budget, and increase your machine tool time as well.

See more about features, specs, and used cases at our website: www.othermachine.co

I'm also happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thanks, and have a good build!

Simone Davalos
Project and Support Engineer
Other Machine Co.

[cadandcookies]

GOFIRST has one of these-- I haven't used it too much, but it's been quite nice for our purposes (what you'd expect-- light machining and small prototyping). We used it for stands on a quadcopter we rebuilt this spring. Cool little machine.

[AdamHeard]

Your site lists it requires "MAC OS X 10.8 or higher".

Does it not work with Windows?

[Simone OMC]

The mill's motion controller is currently only for OS X (we are working on porting it to Windows), but the machine can be controlled with a 3rd party software platform called Chilipeppr (Chilipeppr.com).

We have a bunch of Windows users who have had good results with Chilipeppr. It's free and open source, and speaks to our TinyG control board natively.

You do need to have a little bit of experience with G-Code, but if you are working in CAM software that has g-code export, what you see on the screen is what the machine will make!

[asid61]

At $2000, how does this offer an advantage over small used CNCs or CNC routers such as the Shapoko?

[Greg Needel]

On your site it says available to ship in 8-12 weeks. This might be a bit long for robotics teams. Do you have any ways to expedite that for teams who want them by build season?

[Dr.Gusta]

It seems quite expensive what advantages would it have over a retrofitted bridgeport machine, well besides the portability lol.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Dr.Gusta

It seems quite expensive what advantages would it have over a retrofitted bridgeport machine, well besides the portability lol.

None.

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by Cory

None.

Might be a bit more difficult to do custom PCBs on a Bridgeport.

[Chadfrom308]

I am making a CNC machine with tinyG and I have heard very good things about it. Cheap and smart. That's what I like!

[mman1506]

Originally Posted by cadandcookies

Might be a bit more difficult to do custom PCBs on a Bridgeport.

Why?

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by mman1506

Why?

Othermill has some nice integration with existing PCB creation tools (Eagle, ect), mainly. Would also depend on the age and state of the Bridgeport in question (don't get me wrong, my high school had three older Bridgeports, and I loved them, but one of them was a lot more finicky than the others).

[asid61]

Originally Posted by cadandcookies

Might be a bit more difficult to do custom PCBs on a Bridgeport.

Are you saying that I CAN'T make a PCB faster than this micro machine!? Oh, we are ON!
But seriously, it would be very difficult to manually mill a complex PCB. That is one thing that this Othermill does well as it's CNC right out of the box. However, for the amount of PCBs most teams do I would find it hard to justify such a purchase. If they want PCBs, OshPark has less than a week turnaround, or teams can just buy a Shapoko. It's around 1/6th the cost and has a much larger build volume.
As for portability... I don't see why you would want that other than as a pit gimmick.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by asid61

As for portability... I don't see why you would want that other than as a pit gimmick.

Limited shop size is a reality for many teams.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by cadandcookies

Might be a bit more difficult to do custom PCBs on a Bridgeport.

But the average FRC team makes how many PCBS, ever? 0?