Beginner CNC Mill Comparison

[DampRobot]

Let me just add on that even ten $100,000 mills with five axis and automatic tool changers are useless without a couple of extra critical pieces. First, you have to have a few students who can actually run the thing. If you only trust one mentor to run it, they will end up spending all their time watching the mill run. This is often a poor use of their time. Make sure that you trust a few students to do the watching, and let the mentor worry about potentially more important things. Also, students who are trained on the machine and know it's capabilities make much better mechanical designers.

Second, get good CAM software. I find that the CAD to G-Code step often takes much longer than the G-Code to cut metal phase. We have BobCAD v24, and I really wouldn't recommend it. It's ostensibly a 3d package, but is terribly unintuitive to use. I've had to learn how to use it about four times, because it's so hard to remember how to use it. I've heard good reviews of MasterCAM and Mach 3, but never had a chance to use them. No matter what CAM software you choose, have multiple students be able to crank out G-Code.

In terms of actual machines, we have a small HAAS with an ATC, and it really is as awesome as everyone says. However, it was about $40,000, so it is a sizable chunk of change over what you are looking for. It holds tolerances to about .0001", and has fast spindle and cutting speeds. The user interface is pretty nice too.