Shop Development

[asid61]

Originally Posted by apples000

For what we do in FRC, it is totally possible to teach students starting on CNC. Everything we do is aluminum, easy to fixture, and uses pretty basic milling operations with end mills that range from .125" to .5" diameter and the occasional fly cutter for face milling.

However, I don't agree with what you're saying about manual mills only being used in profit-losing situations. There are still plenty of machine shops effectively using manual mills to make parts.

If you don't already, I would highly recommend switching to insert face mills over end mills and flycutters when you can. You get absolutely stunning finishes while running the things at 2000 or 3000rpm. I run a 2" face mill at 2000rpm on a manual mill and it has greatly sped up how fast I do my work, because I don't have to take a finishing cut and I can chug through metal really fast.

Regardless of whether you get a manual mill or CNC, buy an insert face mill along with the regular stuff.