[109jb]

G0704 is belt driven or gear?

Stock is gear drive. There are several companies making belt drive conversions, and many have made their own.

[arizonavideo]

Any small mill doing a heavy cut at a good speed will make a lot of noise.

I'm surprised all the time at the amount of noise I can make ruffing down parts and all my mills have belt drives. A 2" face mill cutting at 40 IPM at 4000 RPM at .1" DOC makes a lot of noise.

A smaller mill might do 1500 RPM at .050" at 20 IPM. Still loud.

[ChrisAttebery]

Yes, but I'd never attempt that cut with my G0704. I do take cuts in the 1.5cu in/minute range with my mill but they are high DOC, low WOC and 45ipm.

https://youtu.be/Nud7WY6O89s


That's nowhere near as loud as a router. You can always take lighter cuts with a mill too.

Any small mill doing a heavy cut at a good speed will make a lot of noise.

I'm surprised all the time at the amount of noise I can make ruffing down parts and all my mills have belt drives. A 2" face mill cutting at 40 IPM at 4000 RPM at .1" DOC makes a lot of noise.

A smaller mill might do 1500 RPM at .050" at 20 IPM. Still loud.

[Monroelkjr]

Here is my advice to you. If you know nothing about operating a CNC Machine. Get on ebay and buy the cheapest router table 3 axis machine you can buy. (one you can do engraving with and practice on foam)

Learn how to configure it, use it with Mach 3 and CNCLinux and any other software you see fit.

Find out if you can even really do CNC or like it first.

There is a learning curve trust me and in a year you'll be ready to make a better informed decision for yourself and you won't be blaming me for telling you to buy a machine that I know would be better for me than you

Adding a tool changer would be something you could do IF you master the software and the hardware first.

I'll also tell you these machines are not PRODUCTION machines these are prototype and very low production machines.

They are a lot of fun if you like learning and if being a machinist works out for you.

If you have money to burn just buy the most expensive machine you can and if you don't like it sell it!

[MikeC8]

TTS Tool holders are not terribly expensive, and work well. You assign each tool holder a number, just as you would in a ATC. And you store each tools offset values into a tool table in your controller, again just like you would if you have a ATC. The only difference, is you are the tool changer. Either way you would need tool holders, and you would need to measure and label every single tool being used.


The biggest advantage to a ATC, is that you can run lights out. Without the ATC you have to be there to change the tools. But with tool holders and the stored tool library, its a quick swap and push of a button to continue the program.

[Gamble]

Here is my advice to you. If you know nothing about operating a CNC Machine. Get on ebay and buy the cheapest router table 3 axis machine you can buy. (one you can do engraving with and practice on foam)

Learn how to configure it, use it with Mach 3 and CNCLinux and any other software you see fit.

Find out if you can even really do CNC or like it first.

There is a learning curve trust me and in a year you'll be ready to make a better informed decision for yourself and you won't be blaming me for telling you to buy a machine that I know would be better for me than you

Adding a tool changer would be something you could do IF you master the software and the hardware first.

I'll also tell you these machines are not PRODUCTION machines these are prototype and very low production machines.

They are a lot of fun if you like learning and if being a machinist works out for you.

If you have money to burn just buy the most expensive machine you can and if you don't like it sell it!

I have had my cnc plasma for 3 years now. Never used mach3 or cnclinux. I also had a shapeoko3 cnc router.
For what I do, low production stuff and prototyping would be perfect. I mean low production like 10 pieces at a time. 20 MAX.

[Gamble]

What do you guys think of this?
I can build a g0704 with cnc stuff and enclosure for about 3500, but this doesn't seem like a bad deal either

GRIZZLY G0704 CNC Mill/Drill w/ Enclosure! Double BallNut Ball Screw Kit .0001" | eBay

[CL_MotoTech]

That's a nice enclosure. Apparently the floor isn't sloped though, so it's not particularly well suited for coolant use. As a result I wouldn't buy it. But the double ball nuts are a nice feature, one that I wish I had as I am always chasing my x-axis backlash a bit, though the others are fine. And the stock motor and gearbox is inadequate for CNC in my opinion, but probably not totally

I probably have $4k in my G0704 conversion, but that includes MPG, tool height setter, software, materials to build a rudimentary enclosure and coolant system, belt drive conversion, all CNC hardware. The nice thing about a pre-assembled machine is the amount of time you'll save to get the machine running, though for me that was part of the fun.

[Gamble]

is the one sold by little machine shop basically a harbor freight mill with the conversion already done?