Hi,
Im looking for a manual bench top machine but I consider it may be better to have one made for me rather than buying a chinese machine. I am following many of the threads on here, including build threads.
Criticism, and quotes (for design/machining) is welcome and wanted. I am located west sussex, england.
My budget (total) is around £1000, about the same as a sieg X3.. but doesnt include any tooling.
total size should be around 1000x500x500 or so..
Steel/cast iron etc.. costs about ~£1 per Kg raw
Im also looking at using granite as the base, a 24"x18"x4" surface plate costs £100/80Kg.
I cant find any bigger granite surface plates than 24"x24"?. Also I think surface plate flatness may be OTT.
Ive found many much cheaper sources of granite, so the question is can it be machined flat easily using a flycutter..?
If made from steel plate, what grades of steel is suitable?
With cast iron, I would need each surface to be machined flat and square, stress relived etc.., which is what I hope to avoid with granite or partly with steel.
I have only quickly looked into rails/dovetails. I would like it to be an off the shelf type rather than machined dovetails, but also cheaper than linear rails.
Could I use lengths of prehardened toolsteel/silversteel rod for rails?
I dont know how much machining/drilling each part will cost, but heres some numbers:
£200 - 150kg base/table etc..
£100 - rails/dovetails.
£100 - Spindle (each, will add the second later)
My budget is ~£1000 for the working machine, so that leaves about £600 to get it made.
thanks
Mark