[auto.pilot]

Looking to cut steel parts no thicker than 1/8 inch, no larger than 4 inches long. There are some gentle curves and lots of holes and slots. I like the idea of a cnc machine for more precise cuts, but the cost of a cnc mill is certainly a factor. Can a home built cnc router cut steel? If not, would like suggestions for a benchtop milling machne that could eventually be converted to cnc. Thx in advance. Jim

[wizard]

If by router you mean a machine with a high speed spindle like a wood router then the answer is no the spindle is much to fast for most end mill work. If however you mean a custom machine that looks something like a router with a slower spindle then the answer is yes you can build one. The real question is does it make sense to do so. That and the fact that you would need access to a machine shop, means a DIY gantry machine (some people have a narrow definition for what a router is) is probably not the ideal solution.

On the other hand you can do a CNC mill conversion fairly fast if you are willing to purchase the hardware required. As to machines it would be best if this question was moved to the benchtop machines section. Lots of good things happening there with small machines.

Looking to cut steel parts no thicker than 1/8 inch, no larger than 4 inches long. There are some gentle curves and lots of holes and slots. I like the idea of a cnc machine for more precise cuts, but the cost of a cnc mill is certainly a factor. Can a home built cnc router cut steel? If not, would like suggestions for a benchtop milling machne that could eventually be converted to cnc. Thx in advance. Jim

[awerby]

Take a look at the Taig mills. You can get them with a CNC system that you just install and run on a PC, and they're rigid enough to handle your small steel parts. Unless you're an Etch-a-Sketch master, there's no way you're going to be able to do accurate curves on a manual mill.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[wizard]

The Taig mill mentioned above is a good choice if you want close to a turn key solution. You should also look at Little Machine Shop, Tormach and some of the other vendors of mini CNC mills. This especially if you could see a need do work on larger parts in your future.

The thing is this, you may never see a need to work on larger sheets of metal in your future and in that regard a Taig would be fine. However if you suspect you may have a need to machine larger pieces or might see larger volumes of this part a larger mill may be of advantage. Essentially a larger mill allows you minimize setups for small parts by mounting several parts at once on the mill. Something to keep in mind if you expect any significant volume.

On another note CNC machines aren't always more accurate but they are a lot faster. Further do not expect the accuracy one might get from a Haas, Fadal or similar commercial CNC mill, from these lower cost machines. A conversion mill gives you more flexibility in the quality of components used to build the mill but at some point the low cost mills used in common conversions are harder to justify the expense because of inherent issues in the machines.

As mentioned before I believe router type machines are out of the question for you. You can certainly make a quality machine to do what you want if you have the time and access to the required machining equipment. Building a router like machine to do this sort of thing probably should be your first project. The reasoning is this, there are a limited number of examples out there thus you would be doing much of the "design" yourself.