Ok so I need a 4 Axis CNC Mill. I've been playing around with various cad/cam softwares and to be honest, most of them suck. Clunky interfaces, uber steep learning curves, and needless complications, well at least for my application. MeshCAM just works. It's easy to learn, made sense from the first time I opened it up. It's quite simple, elegantly so, and you don't need a PhD in CNC terms to understand it. But it's simplicity means it may lack a few features.
Now I have to choose a CNC Mill. I want it to work with MeshCAM, and I don't want to overbuy a mill that has more features than MeshCAM will support. But I want the best Mill for my application.
This is what I am making.
It's called an isohedron. I'll also be making various other simple polygons. All less than 1 inch in diameter. These will be primarily cut from various types of wood as well as plastics and metals. They are being used as blanks to make dice with. So I'm not trying to do anything crazy complicated, but these will require a 4 axis machine and good precision since they are small scale.
I'd like to snag something with a tool changer if MeshCAM can make use of one. Though I'm still not sure if tool changers are used in the CAM software or if the controller uses the tool numbers assigned in the CAM software to know which tool to pick up from the changer, so this may be a moot point.
I also want to buy local. And I don't want to spend a fortune. DeArmond Tools is located in Amarillo (not exactly local but near enough). Dan has been more than helpful though this whole process. He's recommend two machines for me to choose from.
The Taig is priced right and looks like it will get the job done.
link in next post
The Levil has all the bells and whistles.
link in next post
While I really like the Levil, the price is pretty steep. Dan says that it should make up the price difference over the first few thousand dice on account of the how much faster the Levil will run. The Levil is also a much more accurate and robust machine. Either machine will have a 4th Axis added to them.
For my production numbers I'm looking at getting two Taigs or one Levil. If mesh cam can make use of all the features of the Levil, then it sound to me as it that is the way to go. But man I really like the price of the Taig machine, and if it will get the job done, I'll defiantly get my money back out of it faster.
What do yall think? Taig or Levil?