I joined the forum recently, looking for information on a "next step". I've had a SIEG manual lathe and mill for years and use them for the occasional hobby project. A year or so ago I bought a SeeMeCNC Rostock Max 3D printer and have been having fun with that but, particularly for dive equipment, prints just won't hold a seal or pressure without some form of post processing.

Still. In that process I've learned to enjoy going straight from a CAD model to production (obviously with a few steps along the way) and the manual gear has lost its shine.

So time for a mill - eventually I'd love a 5 axis machine plus the software and skill to drive it, to replace the lathe and mill both. But that ain't going to happen for a long time yet. I had a look at a mate's KX3-servo SIEG but it just didn't have the throat depth for a couple of projects I want to try.

Limited by shipping costs and availability in Australia, eventually it boiled down to three choices.
- A larger version of the X3 mill, replacing the leadscrews with ballscrews, steppers/servos etc;
- A bigger knee mill with a similar retrofit;
- A gantry type machine.

Problem with the first two is that I intend doing a lot of small/fine stuff so I want a much smaller tool and high speed spindle - problematic with these guys. Plus I want to get started on using the thing first time around, not spend months trying to get the tool working.

Still, lots of reading and learning about frame types and rigidity and appropriate choice of ways etc has helped here.

Yesterday I dropped the hammer on an OmioCNC (formerly carving-cnc) X6-2200L-USB with the 4th axis. X6-2200L (4-axis) Woodworking / Metalworking CNC Router --OMIOCNC(Carving-CNC) -omiocnc.com

This one caught my attention due to the large motors, the use of 20mm Hiwin rails instead of the more common round unsupported ones, the USB controller which apparently actually works out of the box. I figure that the low Z height can be taken care of with a higher gantry with wider spaced "feet" to account for the extra leverage and I'd only need to replace the rails and leadscrew on the Z to get better travel. But we'll see.

If nothing else it was a cheap way to get me into the game and give me the tools to build something better if I need it. We shall see!

Supposedly be here in a couple of weeks, I shall report on the inevitable DHL wallet rampage and unpacking etc as we go.

Oh, and a pic. Coz everyone likes pics.