Sometime in the near future I want to buy a milling machine for my shop, that I want to CNC retrofit later. But I`m not shure with machine is the best choice and how much a CNC retrofit will cost. The milling machines I`ve been considering is:
Acra/Rong Fu RF-40
Sieg X3
Bridgeport Serie 1 or similar (used)
I want to retrofit the machine I buy with a 3-axis CNC system (x,y and z). With one of these machines would you recommend?
I know that the RF-40 has very small quill travel (5”), in that way the X3 is much better. Is there a problem to convert the RF-40 to 3-axis CNC (I`m thinking about the Z-axis)? In the Bridgeport I can produce much bigger parts, but I guess the retrofit cost will be much higher than the others machines. I`ve been searching this forum trying to find out how much different retrofits will cost, but didn`t find out that much. Can anyone estimate how much a retrofit will cost on these machines (if I don`t buy a kit, but just buy parts and make the brackets my self and etc.)?