[aealden]

Hi,

I have a small business that specialises in personalised hot foiled leather journals, portfolios and photo books etc.

We are in need of updating our brass type characters in multiple sizes from 5mm to 10mm with and we need some new type casings and other small brass projects. In addition, we spend thousands of pounds a year on magnesium blocking dies. The dies are generally not more than 10 cm across and tend to have simple graphic designs on them.

The flexibility and expanded creativity that a CNC machine would give us is thrilling and would enable us to experiment and expand into many new ventures. I am very keen to purchase one as long as it fits within our budget and will do what I need it to do. Technically I am confident I will be able to learn the required skills to operate the machine via PC perhaps with some of the free software I gather is available.

Looking through another thread :

https://www.cnczone.com/forums/uncat...neering-2.html

It seems like something like the Haas Mini Mill would do everything we need but it seems like overkill and is probably too expensive for us initially at £20k.

I am looking for a solid value machine that ideally would fit on a desktop surface although I am not sure if these type of machines wo There are loads of these small machines available but I wonder if they are powerful enough to do brass work. Of course, we want something that is reliable and with parts readily available and reasonable to maintain. It does not need be enclosed as it will only be me using it and I can put my own precautions in place.

I would be very grateful for any advice you can give me.

Thanks

Alex

[awerby]

Take a look at the Taig/Peatol mills; they can easily cut brass, and have enough spindle speed to allow the use of the small cutters you will need to get good detail in your characters.

[skrubol]

The Tormach 440 is a small CNC that will cut most metals pretty easily. Quite a bit bigger than the Taig's, but much smaller than a Haas as well. Not sure how attractive they are pricewise outside of the US. A nice thing about the Tormach's is you can buy the bare mill, but they have a full line of accessories that can make them semi-production machines (for a lot more $$ of course.)
Depending on time and budget, I'd really recommend buying or building an enclosure. When using a mill, especially on metal, chips get everywhere, they get tracked out of the room on shoes, etc. The chip pan for the 440 is reasonably priced, and I think it makes a decent starting point for building your own enclosure (their full enclosure seems a bit overpriced to me.)