Hi All,

First post, newb to manufacturing engineering, etc. so be gentile...

I'm starting a business (think very, very large drones) and need to build cost-effective prototypes and maybe progress to initial light production. I'm a design engineer and new to the manufacturing side, but since I can't seem to get parts made at a cost I can afford I've decided to make them myself. So I'm about to order my first CNC machine. Sorry, this 'new machine', but 'buy' not 'build' - I simply don't have time no matter how much fun that would be.

I need to mill semi-complex parts out of 6061-T6 and I think I've settled on the AMN-6040-M CNC Router from Alpha CNC with a few options. This is the best (cheapest) off-the-shelf unit I can find that looks to meet my needs at a price I can afford. My budget is ~$5K to start for this item; this machine starts at $3200 and a nice Delta B2 servo upgrade runs an additional $1500. Looks pretty sweet: beefy frame, is designed to cut hard metals, and hopefully can grow with my business for a few years.

By the way, you won't find that machine on their website but when I inquired their sales folks and gave them my requirements, this is what they suggested.

The plan is to use Fusion-360 to translate my CAD models into G-code and run that on the mill. Since they don't offer it, it's looking like I'm going to need to buy or build an A/B-axis table to mount on the XY table to cut some of the parts but I'm starting out with the 3-axis plus a rotary A-axis they do offer that looks more targeted at lathing so it probably won't work for what I need but the price is right so I'm throwing it in.

I'm asking them about getting a controller that supports 5-axises, but they're hedging and recommending I stick with the Mach-3 4-axis unit that comes default with the machine. They warn to stay away from Mach-4 because they say it's not reliable but I doubt this is true, especially nowadays with a recent version of Mach-4 and driving servos not steppers. Wives tales die hard, especially when functional pirated software is involved.

They're willing to supply it (with some resistance & $$) with either a 'Mach-3' 6-axis or 'Mach-4' controller. I put that in air-quotes because it's hardware, not software. I think they're offering it with this (or some knockoff):
Products ??????????? (in the 4-axis variant)
but I'm wanting to go with something like this:
Products ??????????? (the 6-axis version)

I have absolutely no problem purchasing a licensed copy of Mach-4. Probably hobby version until I actually sell something. My only concern is, what motion controller is going to work best for my application? And should I go with Mach3 (free) or v4 software? Order with one of these CDX HTC Tech products, or something else? Or should I stick with the bare-bones (which they know and support) and plan on upgrading to get the additional axises I need?

So that's my first post question, hope it's not too stupid. But to make sure its a lame 1st-post I need to mention I need to place this order ASAP (EOW at the latest) so a fast reply on at least the controller question would be ????.

And yeah, I'll attach the AMN-6040-M PDF if this board will allow little ole newb me to attach files in case anyone is interested. It looks like a pretty nice setup.

Any feedback/thoughts/ideas are welcome, especially anything on A/B tables that can run 6061-T6 reasonably quickly. Finally, I'm looking forward to joining the community here. Looks like a lot of knowledgeable folks hang out here.