Hi,

After much deliberation I have decided to buy a CNC mill for some small aluminum parts manufacturing. Our parts are not more than 200 MM wide, the stocks we use are normally 6 to 10 MM thick stock aluminum, usually sheets or bus bars.

Initially I thought of the Shapeoko Pro 5 CNC router, this has very good CAD ->CAM->G code support. This is one of the main features that has encouraged me to look into the ready to use desktop machines. However I am worried about the rigidity of the machine when milling aluminum/brass parts, besides this is primarily a CNC router for woodworking, although it can also be used for metal milling.

The Sherline approach is very attractive to me as there is lot flexibility in choosing the stepper motors, Gcode senders, GRBL based cards etc. For the sherline model I am considering the 12" Deluxe table top mill with ball lead screws (https://www.sherline.com/product/685...s/#description) or also the 14 " Bench top 8 direction mill (https://www.sherline.com/product/200...tion-mill-pkg/)

My question is

1. Is the ball type lead screw better or the ACME thread one?
2. We will not be doing full fledged production ( just small scale production, 5-10 parts per month). But we do need the machine for R&D purposes so the 8 direction mill is a better option. However I am worried about backlash in the ACME threads, so the ball type maybe a better option in terms of longevity, which do you think is better?
3. I am planning to go for 3 axis stepper motors, with step drivers connected to a WiXHC (Mach4 USB CNC controller) (https://www.wixhc.cn/product/mach4-c...er-card-mk4-m4).
Here the design approach would be CAD (Onshape for Fusion)-> CAM (fusion or something similar)->G Code sender->USB CNC controller unit
is this possible with the Sherline CNC mill.
4. Is the collet size suitable for most metal milling work, in both machines? Most CNC router uses ER-11 collet, for the Sherline CNC millI was told the feed rate would be slow, is this correct?


FYI We do have the Sherline Lathe, the machine build is pretty solid, however we do have problems sourcing the special tool bits, other than that no other issues.

thanks
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