I am wondering how the quality of this mill is? is it even at all comparable to the quality of a bridge port? I know the power isn't going to be near the same..
are there much better cnc mills out there in this price range?
I am wondering how the quality of this mill is? is it even at all comparable to the quality of a bridge port? I know the power isn't going to be near the same..
are there much better cnc mills out there in this price range?
I'm in the same boat looking to upgrade from my Taig. So far... I'm looking at Syil($4K), Tormach($7K) and Industrial Hobbies(around $7K). All need stand, computer, tools and etc.
Like Tormach's stand and hear they are great machines. But they are using steppers. IH is using servos and have larger work envelop. But I'm not sure of the quality/reliability when compared to Tormach.
the new Seig CNC's that are coming out look very nice, I wonder what their price is going to be..
A Bridgeport is an industrial machine. The Syil is a hobby machine. Apples and oranges in both cost and quality.
It looks like Sieg is getting ambitious. It would be interesting to see what's going on on their Quality Control and R&D departments. Maybe this is Sieg's Hyundia Pony?
Anyone who says "It only goes together one way" has no imagination.
yeah these new Seig machines certainly look nice, I just wonder what the cost is going to be. If you can get either a full cnc mill or lathe will a cooling system and enclousure for sub 8K each I think that's a great deal! If you want to get something with a full encloursure and cooling system right now you need to either go for a Wabeco at about 15K or then step up to a bigger machine like a SWI Trake Lathe 1630 for about $25K or a HAAS TL-1 for about $23K
They look quite a bit like the new Smithy CNC's. Maybe the same roots? Maybe too an idea on price?
yeah no word on the new KC6 lathe though being available in the USA..
I agree with cyclestart !
To go further, I would never pay $4-7 K for a hobby Machine, no matter how “pretty” it is!
If you decide you might want to do some serious work in the future, buy yourself a Bridgeport Boss & retrofit it. I bought a clean Boss 4 on E-Bay for under $1500.
The electronics package cost about $1250. By following Roland Friestad’s articles in HSM & info. here on the Zone, the retrofit was easy. You can do most of the work with just a hand drill!!
If you elect to Retrofit a Bridgeport 2J it will probably cost you an additional $1500. The Ballscrews alone are $1000. and you will have to fabricate all
the motor mounts etc.
I’ve retrofitted both machines and I would cast my vote for the Boss in terms
of “return on investment”.(time & money)
I like to build Benchtop machines for fun…but I do all the hard work on my Bridgeports.
CNCfun&games
yeah well for somebody like me new to machining the thought of buying a used machine (that i don't even really know how to access the quality of), and then looking to retrofit it for CNC is just a HUGE hurdle that I don't feel like trying to undertake. I already sell a bunch of parts that other machinists are currently making so I can't afford to be down with a used machine and playing around trying to retrofit it for weeks. A 5K machine can easily pay for itself in 2 weeks time of the parts I sell.
I own an X3. Support has been great. If you consider what is is designed to do it is good quality with some work. I had a digital read out that would not work and I worked with them to solve it. It was just a loose connection on the board in the back of the machine. you cant even compare this to a Bridgeport machine. It can only take very light cuts. I don't even recommend cutting steel with this machine. I am practicing with wood to learn how CNC works. I use a vacuum to keep things clean. It is a fun little toy and is perfect to learn on. I did have a problem with a y axis lead screw loosing a few balls. It was caused from a shallow keeper ring groove not being deep enough to allow the keeper to stay in place when runnig the travel too far. It should have stalled the motor but it popped off and out comes the balls. after some investigation and lots of patience I managed to dissasemble and machine the groove deeper and of course the putting the balls back in the right place in the ball nut. it took a few hours. but is all better now.