[steve355]

Hi

My first post! How exciting. Hopefully i am in the right place.

I am a hobby machinist in the UK with moderate experience. I have a bunch of small manual vintage machines I have renovated myself. Vertical and horizontal mill, surface grinder, lathe. I have no experience at CNC but I've played with CAD quite a bit. I'm not an expert at machining but I can cut ACME threads and gears, grind cutters, etc. I understands speeds and feeds and chatter/rigidity etc.

I recently lost my job as a manager and I am looking to prototype some products I've been thinking of for a while that would require CNC of small parts in brass and annealed O1 tool steel. By small I mean maximum 8" by 4", both some small simple brass parts and cutting plate brass and annealed O1 (1/8" max)

My budget is very, very limited. If I can prove the concept I can find money to ramp up, but I can't afford a big outlay right now, so I am looking at budget machines for prototyping. I am looking to learn the process myself rather than outsource.

I've been considering the latest Genmitsu 3030, but it looks to me more of a wood router and I don't think it has anything like the rigidity needed.

I've also been considering the Proxxon MF70 CNC. Looks good in many ways but size is very very limited. The Genmitsu is more like the size I am looking for.

I don't need anything particularly fast.

Any suggestions very welcome. I don't really know where to start.

Plus - I'm in the UK.

Steve

[joeavaerage]

Hi,
I'm sorry but I don't think any of those will meet your needs if you intend to cut metals.

I would suggest that you consider a drill-mill style of machine and convert that to CNC. With your existing experience you will have no trouble identifying the drill-mill
model or models that you might expect to have the rigidity to do want you want....then you need to convert to CNC.

There are threads on this forum about these conversions, ranging from just powering the existing lead screws, to replacing leadscrews with ballscrews, C7's if you cannot afford C5's,
to machining off the dovetails and installing linear rails/cars. Then there is the question of servos verses steppers, budget would indicate steppers, but I have no doubt you'll look to servos
with envy. Lastly there is the controller, and there is a wide choice ranging from free or near free Gcode senders through cheap hobby level software like Mach4 and UCCNC or LinuxCNC
to more complete commercial controllers/software like Centroid Acorn and Masso.

There are lots of choices to be made along the way, and budget will probably decide which of the options you might take. There are plenty of users whom have gotten very good results
taking this path, a small but capable machine commensurate with the rigidity of the original machine.

You can make your own, but that path is long and expensive. It is the path I pursued, and while I'm happy with the result the cost was much higher than buying second hand, whether
I converted to CNC or not.

Craig