blackboat
Stainless
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2001
- Location
- Conyers, GA
While I love all the various manual machines I have, At one point I also made the statement"the next tool to come in here needs to be CNC. "
Still feel that way, but also still don't have a business plan or funding.
I run a 3 axis wood router, GUI, so we jut point & click on geometries, and stuff gets a movin and dust flies. So I'm real comfortable in the world of draw the widget, stick code on widget, somewhere in there all our pretty little lines get chopped up into G code and the chunks start leaving that we didn't want
there anyways.
Anyway, I'd like to move more into metal CNC and need some help for what to look for. I gather there's knee mills and bed mills. Shop on residential property, so it needs to be 8000# or less, and not over 8' tall. I get the new drives on old machines stuff (Like a Boss refit). Seems starting with a basic mill and then finding ball screws, etc., ain't the way to go.
Any smaller, older VMCs out there that would lend themselves to refit? Thinking about some widgets that are the size of a brick and roughed in, drilled, crossdrilled, few pieces tapped, etc.
Basically can't take the plunge for a new Haas, but needing suggestions of what to look for in smaller machines that could be drug home for control retrofit.
Thanks, sorry this is so spotty, bad flu that wants to be pneumonia right now and the prescriptions have me a bit "addled" at times.
Thanks,
Rob
Still feel that way, but also still don't have a business plan or funding.
I run a 3 axis wood router, GUI, so we jut point & click on geometries, and stuff gets a movin and dust flies. So I'm real comfortable in the world of draw the widget, stick code on widget, somewhere in there all our pretty little lines get chopped up into G code and the chunks start leaving that we didn't want
there anyways.
Anyway, I'd like to move more into metal CNC and need some help for what to look for. I gather there's knee mills and bed mills. Shop on residential property, so it needs to be 8000# or less, and not over 8' tall. I get the new drives on old machines stuff (Like a Boss refit). Seems starting with a basic mill and then finding ball screws, etc., ain't the way to go.
Any smaller, older VMCs out there that would lend themselves to refit? Thinking about some widgets that are the size of a brick and roughed in, drilled, crossdrilled, few pieces tapped, etc.
Basically can't take the plunge for a new Haas, but needing suggestions of what to look for in smaller machines that could be drug home for control retrofit.
Thanks, sorry this is so spotty, bad flu that wants to be pneumonia right now and the prescriptions have me a bit "addled" at times.
Thanks,
Rob