VulcanMachineCo
Plastic
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2019
NOTE: This is in the prototype stage, not product ready stage.
Hi all, we’d like to introduce a mill we’ve been building over the last several months that is being iterated and would end up on kickstarter. We call it the Maker Mill because we’re targeting makers, micro-fabricators, inventors, hobbyists, educators and professionals. Due to its cast iron construction this mill is able to machine all materials. The price is low enough that you don’t need to have a business or worry about ROI if you want to purchase it. This mill aimed at micro-fabricators and business owners who are looking for quality (tolerances/repeatability) at the sacrifice of throughput (speed) for the benefit of a low price.
We’re currently in the testing and tuning stage of our prototype. It’ll end up definitely going through one more iteration before it’s production ready. The reason we’re posting this is because we’re planning a crowdfunding campaign (Kickstarter) soon and are looking for feedback.
We couldn’t wait and took a teaser video of it shortly after we got it finally up and running. Sorry for the bad camera quality and now obvious worn out HSS endmills! (all filmed at 1x)
We decided to build it because there aren’t many low cost robust mills currently on the market, just one brand which has a near monopoly over these size mills. The pricing for them sounds reasonable until you realize it doesn’t even include the computer/controller. By the time you get a working mill with some industry standard “upgrades,” you’re already in the hole for a couple more thousand just in options. We wanted something you could buy that would run right out of the box. No excessive amounts of installation required, no hidden fees/upgrades required. You can buy the mill at its list price and have it come with everything you need - start cutting soon after receiving it. It’s packed full of excellent features that you normally have to pay extra for such as a BT30 spindle and power drawbar, which on ours are standard.
Price is somewhere around $8,000 - $9,000 but we’re trying to bring it down to $5-6K for the kickstarter. We want to drop the price as low as we can get it without taking too much of a loss.
What ~$8,500 gets you:
~600 lbs of iron cast into the frame, optimised after finite element analysis and harmonic frequency analysis simulations.
Premium BT30 spindle (90mm od, (3) 7008 angulars front, (2) 7007 angulars rear) + pneumatic drawbar
25mm linear guides all around
20mm c7 ball screws with double ball nuts (anti-backlash), c5 upgrade available
Industrial 6 axis capable, S-Curve motion controller with robust software package included with price
Conversational programming
XYZ Travel: 16in x 12in x 16” (410mm x 300mm x 400mm)
Very small footprint, less than 36” x 36”
Plug and play, assembled by us not by you
Closed loop steppers, servo upgrade available
Mist coolant is standard
Runs on 220v - standard in residential housing for washers and dryers
Standard tooling system available world wide from innumerable suppliers
2.2Kw spindle motor
Vector frequency drive spindle controller
USA designed and assembled, USA customer support
We’d love to answer any questions you have. We just launched our landing page too, so if you want to learn more click this link:vulcanmachineco. We have an email list you can sign up for to hear any news of our progress and information on our launch.
Hi all, we’d like to introduce a mill we’ve been building over the last several months that is being iterated and would end up on kickstarter. We call it the Maker Mill because we’re targeting makers, micro-fabricators, inventors, hobbyists, educators and professionals. Due to its cast iron construction this mill is able to machine all materials. The price is low enough that you don’t need to have a business or worry about ROI if you want to purchase it. This mill aimed at micro-fabricators and business owners who are looking for quality (tolerances/repeatability) at the sacrifice of throughput (speed) for the benefit of a low price.
We’re currently in the testing and tuning stage of our prototype. It’ll end up definitely going through one more iteration before it’s production ready. The reason we’re posting this is because we’re planning a crowdfunding campaign (Kickstarter) soon and are looking for feedback.
We couldn’t wait and took a teaser video of it shortly after we got it finally up and running. Sorry for the bad camera quality and now obvious worn out HSS endmills! (all filmed at 1x)
We decided to build it because there aren’t many low cost robust mills currently on the market, just one brand which has a near monopoly over these size mills. The pricing for them sounds reasonable until you realize it doesn’t even include the computer/controller. By the time you get a working mill with some industry standard “upgrades,” you’re already in the hole for a couple more thousand just in options. We wanted something you could buy that would run right out of the box. No excessive amounts of installation required, no hidden fees/upgrades required. You can buy the mill at its list price and have it come with everything you need - start cutting soon after receiving it. It’s packed full of excellent features that you normally have to pay extra for such as a BT30 spindle and power drawbar, which on ours are standard.
Price is somewhere around $8,000 - $9,000 but we’re trying to bring it down to $5-6K for the kickstarter. We want to drop the price as low as we can get it without taking too much of a loss.
What ~$8,500 gets you:
~600 lbs of iron cast into the frame, optimised after finite element analysis and harmonic frequency analysis simulations.
Premium BT30 spindle (90mm od, (3) 7008 angulars front, (2) 7007 angulars rear) + pneumatic drawbar
25mm linear guides all around
20mm c7 ball screws with double ball nuts (anti-backlash), c5 upgrade available
Industrial 6 axis capable, S-Curve motion controller with robust software package included with price
Conversational programming
XYZ Travel: 16in x 12in x 16” (410mm x 300mm x 400mm)
Very small footprint, less than 36” x 36”
Plug and play, assembled by us not by you
Closed loop steppers, servo upgrade available
Mist coolant is standard
Runs on 220v - standard in residential housing for washers and dryers
Standard tooling system available world wide from innumerable suppliers
2.2Kw spindle motor
Vector frequency drive spindle controller
USA designed and assembled, USA customer support
We’d love to answer any questions you have. We just launched our landing page too, so if you want to learn more click this link:vulcanmachineco. We have an email list you can sign up for to hear any news of our progress and information on our launch.
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