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Getting a CNC Machine.

novotny731

Plastic
Joined
Mar 14, 2019
Hello,

I am looking to get a CNC Machine at my shop at home. To run personal parts and do some job shop stuff to make money off the machine. Looking to see what people would recommend. Can spend about 25,000 USD. One problem I have is I do not have 3-phase. I have been been looking at HAAS Mini Mills. I believe the Haas Mini Mills will run on 1-phase 240v. Just curious if people have different brands that they would recommend.


Thanks,
Jake Novotny
 
Jake, Post some examples of what you plan to make. Maybe a Mini Mill or TM (also single phase) is a good fit. Maybe you'd be better off spending some of that 25K on a Phase Perfect and buying a three phase machine. No way to give good input without more detail.
 
You might want to limit your machine spending to something more along the lines of 18-21K. It will take the rest of your budget to get it home and tool it up. If you go 3 phase you can knock a few more thousand off of that to convert over with.
 
American Rotary Phase convertor is what powers all my 3 phase machines in the middle of nowhere Mi..
don't limit yourself to single phase machines neighbor.
Good luck
Gw
 
13engines I just had a 16,000 lb live tooled lathe with a subspindle moved into my shop out in the sticks, took $8,000 total.

Greg, I started a thread on powering a 48kva 139 amp machine in the phase converter forum and got no responses. How will the American Rotary handle spindle speed changes, live tool motor kicking in, etc.? I have 3-phase a road over and an electric company engineer coming out on wednesday to estimate running 3-phase power over to my road (as well as a higher amperage meter loop and panel $$$$), but if that isn't cost effective I was going to buy a phaseperfect digital converter for the 99% efficiency and resale value (if that ever comes up).

But it's another $10,000... Powering big equipment is not cheap!

Almost glad I didn't buy that $18k pallet changing horizontal with an old fanuc control on it now. Almost.
 
I have very limited knowledge of fire in the wire, call American Rotary, I had a Electrican (SIL) do install and research, I am still amazed that my toys run here, power at the pole is my weak spot, the lights in the house blink( says my bride).
I know not of these phase perfect gizmos, but folks here speak well of them.
My large mill comes in at 16,000#s too.
Call em, I like what mine does.
Good luck, let us know what you end up with, please.
Gw
 
I’m looking to machine smaller parts. Snowmobile intakes. Motor mounts. Handle bar controls. Smaller parts. Probably nothing bigger 15 inches long. I’m going to look into phase converter. Also just curious in different brands of machines. Yes it 25,000 I wanna be up and running. Not just a machine. Thanks guys for the input so far
 
American Rotary Phase convertor is what powers all my 3 phase machines in the middle of nowhere Mi..
don't limit yourself to single phase machines neighbor.
Good luck
Gw

I have a homemade converter cobbled together for $300 that is a 15HP, that is tuned to run my two CNCs. I have used it for over 20 years. There use to even be links to plans on this very site to build your own, maybe they are still there.
 
I’m looking to machine smaller parts. Snowmobile intakes. Motor mounts. Handle bar controls. Smaller parts. Probably nothing bigger 15 inches long. I’m going to look into phase converter. Also just curious in different brands of machines. Yes it 25,000 I wanna be up and running. Not just a machine. Thanks guys for the input so far

Having just done this, I'd spend no more than 10-12k on the machine. The incidentals add up FAST.
 
The incidentals add up FAST.

Isn't that the truth. Lets see, air compressor, belt sander, horizontal and or vertical band saw, stock rack, tooling cabinets, etc,etc. Let alone basic tooling and fixtures. I started as a manual shop and with a lot of the jobs I did I spent more in tooling than the job was worth. You can't charge out the full cost of a 4" hss shell mill to use it once on a aluminum plate job.
 
Isn't that the truth. Lets see, air compressor, belt sander, horizontal and or vertical band saw, stock rack, tooling cabinets, etc,etc. Let alone basic tooling and fixtures.

I had all of that, sans stock rack, and it still caught me by surprise.

Wire/fittings/boxes/etc, coolant, extra measuring tools, holders $100/ea, pull studs $15/ea, table studs, vise(s), collets upon collets, oops broke an endmill $25 times apparently infinity. Rigging and trucking. Oops fried an electrical doo-dad because 255v isn't close enough to 240v. Oops, overly cleaned the spindle encoder $100.

And it's still a used machine.

This is for certain largely due to me being green at this, but I didn't think I was. Dunning, meet Kruger. Let's go shopping for hotdog carts.
 
Cole you are cracking me up haha. Yeah it for sure to think about. I’m just starting to look into it. I’m gonna price out all the tooling and everything before I get a machine. Also my shop and manual machines. what can you get for 10-12k?
 
I’m just starting to look into it. I’m gonna price out all the tooling and everything before I get a machine.

This is crucial. I spent over $35k getting my first machine up and running. Electrical, rigging, freight, tooling, tool cart, vises, shop computer, etc. And then I forgot a horizontal bandsaw- DOH! There's another $7k.
 
Jake, Check out the Haas TM series of mills. They're single phase, if you don't plan to get more machines you can skip the phase converter cost. Or go the home brew rotary route for a couple hundred dollars. The TM gives you a large envelope and easy to learn control, at the price of snail like rapids, low rigidity, and slow RPMs. Be warned that older Haas controls aren't supported, lots of info on this site about that.
 
Hello,

I am looking to get a CNC Machine at my shop at home. To run personal parts and do some job shop stuff to make money off the machine. Looking to see what people would recommend. Can spend about 25,000 USD. One problem I have is I do not have 3-phase. I have been been looking at HAAS Mini Mills. I believe the Haas Mini Mills will run on 1-phase 240v. Just curious if people have different brands that they would recommend.


Thanks,
Jake Novotny

Hello Jake

I was in your shoes last year. I purchased a used 5hp Protrack DPM5 bed mill with a 3 axis SMX controller. It is in my shop being powered with a 10hp rotary phase converter. I couldn't be happier with what I purchased. the mill was 4 years old I got it for 30k. There are a couple smaller versions that cost significantly less though. It gives me the option to do manual jobs and its strengths are prototype kinds of work. It also has a conversational controller if you dont have cad cam. I originally considered the "tracking" option a luxury but now consider it a must have. I dont know how I would have lived without it.
Anyways, You should be able to find a slightly used dpm3 for less than 20k. then add a few hundred for the phase converter. I dont know if you already have tooling but these smaller mills have a r8 spindle. The larger dpm5 has a cat 40.
The main things I wish I had would be a higher than 5k spindle speed and a tool changer. Not the end of the world though. I can do way more work with this bed mill than I ever could do with a cnc center.
Really a guy needs both:)
 








 
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