dhrider123
Plastic
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2019
Hello,
I'm looking for a CNC Mill for use in my detached garage (home shop). It's primary purpose would be small production runs and prototyping.
A little back story,
I'm not new to CNC, but not very experienced either. In my late teens I built a little CNC router which I have used primarily to limp by with cutting aluminum. Now in my mid 20s, I'm a CS designer for my day job, first learned CAD on SolidWorks and now use Fusion 360 for my home projects (I've been using F360 CAM for a while too), So I'm not concerned about the CAD/CAM side of things.
I started a company about 8 months ago manufacturing and selling a product I designed for the shooting sports industry. I've got a small fleet of 3D printers churning out parts, and I use my little router to cut a few aluminum components to the product. I'd like to phase out the 3D printing on some parts and I've got a few ideas for new products, but they are not products I would want to print.
Use Conditions,
Questions,
Thanks
I'm looking for a CNC Mill for use in my detached garage (home shop). It's primary purpose would be small production runs and prototyping.
A little back story,
I'm not new to CNC, but not very experienced either. In my late teens I built a little CNC router which I have used primarily to limp by with cutting aluminum. Now in my mid 20s, I'm a CS designer for my day job, first learned CAD on SolidWorks and now use Fusion 360 for my home projects (I've been using F360 CAM for a while too), So I'm not concerned about the CAD/CAM side of things.
I started a company about 8 months ago manufacturing and selling a product I designed for the shooting sports industry. I've got a small fleet of 3D printers churning out parts, and I use my little router to cut a few aluminum components to the product. I'd like to phase out the 3D printing on some parts and I've got a few ideas for new products, but they are not products I would want to print.
Use Conditions,
- Single Phase machine - I only have 220V 100A service to my shop. So I don't believe I even have the wattage to run a VFD/Phase converter to power a 208/480 VMC, considering I also have lights and an air compressor to run at the same time.
- Production size - I'm estimating my production output would be 50-300 parts a week roughly 2-4" cubed dimensions.
- Materials - Nylon and Aluminum would be the primary materials, but also need speeds/feeds/torque for SS, mild steel, and hopefully Titanium.
- ATC is a must.
- Minimum of 20" on the X axis for some potential longer parts.
- I do have a day job, and don't want to dedicate my entire free time to manufacturing, so large bed size and reasonably fast feed rates are important to me.
Questions,
- I've been looking at the HAAS Tool Room and Mini Mills. And I'm leaning towards the TM2P or TM3P because of the bed size and increased feed rates. Do these sound like reasonable machines for my conditions?
- I haven't been able to find any other VMCs that have similar specs which can operate at either the voltage or the wattage of the TM and Mini Mills. Are there other manufactures or machines I'm overlooking?
- I'd like to spend less than 30K (the cheaper I can find one, the sooner I can buy one as I'm using company generated revenue to fund this), so I'm looking at the used market. Are their important things to keep in mind with a used machine, like spindle hours, material it was used on or anything like that? Additionally, is this a purchase where it really is best to buy new?
Thanks