Hi,
I'm a beginner when it comes to machining and so far I've been working exclusively with manual machines but I'm thinking about prototyping a product. A CNC machine would be great for quick iterations and I also don't want to outsource it because I want to minimize costs and a feedback loop. That's why I've been looking into CNC machines lately and I mainly found either somewhat big machining centers (like Haas or sth like that) or smaller machines that don't look very rigid. The ideal machine for me would be something that I would call "rigid table top CNC". For prototyping I don't necessarily need a tool changing carousel or a coolant system, but I don't want to waste time dealing with chatter or other problems that are common to small CNC machines. From what I've read a big difference between older very rigid machines and newer, usually Chinese, machines is the weight - heavy cast iron parts were replaced by lighter parts machined from steel and aluminum. So I was looking for a "small cast iron CNC machine", but I haven't found much, mainly Chinese machines or castings that were hard to judge because it's hard to find any reviews or youtube videos about them. For example something like this:
Now the question is why is it the case? Is there no need for such a machine and that's why they're not really popular? Am I missing something?
I'm a beginner when it comes to machining and so far I've been working exclusively with manual machines but I'm thinking about prototyping a product. A CNC machine would be great for quick iterations and I also don't want to outsource it because I want to minimize costs and a feedback loop. That's why I've been looking into CNC machines lately and I mainly found either somewhat big machining centers (like Haas or sth like that) or smaller machines that don't look very rigid. The ideal machine for me would be something that I would call "rigid table top CNC". For prototyping I don't necessarily need a tool changing carousel or a coolant system, but I don't want to waste time dealing with chatter or other problems that are common to small CNC machines. From what I've read a big difference between older very rigid machines and newer, usually Chinese, machines is the weight - heavy cast iron parts were replaced by lighter parts machined from steel and aluminum. So I was looking for a "small cast iron CNC machine", but I haven't found much, mainly Chinese machines or castings that were hard to judge because it's hard to find any reviews or youtube videos about them. For example something like this:
Now the question is why is it the case? Is there no need for such a machine and that's why they're not really popular? Am I missing something?