geneiusxie
Plastic
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2013
- Location
- Texas
Hey guys,
Why is cnc machining so expensive? Like, $1 per hour of shop time? And the machines themselves can cost between $10,000 - $200,000? I don't think it's the electricity - a 10KW motor only eats $1 of electricity per hour at $0.1 per KWh. And the machines are computer controlled and can be fully automated, so you don't even need to pay specialized machinists after everything's set up for mass production. You can even run the machines 24/7/365 because you don't need to "babysit" the higher end machines. And even for the ones you do need to babysit, it only takes someone to change out parts, tools, etc. so they could probably handle like, 10 machines at once, or some other job in the meantime. I see cheap diy cnc machines for under $1000 online. They might not have the size or the power, but you can probably modify the design to accomodate a larger motor - which isn't that expensive anyway. And they have tolerances to 0.005" - not bad for a $300 - $500 device.
I can see that the cost of a machine strongly correlates with the size of the table as well. Does the motor move on precision rails? Is that driving the cost up? But why have a 4'x8' machine anyway if you won't make anything a tenth that size?
Also, why do machining companies have to charge so much for programming for small projects? There are programs out there that can convert a 3d file directly to G-code already.
Btw, I think 5 axis cnc machines have a lot of potential. Much more than the 3d printing thing. But all the good 5 axis machines are ridiculously expensive.
-Gene
Why is cnc machining so expensive? Like, $1 per hour of shop time? And the machines themselves can cost between $10,000 - $200,000? I don't think it's the electricity - a 10KW motor only eats $1 of electricity per hour at $0.1 per KWh. And the machines are computer controlled and can be fully automated, so you don't even need to pay specialized machinists after everything's set up for mass production. You can even run the machines 24/7/365 because you don't need to "babysit" the higher end machines. And even for the ones you do need to babysit, it only takes someone to change out parts, tools, etc. so they could probably handle like, 10 machines at once, or some other job in the meantime. I see cheap diy cnc machines for under $1000 online. They might not have the size or the power, but you can probably modify the design to accomodate a larger motor - which isn't that expensive anyway. And they have tolerances to 0.005" - not bad for a $300 - $500 device.
I can see that the cost of a machine strongly correlates with the size of the table as well. Does the motor move on precision rails? Is that driving the cost up? But why have a 4'x8' machine anyway if you won't make anything a tenth that size?
Also, why do machining companies have to charge so much for programming for small projects? There are programs out there that can convert a 3d file directly to G-code already.
Btw, I think 5 axis cnc machines have a lot of potential. Much more than the 3d printing thing. But all the good 5 axis machines are ridiculously expensive.
-Gene