My Homemade cnc

**rodm** · 26th January 2008, 12:37 AM

I can probably help you make that choice. To do steel and particularly stainless steel you will need a mill and unless you only want to do hobby stuff you need a big mill - $2,500 to ?????. To convert a big mill using ballscrews to CNC you are in the range of $3,500 minimum.
I have just converted an X3 which is classified as a small mill and including the price of the mill it was about $4k to CNC. I would not cut stainless on this mill as I do not think it is rigid enough for decent depth cuts.
Either way you are up for the following extras.
Vice $250 or clamps $120 or both
Collet Set $150
Coolant $250
Set Milling bits $150
Stand or Bench ????
Prices are for Chinese tooling.
The mill will be good for aluminum, steel and acrylics but no good for wood. In any case I would not use a mill for woodwork because sawdust mixed in oil is abrasive and will get in all the dovetails.

A decent homebuilt gantry router using ballscrews and built from steel and aluminum will cost $2,500 upwards and will have a much larger cutting envelope then a mill. You can cut wood, aluminum and brass and acrylics. My money is on the gantry router for starters and of course if you decide to convert a mill you can use the gantry router to make all the bearing blocks and plates for the conversion.

That might help put a perspective on it for you. Of course if you do the mill first then the parts for the gantry router can be made on the mill.

**AV Elec** · 26th January 2008, 12:57 AM

Thanks Rod

Rather than hijack this thread, I will create another one. Sorry Sismo

**tleah** · 25th October 2008, 03:33 PM

HI ALL
i have been mulling over the idea of building a machine for the last year or so , i have even bought the steppers and controle boards and breakout board. All sat in my garage waiting for the next step the frame and bearings , shall i or is it just a toy i will not use in a few months i estimate the cost to be around 2-4K i have plans from ebay for a 4x8 foot maching in steel but think a 4x4 foot one would be more usable. i have altered the cad drawings to be 1.6x1 meters with a z of 300mm. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr do i take the plunge? any advice would be a great help

thanks

Tony (perth)

**rodm** · 25th October 2008, 03:58 PM

Hi Troy,
You are in the wrong place to get a negative answer - of course you make the machine.

They are very versatile machines and you can do more with a CNC machine than you can with any other machine they make. Cut parts, engrave, carve, drill and plane are the first thing to spring to mind and you can do this to plastics and composites, timber, aluminum and brass. They are aslo one of the safest machines to use as your hands are never in contact while it is working. They work to very fine tolerances that even an very experienced craftsman would find difficult if not impossible to achieve.
I think I just wrote the advertisment.

One of the fellows over here paid for his machine in a few months by selling goods he made on his machine so there is also an opportunity to recover you costs.
Your best introduction is to visit one of us and have a look at a machine working. If that doesn't get you hooked then CNC is not for you.
Send me a PM if you want to have a chin wag and demo and I have plenty of parts you can look at so you know what is needed to build a machine. I am NOR but there are others SOR and east.

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