Complete NEWBIE to CNC Machining - Help!!

You can get a HAAS Office Mill for less than $60k. It does everything a larger one will do, just a smaller version.

http://www.haascnc.com/mt_spec1.asp?id=OM-2A&webID=OFFICE_MILL_VMC

There are a lot to choose from. Prices very from about 6k to the 60k for the HASS.

The guys at this place will be better able to help you choose.

www.cnczone.com

I'll second that.

Try these:

7 Easy Steps to CNC Programming . . . A Beginners Guide

CNC Machine Tool Help | Learn CNC | CNC Programming | Learn ...

CNC Machine Operator - Amatrol - Learning Systems for Technical ...

Finally, Google

http://www.google.co.in/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=learning+CNC+Machining&oq=learning+CNC+Machining&gs_l=serp.12...369669.402326.2.406484.10.10.0.0.0.0.453.2515.3-1j5.6.0...0.0...1c.1j2.ivc8JjiVGUs&psj=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=1d90548ed80c812d&biw=1038&bih=508

In your business, you must deal with machine shops, or customers who have machining centers.

Trust me, if they're into it, at all, they will gladly show you how they work and give advice on what to buy. I've gotten more than one demo because some one of my customers or suppliers got a new machining center and wanted to show it off.

Unless you have experience machining parts and dimensioning drawings, take a class.

Good luck.

I have had friends recommend www.tormach.com. I think you can get a good start at about $10K.

If you are interested in manual machines, I'd recommend a Sherline long bed lathe (about $700) and a Sherline or TAIG mill. (around $800). To those prices, you have to add tooling which can become as expensive as the machines (or more, depending on your tastes).

If you want to go CNC, I'd still think of the Sherline in a CNC version and the small CNC mill from Little Machine Shop. I've seen both in action and they do well.

In any case, you will have to learn manual machining as the principles apply to CNC as well.

A Jr. or Community College is an ideal place to start. Also consider hooking up with the local Model Engineering Club which in Chicago:

Chicago Model Engineers Association
Chicago USA
E-mail edsmerz@webtv.net

is the group and Ed is a good guy.

Do not think one of the inexpensive Chinese-sourced lathes or mills will make you happy, they will not. If you want to go bigger, think used American. In fact, in Chicago, contact Logan Actuator, Scott Logan. They made nice medium duty lathes under the Wards and the Logan names. A used Bridgeport mill is about as good as you can get.

Expect to pay around $1,000 or a bit more for a 10" Logan in good shape, around $3,500 for a Bridgeport with a DRO. You can always spend much more if you want.

Mike Rehmus

Editor, Model Engine Builder magazine

www.modelenginebuilder.com

I took the CNC machinist course at my local community college when I was 46. It was something I had always wanted to learn and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It only cost 1000 per "unit." There were three units. I skipped the first unit as that was manual machining only and went straight into CNC. I would recommend you do the same if you can because unless you have a lot of money, you can't buy the kind of machines the school will have. I personally would save up for a Bridgeport style and definitely get someone knowledgeable to help you before you buy one. Often when you buy something used, you are buying someone else's problems. Many of the manual machines can be refitted with controllers. I worked in machine shops for a while and, while the machines are very reliable, even the older ones, something will eventually break and repair of the unit may be beyond your abilities. I hope you have as much as fun as I did.

When I bought my first Bridgeport I sought out a used machine broker and offered to pay him to help me select a machine.

He called me when the next auction came up and walked me from machine to machine telling me what was good and what was bad. Finally we found one that he said was worth bidding on and I did and then cut him a check for his help.

The point of the story was that it pays big dividends to have a trusted guide when transversing an unknown path. We still have that mill in service today instead of buying 2,000 lbs of scrap iron.

There are several avenues suggest by your search for a "new hobby/business venture" that you might want to explore.

First of all, everything you mention (iPhone case, key chains, bottle openers, jewelry) can be printed out of plastic with a 3D printer, on equipment priced more for the beginner than most metal-cutting CNC equipment. The interesting thing is that the software toochain you would use for a CNC mill is identical to the software toolchain used in CNC milling, although a lot of CNC milling machine providers will try to "hide" the magic of going from CAD drawings to finished product behind "proprietary" claims. Typical CNC machines use what is knwon as "g-code" to define the cutting paths- except for those who "customize" their software to insure vendor lock-in, the code used on most 3D printers is exactly the same as the code used for CNC mills. For more information, have a look at my blog entry, "Open Source CNC- From CAD to FAB". (Note that the package I refer to in the original blog as "emc2" is now known as LinuxCNC, and can be found here.) You may also want to have a look at "Open Source Rapid Prototyping". Of course, my primary interest is in Open Source solutions, but there may be some information you would find interesting in these two blogs. Note also that, because I focus on Open Source (usually cross-platform), there should be no need to think about switching from your Apple computer (unless, of course, you are interested in really good software, in which case you might want to consider adding a Linux sector to your Apple machine). If you want to see some things I have printed on my 3D RepRap Prusa Mendel, visit my photo gallery here.

If your heart is really set on cutting metal rather than laying down plastic, it would be rather trivial to convert my 3D printer to a mill, using a Dremel tool as the cutter (although one would likely be limited to pretty shallow cuts in aluminum unless one really beefed up the frame). The biggest change would be to invert the z-drive...

There are a lot of ideas out there for home-grown CNC machines- for example, Instructables, or the CNCZone.

If the "hobby" turns out to have the "business venture" potential, you can later upgrade to a more robust commercial set-up, and, with the knowledge gained from the hobby set-up, you will be in a better position to evaluate the various options available in the marketplace...

a machine that anyone could suggest for a beginner looking to machine SMALL PARTS and COMMERCIAL GADGETS out of ALUMINUM (nothing bigger than an iPhone case for example - key chains, bottle openers, jewelry).

DESPERATELY IN NEED of a new hobby/business venture

Mate, do yourself a favour and have a look at 3D printing before spending any wonga. A lot more future possibilities in this than CNC machining.

There are a couple of members here who are into it...at least getting into it, and "interesting" is an understatement. The only way this is going is up.

You can put a 3D printer extruder head on a CNC mill quite easily. Take a look at Digital Machinist, the magazine. I fellow did that a few issues back. Good results too.

You can get a nice ball-screw CNC mill from Little Machine Shop for around $3500 and an extrude head for about $700 IIRC. So you can go both ways.

As soon as you get to the laser-driven 3D printers, the price goes up fairly rapidly. You are probably looking at around $10,000 for a complete system with software.

Extrusion heads are one way. Just another tool on a CNC plotter.

The ones that use powders are way cooler and give astonishingly detailed results.

The pricing is coming way down too.

No point posting any links for examples...there are so many to look at.

You can spend hours(days) being awestruck.

My next toy for sure.

You have been given a lot of good advice about machines, and that helps answer your question. look at the various capabilities and make your choice. However, the machine is only part of it.

THe software you use to create the parts is very important. You may want to go down the road of creating your objects from scratch, programming in g code or similar. If you don't want to go down this road, I recommend V-carve and Aspire from Vectric. also look at Artcam and Enroute.

These have a graphical interface which makes cnc ing much more fun.

look at the shopbottools.com website which has a lot of interesting info.

you may decide to make your next project making your own cnc machine!

(vectric site seems to be down at the mo, very unusual; I have had a reply from customer support within 10 mins on a sunday afternoon before) look at aspire on youtube

cnc jim

Investigate Hurco Mfg. of Indianapolis and their Ultimax programming language which is very user friendly and will generate NC code for most any machine. They used to have classes, not sure now. They have a website. Their 3D option is cool. Good luck, great fun!

Like has been mentioned in other Posts but I wanted to restate in a different way; "talk to people with fruit on the tree". Use the expertise of others and like AH said, be willing to pay for that advice. It is worth it in the long run. Sometimes people say education is expensive, ignorance is even more expensive and valuable education will only come from those people in the field of machining.

The old adage, "consider the source of the information" holds true in about all areas of life.

Go to the website LittleMachineShop.com They should have all the Information and equipment you need.

please check cnczone.come ,there you can find a 3aixs table top cnc (mill/turn)

below then 15K also you can get a lot of knowledge from that site