"Pete C." wrote in message
ster.com...

Bob La Londe wrote:

"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
anews.com...


Where do I start? I looked at adding a CNC kit to a mill myslef, but
most affordable mills are to small to do some of the work I want to
do.
Am I back to looking at the rotary tool on rails setups?

Mills with obsolete CNC controls can be found for scrap price. Look for
a
knee mill with a BOSS (Bridgeport) or Bandit control. If you're near
the
left coast, there seems to be a lot of Shizouka mills, one of the best
choices.

Refit the machine with the PC based control Mach 3, This is a bit of a
job
but there are several NGs to go for advice. CNCzone.com is one of the
best.

Good luck

Karl

I have been reading CNCzone and some others in my spare sit down moments
all
weekend. There is just too much information to absorb.

Pickup a copy of Home Shop Machinist and look over the Tormach and

Tormach is nice looking, but when you look their basic CNC pack is $9,500
software not included. Basically back at that ten grand plus I was talking
about. Not a price range conducive to a hobbiest. Well atleast not this
one. Might be able to knock it down some by setting up your own CNC on it,
but then that kinda defeats the purpose, and the base price for their mill
is still $7,500. Still a lot.

Smithy ads, both offer turnkey packages with mills large enough to be

Smithy looks to be in the same price range at a quick glance.

able to handle your 12" square AL molds.

Actually two different things. 12 x 12 engraving and aluminum molds. Its
starting to look like it might be cheaper to buy two different machines for
this.

If as you indicate there is too
much information to absorb on CNCzone,

I've been reading CNC Zone for two days. Its pretty hard to wade through
the bits and pieces of scattered info from people of different knowledge and
skill levels to get to a good getting started point. Putting together a
machine doesn't look that difficult when I just go look at the components
and manufacturer's information. There is a ton of info on CNC zone and if
you know exactly what to search for that's great, but gettign a grasp of the
big picture and finding a starting point is not easy.

you probably won't want to spend
the time and effort to do a CNC retrofit yourself.

The retrofit doesn't look like that big of a deal depending on the machine.
The toughest things seems to be coupling the motors, and calibrating them to
match your software. Some of the small mill manufacturers offer their mills
with mounting for motors for a minimal extra charge. Like I said. It might
be cheaper and more effective for me to get a small mill to convert, and an
engraving router.