"Ignoramus24652" wrote in message
...
On 2010-12-01, Bob La Londe wrote:
"Ignoramus24652" wrote in message
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My opinion only. Buying that Bridgeport Interact mill was NOT due to
my foresight, deep knowledge of CNC, or careful analysis of what
exactly I need. It was more of an element of dumb luck, combined with
an insight that a machine of this size is manageable, yet capable.

Most importantly, I was VERY attracted by the fact that the machine
did not seemingly need any physical retrofit (such as swapping lead
screws for ball screws and other such things). I am now of a very firm
opinion that doing physical retrofits is always suboptimal.

Yeah, and most folks don't get to buy a machine for $500 either.

It is not like I was privileged in any way. It was not an inside
deal. I saw the same ad on craigslist that everyone else saw.

So I had the same opportunity that was available to anybody.

I was not even very quick to buy it, it took me about 3 hours to
finalize all conversations with the seller and arrive at a virtual
handshake. If you recall, I was asking questions here as to whether to
go with it.

Then I paid same evening and took possession of manuals and tool
holders.

Heck anything other than full training by the factory service rep
who just installed your brand new $100K machine with tool changer
might be considered suboptimal by some folks. If I had gone that
way or anyway other than at the lowest end I would still be out in
the cold as far as making my own parts.

I think that if I was making money by machining, this is what I would
do, as well.

Knowing what I know now, I personally would stay away from any hobby
machines.

Fair enough, but how long did it take from the time that you bought your
mill until you were CNC cutting parts?

I bought it in March around March 15. At the end of March, I picked it
up and delivered to my friend's warehouse. I got it to my house around
June 1.

On Jul 31 I made my first metal cuts (sprocket). So, it was 2 months.

I spent about 300-350 hours. If I billed someone for that at $50 per
hour, the cost of my time would be $17k. However, if I paid $17k to
get a working CNC mill, I would not have learned a lot of useful
things.

On balance, unlike making a microcontroller control for a welder, it
was worth it. The welder was the opposite, I spent a lot of time, and
a lot of money, I ended up with a machine that worked as designed,
reliably, but was inconvenient to use.

Let me first say I don't disagree with your reasoning one bit. Just wanted
to point out that from another perspective for a different person another
machine might be a better starting choice depending on what they want to do.
I think it was a better starting point for me. I have 100% confidence now
that I can take a non working machine and turn it into a working machine.
If I had started out with the Hurco two years ago though I suspect it would
still be sitting under a tarp in the shop and I wouldn't have cut any parts
in all that time. Instead I used the Taig to make parts, and even to make
parts to take another small non-working machine and turn it into a working
machine. I will probably use the two mini machines to make any parts I need
to get the Hurco going too.

(I've even been playing with the idea of making mini machines for sale, but
incorporating some of the things I have learned to make them better for the
price.)