I was pointed to an online service here in Czech Republic which specializes on 2D cutting of various materials using laser or water jet. They do steel, aluminum, wood, plastic, rubber. You send them a DXF file and select the material. They cut it out and ship it to you. It’s dead cheap even for small volume. I had 4pcs of prototype X-brackets cut by them from 3mm aluminum. The price was around $10 including shipping.
Sure, they only did the cuts, nothing else. I had to clean the cuts, sand the surfaces, manually countersink the holes… but hey, 10 bucks.
Maybe you have a similar service around. Could be a good alternative to a cheap CNC router.
Cheap (small) mills will produce shit you cannot sell as is, a lot of manual labour has to be done.
2mm pass is absolutely not possible, try .2mm. There is the problem they can only use small diameter milling bits which creates a very uneven surface if not cooled properly.
If you try to pass with too much material it will cut into the material creating nasty dents, ugly surfaces/walls, potentially destroying your machine or overheating/snapping your mill bits.
You cannot upgrade them with better parts unless you go the 5k route again.
Specific replacement parts are expensive because they use non-standardized design most of the time.
Honestly maybe they are fun to carve x thingies for yourself with, that take a full day for a set and need manual labour to make them look decent.
They could be good to learn on how to make custom passes, etc.
They could be good for engraving.
Get your 500 bucks, buy your design in china, and make money like that until you can afford a decent mill.
This way you have a headstart on design for manufacturing aswell.
If you are still doubting, check and go for POM or other polymers.
Hahaha thanks, its partially my experience with my small hobbymat mill and lathe, partially the engraving machines we have and a lot of designing for manufacturing (really my hubs take too long, unbelieveable).
For milling aluminum, machine stability is very important and the cheaper machines tend to lack stability.
If you’re planning to mill aluminum pieces and sell them you’ll need to consider the finish and your method for cutting. Dry cutting doesn’t produce a nice mirrored finish as compared to using lubricant. And lubricant will require an enclosure and lubricating system.
I’ve been finishing my dry cut pieces with a facing run or parallel run with a ball nose end mill to give them a nice appearance as I don’t want to invest in a lubrication system / enclosure.
Above is a link to the DIY site I built from. There a many options out there but Michael Simpson is the designer and he sells a workbook for $100 which gives you access to private forum that other builders contribute too. It’s not cheap, but is less expensive than pre-built machines. You will need to buy tools to make it (drill press, clamps, angle grinder, etc.) Michael provides some ballpark costs for the various sized builds.
cnczone.com is another useful forum where you can read about user’s experiences with various machines.
If you’re considering a smaller machine (30" x 27") then $4-5K is a good budget for DIY. Some folks love their Shapeoko machines and they have their limitations but also lots of youtube user videos. I’ve only used the machine I built so can only comment on that one from personal experience.
I wish you had posted this earlier. I just imported 4 machines from china and used sea shipping (at these quantities, it’s pretty flat rate). Probs could have got you one of the great cbeam machines for like 280 + electronics and spindle.
I definitely don’t have the most overall CNC experience, but I do have a fair bit of cheap desktop cnc experience.
At this point, the cbeam extrusion architecture has gotten so good. The cbeam machine itself is actually fairly decent and can definitely be upgraded with linear rails and all in the future. I can see if we have something in inventory, but I can also see what it would cost to just have it airshipped with our distributor pricing. Just looking at the bulkman site. It will be 460 for the mechanical kit with motors (no spindle or electronics)
The grbl kit is a pia to setup, but significantly cheaper than the other options. Then you can start to play with upgrades. Just be smart about it. There comes a point where you will be limited by the extrusion rigidity, so don’t overspend on upgrades when you can’t get more performance.
A smart upgrade that might be worth doing from the start is skipping the dewalt and snagging a 1.5kw spindle and vfd, that thing can be used even when you upgrade to a new machine. Also it is quieter, more powerful, and significantly more accurate than the dewalt. Can probs find for 260 from ali, or Amazon if you get lucky
I am actually working on an integrated cnc and enclosure. Sale price will be closer to 5k, but I have learned a ton about machine design while working on it with my buddies.
I may add to this a little later
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