s
I am probably biting off more than i can chew anyhow. Just seems a waste to spend alot on small hobby size mills when for same money or a little bit more you can get industrial used equipment.
Anyhow is it worth thinking about getting one of these commercial machines if they are cheap enough.
I hope so - that is the route I have decided to take. I picked up a Bridgeport VMC 1000 (which means 1000 mm of X-travel), it is a '98 vintage 4 axis machine, #40 taper, 20 tool ATC, full cabinet, 15HP - 6000rpm spindle, flood coolant from several directions, air padded spindle seal, air blow of the tools prior to change, automated way lube, chip conveyor, came with 40 assorted tools (6 collet chucks, 2 drill chucks, MT adapters, and many end mill adapters of various sizes) and a couple big old lathe chucks that had been modified for work holding on the table. I got to see it run - which I suppose is a good start (but not actually work it - so there could have been hidden issues). $6000 CAD
Was it worth it? To uberdag's point - it is a lot of capability much cheaper than a hobby size CNC machine. Now that I have gone through the machine, have it running - everything looks fine with it. That this has a BT40 spindle (seems a lot of shops are going to CAT 40) and has an older and less familiar controller (DX-32 - which is still G code) makes the commercial operators avoid it. Perhaps the space / power req / weight scares off the hobby guys? The space could be an issue - however I know plenty of folks that enjoy working on cars that have home shops that could handle the size (about the size of a mini-van). The power was pretty straight forward - I have a residential 100A/240V single phase service - I needed to upsize my phase converter and used the excuse that I ought to also upgrade the entire system. The point being that a pretty ordinary residential service can work for the smaller size industrial machines. The weight & moving was written into the purchase - using a professional machinery moving company. It was not cheap, but they did a great job - the only pain was signing the cheque.
I'd assume that the hobby machines are great and will do all the things that it is claimed that they will do (since I have no experience that says that they don't). However, to get similar features - just less capacity in all those features, would have been 2 - 4x the price. I've been doing the hobby machining for 35 years and recognize that a larger work envelop (with in reason) opens up more options than it closes for being "too large". I'm sure I'll wish at times that I had a higher speed spindle, but I'm sure I'll oft times be glad that I've got a drive with a decent bottom end (sort of everything is a trade off).
So, uber - don't be scared off by a used industrial machine. I think you recognize there is a greater component of "buyer beware" (however that is still somewhat the case with a brand new machine - they can have troubles too). So while shopping for that CNC, look at both the small hobby size mills and the used industrial machines.
www.bidspotter.com
