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Century Helicopter . MTA Hobbies . Model Rectifier Corp

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CAD - Engineering - Technical > CNC Mill - Recommendations
 
 
heli_madken
Senior Heliman
Location: Liverpool, England

I enjoy fabricating helicopters to my own design using various materials, up to now I have made everything by hand with my trusty dremel, heres my latest creation -







I would love to get into CNC, I can draw pretty much anything 2D/3D in AutoCAD and have been playing with Rhino and Rhino CAM but everytime I start looking for a suitable mill to cut blanks up to 14" long I get lost in all the different mills out there.

Can anyone recommend a suitable mill to cut sheet materials mostly up to around 14x7" for a budget of about $5000, preferably a UK supplier due to shipping costs?

Cheers, Ken
03-28-2006 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
OT45
Senior Heliman
Location: Kingston, NY

heli_madken that's some nice work you have done with a dremel!
It looks like you are ready for CNC since you already know CAD. I assume you are looking for a machine capable of routing carbon plate stock and aluminum?
You might find it difficult to find a mill for that price. Have you considered building your own?
Check www.cnczone.com for what people are building. There are also vendors there advertizing new machines. It seems there is more available now then when I was looking 6 years ago. I ended up making my own that has worked well for my applications.

scratch building is not just for planks
03-29-2006 Over year old.
 
 
heli_madken
Senior Heliman
Location: Liverpool, England

Thanks OT45,

You are right its mostly plate I want to cut but would like something thats capable of working with bar stock (I take it that a cnc router is out here then?).

I have been looking at the sherline model 2000 'off the shelf' package as its within my budget but cuts smaller stock than I wanted -

http://www.sherline.com/8540pg.htm

Does anyone have experience with this mill? any pitfalls?

Thats a useful forum going to spend some time looking through it, thanks again

Ken
03-29-2006 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
OT45
Senior Heliman
Location: Kingston, NY

One thing to look out for is the overall Z travel. On small machines you can run out of travel real quick mainly during drilling operations. If you are planning on adding let's say a vice or 5C collet fixture to hold your bar stock, add a drill chuck and a drill you might be maxed out leaving you without clearance to do a tool change. You can get shorter jobber drills to work around that to some extent. It all depends on what your requirements are.

scratch building is not just for planks
04-01-2006 Over year old.
 
 
TMoore
rrProfessor
Location: Cookeville, TN

If you are lazy like me I just create a helical pocket routine and circle mill the holes instead of using drills if the hole isn't too deep.

TM
04-01-2006 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
heli_madken
Senior Heliman
Location: Liverpool, England

Thats some cnc mill its absolutely huge, hope you are going to post pictures of the build, looks like my favourite heli the MIL Mi-24V heres my much smaller version! -



Thanks everyone for the help

Ken
04-01-2006 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
OT45
Senior Heliman
Location: Kingston, NY

T. Fiddler, that looks like a great project. Can you tell me more about the process? Are you 3D surfacing each profile?

Do you use your shopbot to cut aluminum as well? If so how well does it perform with it's router spindle?

scratch building is not just for planks
04-01-2006 Over year old.
 
 
IYKIST
Veteran
Location: London united kingdom

check www.pacersys.co.uk they should sort you out.
04-03-2006 Over year old.
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heli_madken
Senior Heliman
Location: Liverpool, England

Cheers IYKIST thats a nice piece of kit although at £13,900 its well outside my budget, nice to dream about though
04-03-2006 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
IYKIST
Veteran
Location: London united kingdom

I am sure they have something withing your price range and they do sell used ones that customers have upgraded from, ask them to send you what they have instock.
04-03-2006 Over year old.
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TMoore
rrProfessor
Location: Cookeville, TN

A little sanding will smooth the Z levels right off.

TM
04-05-2006 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
OT45
Senior Heliman
Location: Kingston, NY

Looks like progress. Have you tried sign foam insted of MDF? Depending on what density you buy, it will be lighter then MDF, more stable and easy to sand/finish.

scratch building is not just for planks
04-05-2006 Over year old.
 
 
AUTOSTART
Heliman
Location: Indonesia

CNC Milling

Have you guys had a look at www.rolanddga.com ?

They have affordable desktop cnc machines for plastics and light metals, i am looking into getting one very soon.

Might start with an MDX-15 around $2400 or MDX-20 around $3700, or the MDX-40 around $7500. MDX-40 has triple the cutting speed of the 15/20 models and is triple the price, and has the option of a rotary axis.

This could be a real alternative.

GP
06-12-2006 Over year old.
 
 
Beezer
Veteran
Location: Ontario, Canada

I ended up building my own smaller router. This is another option if you have access to a machine shop like I do. I designed my machine with 6 1/2" of clearance between the tabletop and the bottom of the gantry. The Z axis has more then that in travel so I could easily handle 3D machining that fit in those parameters. My workable area is approx. 40" by 24". So far I haven't tried cutting any aluminum with it but works great on woods and composite materials. Just need to find more time to work with it. It also has a 4th rotary axis and I'm adding a vacuum clamping system soon for use with thin materials.

06-12-2006 Over year old.
 
 
tauscnc
Veteran
Location: IL : www.cuttingedgecnc.c om

Awesome work with a dremel!!!!

I have quite a bit of info on Sherline and K2cnc on my site

www.cuttingedgecnc.com

taus
06-24-2006 Over year old.
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heli_madken
Senior Heliman
Location: Liverpool, England

Hi Tauseef,

Your website is fantastic, I have had it bookmarked for a couple of years now and used the wealth of information lots of times, I especially enjoyed your exploits with the ECO 8 and its untimely demise!

I am muddling along with a manual mill at the moment which has suited me great as I am learning a lot about machining, just working on my latest creation and making some alloy bits. I have also been lucky enough to be given (yes given FOC) an Emco PC Turn 50 Lathe which is in perfect condition complete with PC, Software the lot so just starting to get to grips with it.

Here's some of my bits cut on the Micro Mill and Emco -




Nothing fancy but for me a good start. Thank you for the all the work on the web site it really is a great source of information and inspiration

Ken
06-25-2006 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
tauscnc
Veteran
Location: IL : www.cuttingedgecnc.c om

Hey Ken,

Awesome work and thank you for the kind words! The curves you put in that piece must of taken sometime....nice. You can buff out those scratches with 0000 steel wool or with a buffing wheel and aluminum polish.... it works wonders!! The part will be so shiny it will hurt your eyes

Keep up the great work and congrats on the lathe!

taus
www.cuttingedgecnc.com
06-25-2006 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
atko
Heliman
Location: LA, California - USA

Up to the next CNC level

Hey Autostart,
You can now get rotary 4th axis add-ons for the Roland MDX-15 and MDX-20. The outfit is called Fourth Axis [url=www.fourth-axis.com] and the rotary works for 3D rotary scanning also rotary milling. My buddy just got his and we played all last weekend. He has DeskProto CAM software and Rhino 3D CAD, we forgot to go sleepies Saturday nite we got so tied up. Did some urethane foam bodies milled all over inside and outside and a bunch of mechanical parts. Atko
07-25-2006 Over year old.
 
 
AUTOSTART
Heliman
Location: Indonesia

Hey Atko,

Thanks for the news, I went to the website, its very good product that fills in a gap in the Roland DG machine line up. Previously I thought the only choice was to go with the MDX40 or the MDX-650. With the fourth axis on the MDX-15/20 means you can scan and machine parts (MDX40 and up cant scan).

Thanks
GP
[url=http://www.readyadvantage.com]
07-25-2006 Over year old.
 
 
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Heli Wholesaler . 3D Heli Depot . JR-Spektrum

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CAD - Engineering - Technical > CNC Mill - Recommendations
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