[ihavenofish]

Aliexpress.com : Buy Milling006# cast iron frame for metal Milling CNC machine,metal engraving machine, 3 axis,300X400X120mm DIY mach3 from Reliable frame heart suppliers on JiaLing FeiLong Automation Equipments Co. LTD.

so i as looking for skyfire's atc spindle and from the same seller, I found this little guy. 300x400mm travel, the footprint of a small router, and a fairly heavy cast iron construction.

seems to come as you see in the pic attached from $2400, with rails and screws of average quality.

other than I know nothing, haven't contacted the seller, do not even know if they are trustworthy. I just thought id share the find, and see what people thought. in my mind I can see turning this into something quite cool for a fairly low cost. I especially like the travels, which are much bigger than a regular mill.

the Z looks like the weak spot in it, almost looks aluminium, but the pics are pretty bad so maybe looks are deceiving.

[embraced]

Good find.

I've been following this seller for quite some time now, and they are selling some seriously interesting stuff (compared to the average CNC supplier).
Things like VMC frames without the electronics, controllers that close the loop with steppers, and various bizarre CNC things that I haven't encountered before.

[Alax7]

Wow that cast iron looks beefy for a gantry of this size. I'm used to seeing nice aluminum frames, this is nice to see.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

[embraced]

They also sell an 800kg gantry mill frame. Aliexpress.com : Buy Free shipping EN151# 2 Flutes Carbide Mill Spiral Cutter 2L3.175X38 Wood CNC Router Bits Cutting Tools for CNC Engraving machine from Reliable tool suppliers on JiaLing FeiLong Automation Equipments Co. LTD.

I would LOVE to see something like this in action. Sounds veeeerry interesting.

[ihavenofish]

They also sell an 800kg gantry mill frame. Aliexpress.com : Buy Free shipping EN151# 2 Flutes Carbide Mill Spiral Cutter 2L3.175X38 Wood CNC Router Bits Cutting Tools for CNC Engraving machine from Reliable tool suppliers on JiaLing FeiLong Automation Equipments Co. LTD.

I would LOVE to see something like this in action. Sounds veeeerry interesting.

they sell that one complete for 12k or so. for some reason its not as appealing to me. maybe its just too big. its also a lot more money. 3k is just for the castings with no other parts and they are only partly machined (no holes). I could be misreading the ad though. either way its out of benchtop land and more into "real machine" land.

[wizard]

Very interesting! I've actually thought about going that route with square tubing as the build material.

[embraced]

They seem to be sold as engraving machines for mold processing. Anyone know how something like this would go hogging aluminium with a high-torque spindle?

[ihavenofish]

They seem to be sold as engraving machines for mold processing. Anyone know how something like this would go hogging aluminium with a high-torque spindle?

they usually come with those cheap water er20 cooled spindles. I think with the bt30 or iso20 spindle they also sell, and a beefier z axis saddle and spindle clamp/head, it would be fine for heavier cutting. no worse than most small mills anyway.

you could mill and scrape your own risers for the gantry as well if you wanted a bit more clearance. id probably raise it 2" for my needs.

[embraced]

that was my thought - one of the chinese 'permanent power' BT30 spindles, something much more substantial on the Z axis and flood coolant. THAT would be a seriously sweet machine if it is suitably rigid enough in the other aspects.

[Tkamsker]

I have different opinion but exactely this iso spindle and Air cylinder (and more stuff ) i ordered and Payed from dfeng question has anyone experience with this Company ? How fast do they deliver ?

[ihavenofish]

they offer the same spindle as defeng did. the spindle has 7 reviews on that site, people like it, as did skillalot (via skyfire).

but beyond that, I really couldn't tell you if that seller is trustworthy. aliexpress is a scary place to me. many perfectly legitimate high quality business, and many con artists.

[ihavenofish]

you can also email microlab spindles in Taiwan. they make a bt30 spindle as well. it costs more, at about $1000, but should be a slightly higher end unit. it also has water cooling channels and the options for coolant nozzles in the nose.

[SCzEngrgGroup]

You'd have to be either very brave, or very stupid, to order directly from a supplier in China through Alibaba, based on a few photographs. My experience has been hit or miss - about 50/50. When you have a problem, you can be pretty sure they will simply stop communicating with you. Even if they don't returning the defective is usually on your dime, which, for a machine, will cost nearly what the machine itself did. Then there's the issue of quality. You have no idea whether the machine is being built using modern precision machinery, or axes, grinders, and hand files. I've worked with Chinese machinery and electronics for many years, and it's incredible how bad it can be, unless the buyer has their own in-site quality control. Just look at some of the stuff that shops from the big sellers like Harbor Freight, Grizzly, PM, QMT, etc, and some of them HAVE their own QA at the factories.

Regards,
Ray L.

[Tkamsker]

I german whe say " i am already a burned child " that is why i ask thanks to mr dfeng ...

[ihavenofish]

in the case of the spindle, we actually KNOW all about it. someone here has one in hand. we just don't know if this particular seller is to be trusted.

on the machine frame, that's a bigger mystery. they do show it being ground, so that's a small indication, but I cant actually find a "full" machine with this frame. I would need to get a lot more information before committing to buying it.