Best VMC for my application?

Hi, I'm about to buy my first CNC VMC, :) very excited about it, but my problem is I'm lost in a huge jumble of different companies, and models, there's just so many to choose from. I will be using this machine strictly for prototyping, eventually our company will be building up to injection-molding, a whole other beast in itself.

I only need a small travel space, maybe 20"X16" as I am making watch-type parts. However, I feel that I need a high-speed spindle, since I will be running drills and mills as small as .1mm. I've looked at the Haas Office Mill, and this seems like a perfect machine for what I need, but I've heard that Haas is more entry-level and might not provide the accuracy that I will need.

Does anyone here have one of the office mills? Do they hold tolerances well? What other machines would you recommend?

Thank you all for your help.

-Corey Loke

The Office Mill is nowhere near your 20" by 16" travels. Haas MiniMills are 16" by 12", the smallest VF is 20" by 16". Spindle speed of 10,000rpm is an option and higher is possible but then you must sue balanced tooling. I have found Haas machines are repeatable to +/-0.0001" or better, which is what they claim if their literature. If you are hogging out big steel castings a small high speed spindle Haas machine is not the way to go. Similarly if you want to work to a few microns in a temperature controlled environment with the machine mounted on an islolating foundation these are not the machines to get but for ordinary tolerances they are good value for money.

If I were in the market for a machine in that size range, I'd probably go with a Fanuc Robodrill.

Not trying to thread hijack but on the robodrill note:

Does anyone have experience with the newer models.

They seem perfect for getting the small parts off the mid size VMC's.

They are also available with a pallet changer, Seems like just what I'm looking for but I never heard off them until about a month ago.

Mike

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MDLang

Not trying to thread hijack but on the robodrill note:

Does anyone have experience with the newer models.

They seem perfect for getting the small parts off the mid size VMC's.

They are also available with a pallet changer, Seems like just what I'm looking for but I never heard off them until about a month ago.

Mike

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the last place I worked for got 5 of them from methods. (well, depending on what you mean by new... we got them ~ 1 year ago...) they work very well, fast and consistent. We used pallet changers with them, but I dont think they were made by fanuc, made by another company for use with the robodrill. It could get flaky, but nothing that a quick unclamp/reclamp couldnt fix at the end of the cycle. Plus what we were machining put off a ton of long thin stringy chips that would work their way into everything, so probably not really the pallet changers fault.

They held up great with 20,000 rpm spindles, 1000ipm with a 4 flute 1/2" mill though aluminum. Pretty loud doing that, though I guess thats to be expected.

The tool changer on them is very quick for adjacent tools, and not really that slow for tools that are on the opposite side of the changer. I think the fadals at the place I work now could move over 2 tool pockets in the time the robodrill turns the carousel half way around.
The tool change was probably as fast but not as impressive as the tool change in our matsuura MC-660, damn did that thing whip tools around.

It was stiff, the machine didnt really shake much at all during machining compared to out Fadals at work now, which get the whole enclosure shaking and rattling if I start moving the X back and forth with the jog dial.

Definitely take a good look at the robo drills.

EDIT: dont let their website scare you, the accents in the video make me want to stab myself in the face too (chair)

ConKbot of Doom,

Thanks for the info.

Mike

Thanks for all your input everyone, I have another question for you. Does anyone have any opinions on the Okuma VMCs? I saw them at the Robert E. Morris booth at Eastec this week. They seemed like a pretty good machine, we're leaning towards getting a machine for prototyping which will eventually be used to make molds, and this seems like a very accurate machine, with spindle speeds up to 35k. Any comments?

Thanks,

Corey

The Okuma VMC's are fine machines. You should know that they have a slightly different set of code than standard VMC's. Other than that, go for it!