[Xye]

Hi. I'm new to these forums so hopefully I'm posting in the right place.

I'm looking for a CNC milling machine in the UK but all the ones I am finding so far are too small and too expensive.

I'm looking for a mill with a workarea of around 500x500x100 (possibly larger) between £1000 and £1500...

I realize I may end up having to make it myself to bring it in under budget which I do not mind. The only part I come unstuck with is the electronics and control.

Please can someone help me.

[fragger6662000]

Thats not really a mill but a router. what are you trying to cut because if you are looking more than wood or ally then you could a zero on your price and only get a manual mill. 500 x 500 is bigger than most bridge ports.

[Xye]

I don't intend to cut anything harder than Wood or Aluminium.

[fragger6662000]

for that size you are looking at home build

£400 for driver motors
£350 screws
£200 rails
£100 Router
+ materials, computer etc

very tight but could be done

[Xye]

Is it possible you could link me to a few good sites to get components from?

Thanks very much Frag.

[hoss2006]

you should check out one of the tonson cnc routers.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/bencht...orun_mill.html
Hoss

[Xye]

Thanks Hoss but all those machines working areas are simply too small.

[fragger6662000]

Home

g540 kit

linearmotionbearings2008 items - Get great deals on Business, Office Industrial items on eBay UK!

for screws and rails

Longrat built a router for a friend not long ago and sourced the frame material from the UK. i am sure when he is back he will post.

i personally go for a twin y axis screw setup.

[Xye]

With regard to the Motor kit I was looking on Ebay and wondered what the difference was between the kit you suggest (this one) and this one

[fragger6662000]

i would recommend a twin motor y axis so you would need 4 motors and controllers as two would be slaved together.

the G540 is 4 axis in one, has the breakout board functions within it and is truly 3.5amps and has resonate tuning and has a guarantee should you have problems. you can also fit everything into a shoe box sized enclosure.

I am currently running the same drivers as shown and they are rated peak not RMS so they work out at 3amps i have had one of these drivers fail on me. my friend has run both g540 and other gecko stepper drivers and would always pay the extra. Also there is no motor information other than the torque. this mean you don't know the inductance and therefor an indication of speed performance and torque drop off.

[LongRat]

Hello Xye - yes, you are looking at a router which can indeed be done for your budget. I built a 400x600mm router for about £1000 all up, but it will be difficult if you do not have a machine already to make the parts. It might be possible to go with an MDF construction for the machine to avoid this complication - check out the router forums on CNC zone.
Heartily recommend the Keling G540 kit with the 4x 381oz.in motors and 48VDC PSU, it is NOT the cheapest 4-axis solution you'll find, but not far off and is a great system. And because the breakout board etc is all integrated, makes setting up the electronics side of the project a lot easier, neater and more robust.

[Xye]

Thanks.

ANy ideas on how much it costs to ship that kit to the UK? Is there no supplier in England I can use?

Also I must admit I'm confused. What is the difference between a cnc milling machine and a cnc router?

[UUU]

You could try sourcing the motors and power supply over here, and just get the Gecko bits from the US. I bought stepper drivers direct from Gecko and motors from ArcEuroTrade. I didn't need a power supply or spindle (mine was a conversion), so can't advise on that.

Mine's a milling machine. It's designed for cutting metal so is very robust cast iren construction, has quite a small working area, and the spindle is normally worked in the 1000-4000 rpm range. The spindle moves up and down only, with the table providing both horizontal movements. The movements are on ground vee ways with gib strips.

A router is usually more lightly constructed (can be MDF or aluminium), suitable for wood, plastics and maybe aluminium. The spindle will ususally rotate a lot faster. Often the spindle will be on a gantry so moves up and down and side to side. Movements may be on rods with linear bearings.

Google some images of "CNC Router" and "CNC milling machine" and you'll see they're different.

[fragger6662000]

Arceurotrade motors are ok but they are not as good as the kelling / US ones. it seam the uk ones have higher voltages and inductance which are not good for performance. i run a arc motor on my z but that was due to an upgrade not through chose.

[LongRat]

If you could buy the Gecko gear in the UK then that would be great - someone should start importing. Arc are leading the way in the UK with CNC model engineering so they should step up here I reckon.
If you are going to order anything from the US, my feeling was that I might as well just bundle everything together in a single order, the shipping costs don't go up all that much.

[Xye]

If I'm bundling everything together from that site should I get the Rails and ball/leadscrews from there as well? as the ebay shop linked earlier has some pretty ridiculous prices for shipping.

[LongRat]

Can do, although I haven't read any reviews of them. The other negative point is that the Ebay (Linearmotionbearings) rails and screws are coming straight out of China and you are less likely to get hit with import duty from there than the US. I don't know the reason why. With the Linearmotionbearings stuff the shipping is costly, but the parts are so much cheaper than most other sources it is still easily worth it, especially if your order is quite big.

[Xye]

Ok. I've been doing a little looking....

What do you guys think of this ebay shop. I was considering the Ballscrews from there.

Also looking at the fully supported linear rail but atm I've just been looking for ballscrews.

[LongRat]

Zapp Automation also have a web site, I am not sure if anyone here has used them although their products have definitely been discussed. You could try them, but their screws are still quite a lot pricier than Linearmotionbearings and they might be exactly the same product. If you want to buy from the UK they seem to be a pretty good bet - if you buy from them please let us know what the stuff is like.

[Xye]

It does look like they are actually the same parts as they are using the same codes for the same parts so its more a reseller than anything.