[Pysiek]

Hello Guys
I'm in need to purchase a bench mill machine. I'll use it in my garage. Parts that I'm gonna make on the machine are 2"X2"X1/2" aluminum.
Please help me decide which machine I need to finish that part.

Thank You

:cheers:

[Pysiek]

What you guys think about that one?
Mini Mill - 2 Speed Mini Milling Machine

[hpowell]

The best thing for you to do is read the reviews on the website. There are six people who have bought and are using that machine, so you can't get any better opinions than those.

[Pysiek]

Do you know where I can find those people?

[MossieJim]

Go to the site you posted.
Mini Mill - 2 Speed Mini Milling Machine
On that page there is a link to the reviews.
Cheers.

[howardh]

I have one of these,(the Grizzly version) converted to CNC, I've found that it does a great job, as long as you don't cut aggressively. So, therefore it is SLOW. My projects have outgrown the size of this machine very quickly. So, I've since picked up the Grizzly G0463 with intentions to convert it to CNC, but it is such a fine machine for manual work, that I don't know when I'll get to the conversion.

I suggest getting the the biggest machine you can afford, because that is what I didn't do, so now I get to start over :-(

Limitations on the HF & Grizzly X2 style machines:
Column flexes too easily.
The column angle adjustment is really a bad idea.
The gears in the headstock are noisy - you will eventually buy (or make) a belt drive conversion kit!
There is no quill, so z-axis conversion is difficult.
The spindle motors are not designed to run for a long time. I managed to smoke my motor, but I fixed it.

If space limits you to the X2 style machine, get this instead:

LittleMachineShop.com - HiTorque Mini Mill

It costs a little more, but it is well worth it for the extra capacity, better motor and belt drive spindle!

It has a seriously better motor and controller, and there are no noisy plastic gears that break on your first crash!

I used the CNC Fusion X2 conversion kit with my Grizzly: CNC Fusion

Oh, and BTW, don't even think of getting one with an MT-3 spindle -- You'll regret it Like I did :-)

I hope this helps!

-Howard

[bobloaderbop@ms]

Well I have had the Grizzly mini mill and they are fine for light work. I had no problem with the Morse taper there are plenty tools for it. But the fact that there is no quill can create some problems if the part is to large. I agree with the previous post buy the largest heaviest machine you can afford and have space for. If you have to go with the small machine give the Little Machine shop machine a good going over it is, in my opinion, a better choice than the Harbor Freight machine or the Grizzly machine.

[howardh]

Yes, I agree with you mostly bobloaderbop, but when I got the R-8 based machine (G0463) and tool removal is so much easier, that I considered converting my old one to R-8.

I found it would be too costly for that machine, because it looks like you need a different headstock, but maybe it can be milled, but I didn't look closely at any drawings. If I were able to swap out the spindle for $60 I would do it :-)

Since I actually HATE that motor controller and the gears in the head, on the standard X2 machine, I would never suggest buying them.

Also, its worth checking out the Yahoo groups:
GrizHFMinimill : The Minimill Discussion Group

X_Series_Mills : X Series Mills

There are a lot of people who use those machines, mods and all kinds of cool stuff

[Pysiek]

Thanks for all the reviews guys. I will do small jobs on the mill so I do not need a big one.

[Pysiek]

deleted

[jalessi]

Pysiek,

Little Machine Shop has an excellent reputation, they have sold thousand's of tools over the past several years.

There service is very good, you wont have any regrets purchasing from them.

Jeff...

[Pysiek]

Hey Howard
I have checked the Grizzly G0463 specifications and it looks like this is what I need. I'll be milling 1/2" thk. aluminum and after that I need to drill 7/8" hole in it and that machine can drill up to 1" dia. :banana:
I think I will go with that one.
One more thing. Can you post some pictures of your grizzly cnc setup?

Thanks

[Pysiek]

Pysiek,

Little Machine Shop has an excellent reputation, they have sold thousand's of tools over the past several years.

There service is very good, you wont have any regrets purchasing from them.

Jeff...

Hello Jeff
Thank You for your opinion. But I have found that that machine does not drill over 1/2" in dia. and I need at least 7/8".

[Pysiek]

Okay. I have decided to go with Little Machine Shop HiTorque Mini Mill
I hope it will serve me good :-)

[howardh]

This is my original CNCFusion installation:

CNC Fusion :: View topic - My system pics

My rotary table conversion:

CNC Fusion :: View topic - Completed Rotary Table conversion

The one thing that is annoying about the CNCFusion conversion kit, is that the ballscrews are 5 TPI and is driven directly by the motor, making the Z-axis in this kit, requires a big motor. I used big motors on all axes so that I can upgrade machines later, however, I'll probably do a CNC conversion without a kit on my bigger machine. I still haven't gotten to my enclosure, as time is quite limited for me these days.

[Pysiek]

Howard I will convert my machine to CNC but I do not know much about the process. Will you be able to help me with that? What motor size do I need? Do I have to make mounting brackets for the motors?

Thanks:cheers:

[howardh]

I bought my Grizzly G8689 over 10 years ago, along with the small 7x12 lathe. I got started with manual machining, and I found it to be very tedious, and got bored with it. A couple of years ago, I realized that I had to make a series of parts and I had pretty much all of the machining equipment that should allow me to make the parts, but they were too complex to do manually, even if I had the time. So, instead of designing a CNC conversion, I bought the CNC Fusion kit (CNC Fusion), and the "Steele" belt drive conversion kit (LittleMachineShop.com - Belt Drive Conversion Kit, Mini Mill). I chose the CNC Fusion kit because it required little modification to the machine. Drilling and tapping 3 holes on the column. Although it turned out to be a little more work because my machine's castings were slightly different than the current machines, I was still up in like 2 days. Check out the CNC Fusion videos, they have installation instruction videos.


For the motors: I bought the Probotix (4-Axis Monster CNC Stepper Motor Driver Kit - 4-Axis Monster CNC Stepper Motor Driver Kit) 4-axis ready to run stepper motor driver kit with 425oz-in BIG stepper motors, because I knew the z-axis would probably be an issue with a smaller motor. Also I wanted to be prepared if I moved to a bigger machine. Probotix now offers a USB solution, however I have not researched it, but I would seriously consider that if I were forced to upgrade my old PC.

You can save cash by building your own control box.

I used an old Dell GX-240 because it has a parallel port, which is required for many of the low-cost driver systems. Its running Windows XP Professional

As for software, I use following:

Mach3: (ArtSoft USA - Home of Mach3 and LazyCam) Probably the best Windows based CNC control software that money can buy, at least at the hobby level.
Some people run EMC2 under Linux for free, I have no experience with it though. They have decent documentation, a huge support community. Screens can be changed and you can add a lot of sophistication.

CamBam: (CamBam CNC Software) This converts your CAD files (usually .DXF or .STL files) into .nc files for Mach3. You interact with the program to tell it what items to Drill, Pocket, Profile, etc. It has a neat "SpiralMill" drill mode that allows you to 'drill' holes that are larger than your endmill.

CutViewer: This is a CNC simulator, it allows you to see how the machine is going to cut the metal, and it allows you to examine the results in 3D space. Some of your higher-end CAD/CAM packages come with this feature built in.

ViaCad v8: This is a consumer CAD program that I find very comfortable to use, Generally the highest price you'll see this for is like $99. I export its .DXF files to CamBam. (ViaCAD runs on both Mac & PC)

I do my CAD work on my Mac, use a Virtual Machine to run CamBam & CutViewer under Windows 7, and then I take a USB stick to the shop to do the real cutting. BTW, CamBam has a deal for all 3 programs on their site: CamBam Shop - CamBam+Mach3+CutViewer

I'm mostly happy with my setup, except I just wish I started with the bigger machine. However manual machining is far less of a chore on the bigger machine also. I've since added a jog wheel, motor relay, and a second parallel port, to support more I/O signals, but I haven't completed my control box, due to lack of time.

Everything boils down to time & money, and if money were plentiful, I would have bought a Tormach -- I just refused to go into debt.

Cheers!

-Howard

[Pysiek]

Howard I really appreciate that you take the time and wrote such a great write up.
But I do have one more question. Which kit should I pick? Are they all work on all benchtop milling machines? I bought that machine: HiTorque Mini Mill

[howardh]

Kits vary quite a bit, the options on CNC Fusion are based on how much manual work you want to do. Generally kits are designed for the specific class of machine. HiTorque is an SX2 (Super X2), where my Grizzly and the HF models are just plain X2 series. A plain X2 kit may limit the range of the SX2 on the X & Y axes. -- I tell you, I'd love to have 5.1" in the Y axis!

There may be cheaper kits out there, but the one I grabbed is the one that is $579 on the CNC Fusion. Since the Hi-Touque mill is larger you will need their $45 upgrade. I stuck with the standard ballscrews, with the standard Lovejoy couplers. Its a pricey kit, but it is easy to install. Definitely look at their videos & of course their forums to see what problems people generally run into. I was sold, once I saw their video.

If you dig around, you'll find many alternative ways to do the conversion, I was just at a point where it was worth it to me to do the kit, because I didn't want to create another "Project" that may take a long time to complete

Also look at the cool crazy stuff that (hoss2006) did http://www.cnczone.com/forums/members/hoss2006.html he is just awesome -- I discovered him after I did my conversion.
His site is at Hossmachine Homepage and he has quite a few YouTube videos, that I watched for hours, and then I bought his X2-Freak DVD!

I just did another quick Google of "x2 cnc conversion" and hit this: Will's Mini-mill

Good luck w/ your conversion!

-Howard

[Pysiek]

What is the best way to surface my aluminum piece? Should I use fly cutter (currently I don't have a power feed) or face mill?