[jdurkin]

Can anyone help with experience on buying a mill in the UK
and giving me feedback on there purchase.


Im buying to CNC straight away but nerious on who to buy from.

SPG is the cheapest then Amadeal
Im after an R8 version
and thanks to Hoss for his help on suppliers however not found anyone yet
who have bought from the above suppliers.

Other suppliers welcome too.

Thanks

[hoss2006]

Hey j,
Are you a member of this forum?
MYCNCUK
Odds are you'll get more responses there.
Good luck, Hoss

[LUCKY13]

I cant help with info on UK purchases, all though there does appear to be quit a few which have been buying these mills in the UK so there should be some first hand advice posted later on.



But, do be awear. Going cheapest may & may not be worth doing. There are many different castings, and even quality of fitting these casting, plus quality of parts used on these castings that you may not get a mill compairable to something someone else has bought from a different dealer even though the description may imply so. Most times it is the little things that will add up to a mill being any good or not.

SO do take your time with your research and be sure of what your buying. And also understand it will take you more money than the machine will cost to reach a point of productivity. Tooling, working, measuring quipment, metal & other stock, software and many other things will cost more than the machine (maybe even more than a complete CNC ready machine). Ofcourse much depends on what your really wanting to do with the machine & only needing one or a few different type jobs to be done will cost less. But when it comes to CNC we all quickly find that there is so much that can be done that we expand out from our original intent.


Jess

[fragger6662000]

i bought my manual mill which i converted from SPG and they are good to deal with. CNC'd machine i cannot comment on. Arc eurotrade is very good if you are looking for a KX3 or similar but i don't know if they are R8.

[jdurkin]

i bought my manual mill which i converted from SPG and they are good to deal with. CNC'd machine i cannot comment on. Arc eurotrade is very good if you are looking for a KX3 or similar but i don't know if they are R8.

Yes thats my plan to buy a manual and convert, i was worried as SPG is the cheapest, They are showing blue colour mills on the site, is this the same as yours?

[jdurkin]

But, do be awear. Going cheapest may & may not be worth doing. There are many different castings, and even quality of fitting these casting, plus quality of parts used on these castings that you may not get a mill compairable to something someone else has bought from a different dealer even though the description may imply so. Most times it is the little things that will add up to a mill being any good or not.


Jess

Your thoughts mirror mine, cheers for the post and thanks HOSS too

[LongRat]

Fragger6662000 has the mill you are talking about. I bought the larger '30' size machine from TMTT on Ebay who I don't believe are trading any more.
If you are going to do a serious CNC conversion on one of these Chinese machines, you've got to be realistic about what they offer for such a low price. I know I'm not the only one who believes I was paying for the cast iron and nothing else when I bought my machine. I don't care about the leadscrews, handles, paint finish or electronics. I will and have replaced all that. The only concern would be the quality of the machining on the castings, i.e. the dovetails etc and I haven't heard or read anything negative about this for the 'BF' type machines of any size from any supplier. Unlike the SIEG machines which have had issues here.
As far as I know, both from personal experience and conversations with people who have dealt with them, SPG, Arc Euro, Amadeal etc are all selling a decent machine. By decent I mean as outlined in the criteria above. My only issue personally would be to avoid buying from Chester UK as I have had several instances of very poor and unprofessional service from them. I bought a Sieg X2 from there several years ago.

[fragger6662000]

exactly the same view as longrat, you are paying for the iron and if the other things work that is a bonus. yes my machine is green and it did come from SPG and was shown as blue when i ordered it. did not think it was too much of an issue.

[Robin Hewitt]

The cheap iron, I like a lot of iron, used to be from Warren Machine Tools, aka Warco. I have heard rumours that their slides aren't quite as square as they used to be, may be true, may not be true, may be a lucky dip. I think they are still going, but the fly by night, kiss goodbye to your warranty, ebay box shifters may have put them out of business.

[Mad Welder]

I second or third that....... about the dovetails, I did a fair bit of research too before I bought last February and I was seriously thinking of Warco too, but as the lads said I hadn't seen any bad talk about the castings of the Optimum. I actually didn't realise they were all Chinese in origin. Either way the German Optimum plant must disassemble the machines and re machine the slides and dovetails, before selling them on again.

Have a look at this supplierMachines Tools, Beltsaws, Machine Tools Ireland, Millennium Machinery, Used Machinery that's where i purchased from (I think they are on holiday this week)....and I know you're next door in the UK but they may have a sister company in the UK who they may recomend or at least it might open up another avenue to you.

In the end as Lucky13 said "Going cheapest may & may not be worth doing"

:cheers:

[jdurkin]

Thanks for the feedback on these machines
I agree the Optimum looks the better quality however I wanted an R8
and also pushes my budget a bit as every knows buying the machine will be the cheapest bit of all when doing a conversion.

The SPG is looking like the one to get me on this ladder for a first cnc mill maybe.

[Mad Welder]

Hello again... I got a reply from the Irish Optimum importing company to my query as to their counter part in the UK and their reply is that Excel Excel Machine Tools - Superior quality machines at the most competitive price imports into the UK from germany. Not sure if your still interested in the BF20 but here's one contact in Excel... Lisa Twigger [[email protected]] she replied to my email as I'm ordering a part from them..


:cheers:

[Rikk]

I bought my BF20L from Excel, very good to deal with and after sales was very impressive with the couple of small issues over the past year of owning it.

[fragger6662000]

A lot of these companies that claim that they offer a better product are just trying to support there higher prices, the only company that i know is different is arceurotrade that prepare machines, but you pay extra for the service.

All the result are importer warehouses that don't open the crate up. As for excel you cannot even see there prices.

[Robin Hewitt]

The SPG is looking like the one to get me on this ladder for a first cnc mill maybe.

Very much depends on what you want to do with it. The distinct lack of iron, particularly in the column, makes it a "hobby" mil. This may lead to disappointment depending on what you are trying to cut.

The hobby mill market has grown up around the American philosophy, "You have to sell people what they want, you can't sell them what they need".

That's why we all use 200 step motors when 400 would be sooo much better

[fragger6662000]

why would you want 400 motors?

SPG's are a good machine and is plenty rigid enough for most things and if it is not take less of a cut.

[jdurkin]

SPG's are a good machine and is plenty rigid enough for most things and if it is not take less of a cut.

Ye im still swaying for SPG, cost is a factor for me as as time goes by I will push money at it as funds dictate to pimp it to the machine I need.

If I need it more rigid my thoughts are to just bolt it down and also to the wall

Thats my thoughts anyway.

[Robin Hewitt]

If I need it more rigid my thoughts are to just bolt it down and also to the wall

Preferably brick, excellent idea, with thinking like that you can solve anything :cheers:

why would you want 400 motors?

Sadly folk seem to buy motors by detente torque which is no problem for 200 steps/rev. To see why 400 is better, try holding a magnet near something and feel the pull. Now halve the separation

[jdurkin]

Preferably brick, excellent idea, with thinking like that you can solve anything :cheers:

Thanks, yeh im new to CNC however Im sure Ive got the mindset to make a good cnc, Ive got a machanical engineering background but not in the game no more and also have top notch IT, webdesign, database etc skills so i recon my skills will go hand in hand doing this however Im sure there be a lot of pulling me hair out too.

I will say you chaps have realy helped so thanks

[fragger6662000]

yes but torque is not everything and if you require more then you go to servos, and running more steps means you have to feed more pulses to the controller which either reduces speeds or requires higher spec controllers. i also think the torque curve for 400 reduce more rapidly with rpm.
therefore gain what you loose and loose what gain.
control is always about compromise