[Matt Ribble]

Howdy folks.

After alot of debate Ive decided to move ahead with building a CNC mill for my desktop but I'm struggling with direction. I was hoping I could throw down some criteria and have you guys give me some tips/pointers or flat out tell me I'm being too demanding/not suited for desktop machines

I've been eyeballing the Craftex version of the G0704 really hard but I am hesitant to go in blind

My needs:
I do small one off work in aluminum, usually paintball stuff. Up until now I've been doing it via band saw, graph paper and hope but now it's time to get more serious. To reiterate:

-I do very little to no steel work but would like to have the option to do light cuts later

-I take .025 doc with a roughing cutter ( in this case I imagine my rougher would be a 1/2 inch end mill)

-Drilling/reaming are very common operations

-Boring will also occour but this is probably going to be rare

-Most parts on paintball guns carry a +/-.01 tolerance to account for Oring swell, etc. The only really critical parts are the mounting holes where the surfaces will mate

-I want to occasionally do some woodwork with it.

-The smallest cutter I am going to be using is a .03mm ball nose

-The largest cutter I am going to be using is a 12mm .059 rad end mill

-I live in Canada (Windsor to be specific) and would like to buy from Canadian suppliers where possible to save myself the border hassle. If there is a HUGE price discount to go over the boarder I will gladly do it (provided I can haul it back in a ranger)


Ideally I would like:

6+ inch Y travel
12+ X travel (bigger is better, ofcourse)
0-8000 rpm spindle speeds
+/- .003 tolerancing
100 ipm realistic machining speed at the above listed DOCS
Less than 4000$ up front to get it up running and cutting (Not including tools, vises, etc etc etc)


So what say you guys? Am I being too needy here or is this something I can actively accomplish?

[rpovey]

If Novakon still has the closeout pricing on the NM145 you should consider that.
Doesn't have an 8000rpm spindle.
And 100IPM actual cutting speed in AL would require a faster spindle than that, to keep the chip load in the right ballpark.

[waltpermenter]

Bolt a high speed spindle on the side of the head and you can make anything you want
with the craftex.

[Matt Ribble]

Are there any particulars I should know about the craftex version of the g0704 platform?


I looked briefly at Hoss's website, are there other resources I should be referencing?

What have you guys managed to get accuracy wise from these machines?

I love the idea of a turn-key operation but unless I get some outside financing I just don't see it being feasible.