Milling Machine

[remotebandit]

Hey guys , im looking at buying a milling machine to make swing arms and other little bits .

Any advice on what to look for .

Heres my side of the story :

Want a small hobby size one
Comes with all tools ( bought a lathe a while back at max price to find i needed to spend more on bits )
Max spend $1000 ( pref $700 as ive got that in my stash cash to play with )


In saying all this , ive seen some with some CNC function or somethig that you hook up to your computer and it cuts it , whats the advice on the ones i think ive seen on ebay are like $1200 ... will they do the job ( and are windows compat etc or do i need special programs to run them )

Fanx blokes

[remotebandit]

.

[remotebandit]

this looks the goods :)

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Quantum-Geared-Head-Mini-Milling-Mill-Machine-Drilling-Drill-Press-/280739278954?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item415d5d706a#ht_10062wt_1159

[Stewbaru]

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Sieg-X2-Dovetail-Milling-Drilling-Machine-Genuine-/270815482017?pt=AU_Hardware&hash=item3f0ddc50a1#ht_736wt_1139

Try Sieg mate, they do nice little machines.
Also check out Hare and Forbes....

[SuttoSnax]

hey mate
there is some great machines coming out of china
copies of english and us ones.
parts may be a little hard to find when they breakdown, but otherwise seem to be built ok and well priced.
ive found the repeatable tolerances on the analogue scales are a bit sus, but if u are aware of it and make allowances for that then u know what you are getting,
i used a chinese lathe for quite a few years at a place i used to work.
i actually ended up being my favourite lathe after we fitted a digital scale to it. definitely allow for that if u can

[Stewbaru]

DRO's (digital readouts) can start around $300 .
Make sure you get a machine that offers one as an option, looking later for one that fits can be expensive....

Bottom of the range Siegs don't do DRO.

[Russl]

Sounds interesting.
Did you get something in the end?

[karl]

CNC is the way to go especially if you want to accurately re-create a few of the same part.

There are some cheap programs and cnc kits online.