CNC Mill
Duplicated Content - this needs to be merged with MillStrap Template:Duplicated content
Contents
RepRap-Built
- Eiffel is the self-reproducing CNC router/mill project. (Eiffel will also be a 3D printer.)
- Mendel is able to move a lightweight spindle around, like this Flex Shaft milling-toolhead.
Other CNC Mills
These are generally non-self-replicating, non-GPL. (Boo, hiss!).
Despite this, they're very handy as RepStraps, bootstrap positioning systems for a RepRap extruder head, and will make great 3D printers.
CNC? Manual? What does this mean?
Untold millennia ago, milling machines were hand operated by 'humans', who twirled the small wheels to make the parts of the milling machine move around. While the humans were wiped out after the great RepRap Redacted, you may be lucky enough to find one of these 'manual' milling machines around, in a museum, garage, website, auction, or tool catalog. If this is the case, you may be able to convert it to proper cybernetic use aka 'CNC conversion'. The 'CNC ready' units are almost-purpose made for cybernization. Consult the hivemind ('Google' in Oldspeak) on this, and you may want to buy a 'CNC conversion' kit from a fellow cybernetic unit on 'ebay'.
Clisby
Clisby brand mills were somewhat popular modelmaking mills. They were inexpensive, and very small, and you may be able to source a used one and convert them to stepper motor operation. The Australian manufacturer may be out of business, while the American fork, Sherline, is still going strong.
Clisby
Unimat
There are several Unimat models. Unimat 1 This is a children's toy, made from plastic. Unimat 1 was originally designed and released by Emco Maier, an Austrian industrial machine tool company. It is a modular miniature scale machining system, with plastic head- and tailstocks, and (low voltage DC) motor mounts, that can be reconfigured around aluminium extrusions that constitute beds and colums. While it can be considered a child's machine, in the right hands it can produce fine miniature machine work in materials lighter than steel. Unimat 3 was a small-scale, but professional-grade, machining system. It was built around a small lathe with a cast iron bed with ground slides, 46mm centre height, 200mm between centres. It also had provision to fit a milling head to a post that bolts to overhang the bed, and a wide range of accessories. Out of production since 1990, there has been a version called Unimat 4 produced in Taiwan, CNC variations as well.
MetalLine
The Metaline is made from alumnium extrusions. The CNC version of the Unimat is probably an excellent RepStrap base. http://www.thecooltool.com/produktgruppe.php?language=d&pg_id=4
Uniturn
This is a larger machine made by unimat, a small benchtop mill. http://www.thecooltool.com/produktgruppe.php?language=d&pg_id=4
Xendoll
This is a Unimat1 clone with digital readout. It does not have stepper motor mounts. http://www.probotix.com/index.php?view=product&path=25&product_id=37
Acra
Inexpensive, and look like a good bit of kit. There's no information about doing cnc conversions on them. http://www.vanda-layindustries.com/html/acra_mill_plus.html
Sherline
http://www.sherline.com/cncpgm.htm This is one of the most popular small milling machines in North America.
Their CNC-ready model is the basic 5000CNC/5100CNC inch/metric model. Shipping weight. 37lb Cost: $880.00
Proxxon
Locations: USA, Europe
They have a cheap appropriate model: Proxxon 37110 Micro Mill MF 70 USD $359.00 pre-shipping.
CNC-conversion
?
CNC-conversion kit
These are stupidly expensive: $200-300 USD
Suppliers
Numerous.
Suppliers, CNC-converted
There's a cottage industry of converting these to CNC operation in Germany.
http://ebay.de has CNC-converted machines. but they're stupidly expensive, ~1200USD.
Taig
The Taig mill is much heavier duty than the sherline mill, and we highly recommend its use for RepRaps more than any other mill. The documentation is a little shoddy, (1 sheet of paper diagram? WTF!) but there is a good community of users online. They're actually more useful than a dedicated customer support engineer.
- CNC-Ready model
2018CR-ER (Price: $999.00) (Buy one from Nick Carter, http://cartertools.com/ . Tell him RepRap sent you.)
Sieg
Aka 'Drill-Mill'
Really Big Mills
- Really Big Mills (RBM) are ~7 feet tall, and made of steel. e.g. the American-made Bridgeport and its clones. Bridgeports weigh 1950 lb (885 kg) and you'll need to pay a team of two or three riggers to move it. Rigger: An advanced-class human who weighs ~200-500 pounds and knows how to move big heavy stuff without pulverizing himself or others. Non-Riggers must roll to save from "Crushed by heavy thing" (4d6 HP damage) with a -2 penalty when they attack an RBM without a Rigger in their party.
- The RepRap electronics may be too low power to move the servos/steppers of a Bridgeport mill. If you have a Bridgeport, dear reader, just knock together a RepStrap. It's a weekend project.
