Sunday, February 6, 2011
Will it cut steel?
I see people keep asking if a CNC router would cut steel and aluminum. Why would you even want to? It would be much simpler and cheaper to retrofit a metal cutting machine for CNC than trying to push a CNC router that hard. Even buying new, you could build a small CNC metal cutting mill for under $1200. A cheap SIEG X2 from Grizzly costs $500. You can pick up some steppers and a controller and you are in business. The only thing you would really need to make are the motor mounts and people sell those already made if you don't have the facilities. If you have the space and some patience, you can pick up a large mill off the used market for not really that much more money. Later, I might even make a CNC metal cutting mill. It would be fun to work with but it is not the same thing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Just the sort of thing what am I going to attempt, except that the mill is a TAIG, and the bits for the conversion are from Gecko Drives, Bob Campbell, PMDX, and via Andrew Werby - all in the US. So not cheap - but GOOD :). The steppers are good-quality made-in-Japan motors; the drives are 4 x Gecko 203V (for Vampire) units...
ReplyDeleteI think I put a photo of the gear up on my Flickr page (, just in case you forgetted, ha ha ;).
ReplyDeleteflickr.com/alex1n, bogsplot seemed to of eaten the properly-formed uri...
ReplyDeleteI am going with a little mini-ITX to control mine. I have some ideas of what I want to do with it but honestly, I think they are pointing toward arduino controller.I read all the people talking about the "critical timing" for parallel port but I really think they are full of it.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the rating on those steppers? You keeping the acme screw or jumping straight into ballscrews and such?