Cnc machine for carbon fiber and aluminum

[vertico]

Can anyone make a recommendation for a cnc machine capable of milling cf and 3d aluminum parts from solidworks?

Looking for one not crazy expensive but wont fall short in terms of my needs

Thanks!

[TMoore]

How much money do you have?

[Grimmy]

Any good CNC is going to cost you some dough! The more you spend the more accurate machine you will get. There are cheap alternatives, but you have to supply your one PC.

[RMcQuillen]

Look around at a used HAAS, they are easy to learn and cheap to fix which is great for someone like yourself getting into the game..

Here is an example that can probably be had for $20,000

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HAAS-MINI-MI...item1c514af9b6

[stmpngrnd]

if you want to do alloy then be ready to spend some $$$ on a mill. you can do alloy on some of the more robust router tables but in the end it will really put some wear on tear on your equipment and the finished product will have its limitations.

I have a cncrouterparts rack and pinion machine. great for composites. decent for LIGHT work in alloy but just not rigid enough to work alloy fulltime or achieve finish quality.

[stmpngrnd]

I'm selling my CNCRP machine as I no longer have space for it :-(
https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=706526

[JaggedEdge]

Probably a bit too big for your application but I got my 4hp bridgeport explorer II for $7000. Replaced the BMDC board and it's ran great every since.
From the 90's. Would need a bit of finagling to post from solidworks but they say solidworks can do it.

[stmpngrnd]

That's a beauty! Oh how I wish I still had the space for these awesome machines :-(

Originally Posted by JaggedEdge

Probably a bit too big for your application but I got my 4hp bridgeport explorer II for $7000. Replaced the BMDC board and it's ran great every since.
From the 90's. Would need a bit of finagling to post from solidworks but they say solidworks can do it.

[TMoore]

Originally Posted by JaggedEdge

Probably a bit too big for your application but I got my 4hp bridgeport explorer II for $7000. Replaced the BMDC board and it's ran great every since.
From the 90's. Would need a bit of finagling to post from solidworks but they say solidworks can do it.

Solidworks creates solid models, it can't post code unless you have a CAM system that runs inside SW like SolidCAM or you have a separate system that can handle SW or other solid models. That's either a DX 32 control or an SX. EMI in Pennsylvania have all the parts for that machine. I sold tons of these machines back in the day.

TM