cnc mill or cnc plasma

[big tuck]

ive been kicken around either getting a cnc mil or a plasma i dont know a **** thing about either one except reading advertisement i originally was going to get a cnc plasma
but the more i think about it the you could do much more with a cnc mil mill not only can you cut shapes but do much much more where the plasma thats all you can do is cut shapes .the mill is more accurate seems to me the cnc plasma is only good for mass production and the mill is more for like prototype work for a guy in his garage wich i assume is 90% of the board the mill would be the way to go i figure you would have about
9000.00 bucks in a cnc plasma and you can get here in st,louis a cnc mill for about the same at a auction between 7500.00 and 11000.00 what do you guys think

[big tuck]

what im saying is if you could only afford one right now im sure a cnc plamsa is flippin awsome im just saying if you could only afford one or the other .i cant afford both not right now .i was really leaning toward a cnc plasma then a buddy said you can do every thing on a cnc mill as you can a plasma plus 10 times more it just wont be near as fast
but if you were looking just to make one part your better off with the mill like you just
said it is a great drill press also. but you have the best of both worlds you got both hahaha

[big tuck]

oh well it probably will take awhile to decide i geuss it just depends on your own applications but the cnc plasma look fairly easy to use and that mill has so many nobs hahaha LOL

[JMcKeone]

Im kind of in the same position, im really leaning towards the CNC plasma, i hear it gets pretty expensive with all the tooling you will need for the MILL, and its alot harder to use. I currently take alot work to a local waterjet shop to get flanges and stuff cut, but I am thinking I could save alot of money by just getting the 4x4 table, www.practicalcnc.com looks like they have the nicest tables for the price, they start at $7k, he has 2 on ebay now for $6900. I just wonder how clean the cut is compared to the waterjet.

Jim

[Timinmb]

ive been kicken around either getting a cnc mil or a plasma i dont know a **** thing about either one except reading advertisement i originally was going to get a cnc plasma
but the more i think about it the you could do much more with a cnc mil mill not only can you cut shapes but do much much more where the plasma thats all you can do is cut shapes .the mill is more accurate seems to me the cnc plasma is only good for mass production and the mill is more for like prototype work for a guy in his garage wich i assume is 90% of the board the mill would be the way to go i figure you would have about
9000.00 bucks in a cnc plasma and you can get here in st,louis a cnc mill for about the same at a auction between 7500.00 and 11000.00 what do you guys think

It comes down to what do you want to do with it? Setting aside the CNC part, do you want a mill or a plasma cutter? I'm sure there are creative things you can do with a plasma cutter that I couldn't have imagined, but if you want to create machined 3 dimensional components, the mill is the tool. If you want to make accurate cutouts of flat material, isn't that the job of the plasma cutter? Or can it do more than that? I highly doubt it can cut threads or make blind holes, cavities and contours. Do you need CNC? I've worked with both, and its a lot faster to make a one-off with a conventional mill than prototype a program on a cnc. Do you have the time and inclination to learn how to program the CNC? On the other hand, the CNC mill can do some stuff that I wouldn't have a clue how to do with a conventional mill, like complex circular movement involving more than one plane at a time, and to tirelessly reproduce work with only the need to do a quick setup for each piece. Again, it depends on what you are making and how many of them. I'd love to have your dilemma!

[hankj]

Tim,

Delimma wise, I agree wholeheartedly! The only plasma around here is running through my circulatory system, and my mill grinds coffee!

Big T and Plie Buck, you guys need MY kind of delimma: "Where should I stack THIS cord of wood?", stuff like that. Easier to decide!

Have a great time over the Holidays.

Hank

[Mike W]

If I had that money to spend, it would go for a bigger lathe.

[Old Man Stick]

I just pick up a Mill a few weeks/months ago. I think there great. one can do more with a mill then you can think. The only problem Im finding is most of the time now I need a lathe to go along with my projects.

AS a side note the mill is cheap! LOL well mine is not a CNC. Once you start buying tooling its costly and there is a TON of it to chose from! Collets, End Mill Holders, End Mills, cutter heads, inserts, clamp kits, Vices, rounding bits. The list can go on and on.

I picked up a used mill , small set of used collets, and a used vice. for just over a grand. Had to replace breakes, a pully, and some bearings, that was about 400.00 in parts. Glad I know a GREAT guy that worked on mill's for about 20 years! Already snapped two end mills, droped one out of the collet on to the table and chiped up a 9/16 Solid carbide tin coated End mill. For those who know the tooling I bet you just about puked! LOL for those who dont know that end mill is about 80 bucks. Now with 2 out of 4 flutes chiped ....

Its all up to what are you going to be doing? You have to sit down and say ok Im planning on building This................? Or fooling around in this area....................? Me I Make auto parts and farm / Country parts. ( loaders, Tractors, backhoe, Ect. ) The plasma cutter would not do much for me. O/A works great from what IM doing. Maybe it will not work out for you thoe! Only You can say ( IMHO)

Good Point here spoken about learing how to set one up and run a CNC . I was running some wire for a shop in the fall this year. Company has two pretty good size CNC lathes. I think the small one was 35 HP other was 50 or 60 . I watched a guy work on programming his unit for a job. It took him about 3 hours of programming. I dont know what he was planning on making but He had a few blueprints that he was reading and was just busy with his programming. Me I would be lucky if I could turn it on let alone run it.

I try not to fly blind too much and that kind of money I would be doing everyting I could to fully understand what it was buying WELL BEFORE I bought it. !! Maybe check a local Voc. school and see if you can see what there makeing and what its about running one? Some offer night Adult classes. DO your home work on this before you run out and buy something Major that you can not even trun on!!

Thats my 2 Cents Hope it helps.

[hankj]

OMS,

This has nothing to do with the thread, but I'd really like your opinion of the two O/A ridgs you own. Mine's Victor, but I really like the Smith concept of mixing the gases in the tip. You can e-maio me if you want to keep it off the board.

Apologies to the Brethren for the appearance of THREAD THEFT!!

Hank

[big tuck]

thanks guys for all your feed back

[big tuck]

i was wondering can you put cnc on any mill that has power feed

[Mike W]

You can put CNC on ones that don't. There are some companies out there with kits.

[Timinmb]

i was wondering can you put cnc on any mill that has power feed

You can do it, but, the actual hardware used on a cnc machine is built to a much higher tolerance in terms of the allowable backlash in the feed. Remember, the computer is dumb, and only does what you tell it to. If you tell it to change directions, the tolerances are more critical in keeping an count of the placement of the tool. Also, on CNC mills, you are running the feed direction opposite at times of what you would typically restrain the standard mill to. At least that is true of the large machines we used at school.

[gde]

Big Tuck, Where about are you finding these machines? What auctions are you finding them at? I am in the market for some equipment, but none CNC. I am looking for a simple Vertical Mill and some bandsaws. All 3phase of course. I know there is an industrial auction place in St. Louis but I don't remember the name.

[big tuck]

it seems adams auctions has them and i do searches on stltoday about once a month
i come across a good auction been 2 three of them in fenton it seems those are the good ones i bet your talking about nation wide auction service