Retrofit old Or buy New?
- thefabricator03
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I am trying to decide if I should buy a new chinese CNC mill or retrofit a old well known brand.
I have never done any CNC milling and this is completely new territory for me.
I parts I will be mostly machining will be aluminum and steel.
I am familiar with Linuxcnc though use in my plasma cutting tables so I am sure I could pull off a successful retrofit. I have used older CNC machines from Amada in the past but they were made in the 90's and I am well aware of the limited memory problems.
So what would be the general consensus? Buy cheap new machine or retrofit older well made machine?
One last thing, What would be the difference in use between a industrial mill controller vs a PC with linuxcnc running? I understand that the industrial controller is much more expensive but is the price vs function gap in favor to the industrial controller or Linuxcnc?
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- tommylight
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For me the deference is :
Industrial - i have to bend to it's needs
Linuxcnc - i can bend it to my needs.
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I made an offer on a little EMCO lathe last night but have not heard back.
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- thefabricator03
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au.syil.com/small-cnc-mill
It has the option of coming from the factory (China) with a dell computer with either Mach3/4 or Linuxcnc.
The other option is to look out for a decent old girl but here in Australia that is not a easy task.
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www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/nedlands/other-t...g-machine/1224366347
But a slightly smaller one would let you machine the rails on your tables after they were built!
www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/henderson/miscel...-cnc-mill/1221157213
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- thefabricator03
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Here you go
www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/nedlands/other-t...g-machine/1224366347
But a slightly smaller one would let you machine the rails on your tables after they were built!
www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/henderson/miscel...-cnc-mill/1221157213
Second one is a great find! I was hoping for something more modern. I did find this one I have been eyeing off,
www.machines4u.com.au/view/advert/cnc-milling-machine/475785/
Problem with big machines is the rigging needed, But I guess that comes with the territory when your looking at a real machine.
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- tommylight
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10000$ for a crappy china that barely does metal.
10000$ for a 3 to 5 ton machine that does metal 24h a day with ease. 5k metal + 5k retrofit.
Usually i end up much cheaper than the above.
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detail.en.china.cn/provide/p101785749.html
This isn't a crappy build. I did get as far as quoting the freight which was nothing.
The problem in this country is that we are so young and quite small so there is not much old iron around but shipping ex China is so cheap! This and a lathe with an 82 mm spindle would fit in one container...
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detail.en.china.cn/provide/p101783043.html
The mill was $34k plus options for rotary table $5k, chip conveyer $900 and reinshaw probe $7k
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So what would be the general consensus? Buy cheap new machine or retrofit older well made machine?
I have always gone for the latter option. A well-designed machine containing a lot of iron ought to always have better potential performance than something built soley to be very cheap.
One last thing, What would be the difference in use between a industrial mill controller vs a PC with linuxcnc running? I understand that the industrial controller is much more expensive but is the price vs function gap in favor to the industrial controller or Linuxcnc?
I you want an unbiased opinion then I think you are asking in the wrong place. One thing that LinuxCNC can't do well but that some other controls can do is cut simultaneous toolpaths with two spindles. This is more often a requirement on lathes,
I have heard it said that LinuxCNC is now ahead of all the commercial controls in some areas with Plasma.
One advantage of LinuxCNC is that you will always have the source code, it can always be maintained by _any_ programmer. If a commercial company goes out of business then you are truly stuck. (Why LinuxCNC ends up retrofitting so many Anilam machines)
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