Retrofit old Or buy New?

Hi Guys,

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?

I think with what you've learnt, you could do a retrofit but get some photos of the servos and drives and post here before buying to set a strategy to get the old girl going. I'd like to give it ago too but don't really have the room, the need or the time! There is a busted machine at Ipswich nearby but he wants $10k for it. He must be dreaming when all hes got is a heap of scrap metal if its not a goer!. The hard bit will be the tool changer.

I made an offer on a little EMCO lathe last night but have not heard back.

I have been thinking of going with one of these for a while,

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.

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

rodw wrote:

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.

I found a couple of quotes for this Chinese machine I've emailed Stefan.
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...

Ahh, here was the lathe $12k plus $1625 for a hydraulic chuck.
detail.en.china.cn/provide/p101783043.html

The mill was $34k plus options for rotary table $5k, chip conveyer $900 and reinshaw probe $7k