Too cool to NOT check out!

http://www.crankorgan.com/index.html

Check this out, guys. Plans to build simple/cheap CNC mills! A guy thats working on one of them posted to another group I'm on, and now I'm seriously considering it. Having a full machine shop here at school has shown me how useful a mill can be, and I've always wanted a small one of my own - but boy are they pricey! Now it looks like I might be able to manage it - especially because of the machine shop here, I have easy access to lots of scrap, plus I can make the parts much easier (though they're supposed to be able to be built with simple tools - if you needed a mill to build the mill, that would be kind of pointless, wouldn't it?)

Just thought yall might be interested!

 

get a real milling machine first they are way more useful for one off parts. from the way i read that the parts have to be small, and it works really slow, 1ft a min is barely moving. and do i see that thing being powered by a dremmel?
this is only my humble opinion after spending a summer in a CNC shop.

 

Cool yes, powerful enough for steel? No way.....The dremel is only good for wood/plastics and MAYBE some brass or aluminum. Making something heavy duty like U bolt skids would never happen with the dremel.

A "good enough to start with mill" with accessories will only set you back about $1500~$2000 if you shop around.

 

I agree, it's not for big stuff. The dremels are only on the smaller mills, he has at least one on there that's designed for cutting aluminum. Of course its not going to be the quality or usefullness of the real mill, I wouldn't suggest that. But personally I do a lot of other things besides Jeep stuff where this would be very handy - and much cheaper than $1500-2000 for a "starter" mill. That's 2 months pay for me, I don't have that to spare for a mill. I could deal with a couple hundred, though. Anyway, they're usefull for small projects, just thought some people might be interested.

 

Brian I am currently building a CNC mill (well its on hold until about june)
My machine has a 1" thick plate of steel for a base, a set of 25mm linear guide ways for the X/Y/Z axis's, the machine will have 8" x16"x16" worth of travel I plan on using a spindle unit for one of the harbor freight mini mills with an R-8 collet set up, you can buy thes from littlemachineshop.com for $49.95 with bearings, I will use a frequency driven motor of about 3/4 hp for the spindle, and 3 stepper motors of 434oz torque,for the axis movement and xylotec stepper drivers. The back bone of my machine is a piece of structural steel tubing that is 6"x8"x28" tall with a 1/2" wall thickness. Mine cutting steel was a necessaty for me. If you want just one to play with that you can cut steel use the harbor freight mini mill as the platform and add the electrics. Here is a link:
http://www.stirlingsteele.com/millplans.html
The cnc I use at work is big enough to park a cj5 on the table, I have a Kent manual mill in my garage along with a southbend 9" lathe and a bandsaw so alot of my parts are made at home some of the larger ones are being built on the beast at work!

 

if i were to get something of that nature it would not be a CNC mill. one off or low quantity parts just are not effecting on CNC. for 99% of stuff i would be doing that milling setup you can put onto a craftsman drillpress would be enough.

 

Finding an old Bridgeport is the way to go as there are thousands of them out there still that are just sitting idle.

 

Here are some more home built CNC links
http://www.cnczone.com/
http://www.homeshopcnc.com/page3.html
http://pminmo.com/
http://www.hobbycnc.com
http://www.buildyouridea.com/cnc.html

If you want to try building a milling machine do a google search for (gingery mill). There is a book and a set of plans for a mill, metal shaper, lathe and some other tools you can build yourself. The books are available from Lindsay Publications
http://www.lindsaybks.com/HomePage.html

 

Here is an example of the Gingery shaper that this man built, I have talked to him on the phone and corresponded thru e-mails several times.

 

Yeah I've seen the gingery stuff as well. Amazing what you can build yourself with the time, tools and know-how.