what cnc mill under 4000

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crank78

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Dec 21, 2013
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im looking to get a cnc mill. i plan to cut out blanks, make molds, and anything else i can think of. anyone have any recommendations on what to get for around 4000 or under.
 
Whatever you get, plan on spending more than the machine cost to get it running and tooled up.
If you don't have a suitable computer and cad/cam program, there's another $1-2000 (or a lot more)
Another $1000 (or a lot more) on work holding and fixturing.
Another $1000 (or a lot more) on various tooling
And figure on another $1000 or more for incidentals, wiring, coolant, lubricants, ect
 
You can tool up a mill on a limited budget but even that is pricy. I have ran a lot of manual and CNC mills in my day and honestly for 99.9% of the stuff we knife makers do a manual is much better. Lots of the time just the set up, zeroing and proofing the program takes longer then just poping it in a vise and doing it manually. I can see using a CNC if your moving twords something like production folders. But yes plan on a good budget for tooling. Take the vise for example, a nice kurt med size vise for CNC will set you back $500-$1000 unless you score one for a great price used. Have you done any Gcode programming? I have used a handful of cam programs and I still prefer to wright most simple code by hand. Now if we are talking 3D surfacing then I will let the computer do it. But that's not to say I have not hand programmed stiff for a 4th axis befor. The problem becomes if you have never done any machine work befor you don't know feeds, speeds, depth of cut, climb or conventional mill exc. there is a lot of basic experance needed befor you can really jump into a CNC. Plus all the coding, it really helps a lot to be able to read code. It alows you to watch the code as it runs and you can spot problems and make changes on the fly befor the machine shoots off into the table or vise at G00 (rapid) speed.

All this being said I don't know any machines that are CNC that are in your budget because I have not looked. But funny this topic has come up becaus I'm driving to Idaho on Tuesday to buy a surface grinder and posibaly a CNC mill. Just a small CNC Millport made in 1991. But for a grand it's hard to pass up if everything is in order.

If you have any more questions about CNC or machining let me know I will be glad to help.
 
For the most part ill be cutting molds from aluminium, but i also wanna cut my blanks out. I don't think the mini mills are gonna handle it. I got a cnc router, its great for wood Thats it.
Never done any gcode at all. I have found some bigger machines from the 90s im not sure of the programming they run tho. Could be upgraded it seems but people are saying a retrofit is 15 to 20 grand. I think a used tormach 440 could handle what I'm wanting but i cant find a used one.
 
Crank - you say you're not familiar with gcode, but do have a cnc router working in wood? What does the cnc router run on if not gcode? You might wish to consider buying a X3 mill (Grizzly, small machine shop, etc) and putting a CNC conversion kit on it. That's pretty popular and works good. Since you're running a cnc router for wood, you've already got the computer and program. You're familiar with working in a CAD program for your wood designs?
 
For a mid sized CNC mill that will cut metal to any appreciable efficiency or tolerances, you're probably at the very bottom of a budget to get started, short of finding an old converted knee mill on the used market (which will likely run older software), or buiding your own from scratch, which will likely involve some machining on top of what ever kits you might find or put together.
 
Not familiar with writing my own gcode. I got a stepcraft. It runs uccnc and i got vectric 3d, aspire, and photo carve.
 
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