What CNC machine would work best?

[Guy Mathews]

There is a fellow over at CAMheads.org User ID Unabiker. He cuts aluminum all day long and into the night. He could probably help you out with the specs that you would need based on what you want to do. He has a website unabiker.com as well. You can probably just email him through there.

Guy

Bryan,

Now that you seem frustrated and confused, I am reminding you of my original statement. Unabiker has left a link at CAMheads.org to one of his Youtube Videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax8YDKhmoHA

Normally I would not post another person's video or work, but I feel that you need to see this. Unabikers work is fantastic in my eyes. The only reason I could think of that he may not help you is if you were making a competing product.

If you have not contacted him already, I am beginning to think that is your best bet.

These threads about "Which CNC machine should I get?" always seem to drift off the original question of "What do you want to do with it?" This happens because we all have our favorite machine or we have been doing it for a long time and we just figure everyone should know what we are talking about.

As far as I am concerned any machine you get "needs" to do 4 things.

1. Run code accurately.

2. Have enough power in the steppers and the spindle/router to run the code accurately.

3. Meet the size requirements for the work that you will be doing on it.

4. Be within your budget.

Anything after that is called "wants"

In Unabikers video, it appears that he is cutting the aluminum with a 1/4 inch end mill but I am not positive. The nice thing is, with that type of bit, you can also bore holes.

Holding the piece down is the only thing that you would need to figure out.

The few times that I have cut aluminum I just screwed it down to my table. That will not work so well for you because of the time it takes to screw each piece down. Not to mention what it does to your spoil board. You can only put so many holes in an area when cutting lots of the same parts.

That being said, I stand by my original statement. I will back it up by saying, you need to talk to someone who cuts aluminum all the time, not just now and then.

Don't give up hope, you'll get there.

Guy