Quote:
Originally posted by jaydee116
If you are looking for a small mill that can be simply converted to CNC in the future then the one I have is a pretty good one. You can get just the mill with no CNC for around $500-$600US. The CNC conversion is another $1,000. This is the one I got http://www.acumotion.com/5400CS.htm well mine is a little different. Looks like they upgraded the stepper motors. 
This is just the mill by itself. http://www.acumotion.com/mill.htm
You can buy it there for $618 or I think from http://www.sherline.com/ which is the original manufacturer of it.
It is simple to convert to CNC as there are already a few different kits made just to do just that for it. This mill is better than the Grizzly one but still not great. I like it though. You can probably find a better manual mill though for $600, but it will not be as easy to convert to CNC in the future.
Another good link to browse. http://www.desktopcnc.com/
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JAYDEE:
I had a sherline mill like you have and found it to be quite flimsy when cutting, so I opted to trade it in for a cast iron based mini mill(Grizzly)for added rigidness in the column and I must disagree with you on that one. It is certainly NOT by far, better than a Grizzly. Yeah, they arent precision machines but I can cut much thicker stock and faster without the column shaking like its going into seizures on speed,like the Sherline did. Glad I sold it and bought a Grizzly...best $500 I could spend on a small mill.
DAX:
The Sherline table is smaller(the whole mill is smaller)its made of Aluminum.Where as the Grizzly(or any mini mill made by Seig, is made of cast iron and very ridgid)And best of all it doesnt have a proprietary spindle taper that you will have trouble finding tooling for....the Grizzly mini mills have an MT3 taper which is pretty common.
Harbor frieght sells one that has an R-8 spindle which is even more common.
Just take a look at
http://www.mini-lathe.com and read up. They have alot of info on smalll hobby machines that may answer some question for ya.
The Grizzly may not have ready made convertion kits available for CNC, but after using it for about 10 hours I was able to convert it myself to CNC with preloaded ballscrews replacing the leadscrews.Being a novice, the whole process took me aboyt 2 weeks to finish converting it
I have 0.005" of play on the whole table travel, and even less on the Y and Z, which is pretty damn good concidering the machine only cost $500. The whole conversion cost me a little over a $1000 and well worth the money and effort put into it.
Whatever you decide DAX, I hope you enjoy yourself.
And always wegar eye protection. I dont know how many times those gogles saved my eyesight even though they look corny and are even more uncomfortable to wear.
