Machine CNC recommended

[dcapeletti]

Hello,
I would like to invest money in obtaining a CNC lathe or milling machine to work on sheets of up to 5 mm.
What considerations should I take into account about the machine to make the models in freecad?

What file format does the machine read?

Which models or brands would you recommend?

Do you know of any project to manufacture a CNC machine with FreeCAD?

If you have experience with these jobs, you can comment on them.

Thanks

[chrisb]

FreeCAD generates GCode, currently for milling machines. If you want to use it right out of the box, it should understand the GCode generated by one of the existing post processors. You can create a job in Path workbench and have a look about the options. My guess is that the grbl and the linux_cnc are the most widely used post processors here.
Besides that, the selection of the mill depends on how much money you want to spend. Usually it is the bigger the better.

[freecad-heini-1]

China CNC milling 3040:

phpBB [video]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Axis-300W-30 ... Sw3sRab9ow

[chrisb]

I'm not sure if this machine can mill 5mm steel in one go. It is controlled by mach3 which is similar but AFAIK not identical to linux_cnc.

[freecad-heini-1]

I'm not sure if this machine can mill 5mm steel in one go. It is controlled by mach3 which is similar but AFAIK not identical to linux_cnc.

5mm Steel, no.
5mm Butter yes.

[GeneFC]

Software and file formats are about the last things to consider. There are many choices that will work.

The most important things to start:

Budget
Mission - hobby or commercial
Type of processing - cylindrical (lathe), non-cylindrical (mill or router), or additive printer
Materials to be processed
Size (extent) and thickness of materials
Required speed or thoughput, if it matters
Installation location - is machine size important?
Duty cycle - light and occasional or full time every day
Support - design, installation, repair, upgrades, etc.
DIY or Turnkey?

For smaller hobby-type machines, as well as some light commercial machines, the Gcode system is typically based around Linuxcnc, Mach 3 or 4, or grbl.

Gene

[dcapeletti]

Well, thank you for your comments. It has helped me to rethink certain things.

I don't really know what I'm looking for yet, but I like to learn, but I'm not looking for anything to do with heavy industry. Maybe machining certain parts in aluminum or steel is what interests me most, in wood obviously as well.

This week I will send a job to make in wood to a manufacturer of cnc, to experiment a little. If all goes well, I will send more work to experiment and learn.
He told me that he also made CNC, I will see what the performance is and I will evaluate to acquire one of these equipments.

Greetings

[NormandC]

5mm Steel, no.
5mm Butter yes.

[HarryGeier]

I'm not sure if this machine can mill 5mm steel in one go. It is controlled by mach3 which is similar but AFAIK not identical to linux_cnc.

i am with you regarding cut in steel :
These machines are not for metals harder than easy cutable Aluminium variants with small depth increments. I have one and would not even think about steel , even in 0.1 depth increments the like.

I must intervene with the controlling. Mine works perfect with linuxcnc . I abandoned all my Mach3 setups ( have 2 mills one lathe ) and run them solely on linucnc since 2 or 3 Years now. With Gmoccapy even th UI is as slick as Mach3 used to be..

GRBL .. forget that crap , this is not for machines that can have any backlash..and these machines HAVE Backlash. Even a 0.1 mm Backlash , will make many small parts unusable. Its, as heini stated 5mm Butter ..no backlash Problem..5mm hard wood or plastic, here we go when force drags back your X Axis. Also many machinist would not go for GRBL for safety reasons, as it has no way of stopping a move between each motor step, which mach and linuxcnc ..as well as any professional stuff, have. In addition to all that, when i played with GRBL about 2 years ago.. not a single UI was close the anything really usable with interactive controls etc. . A 3D Printer or a Plotter , don´t need adjustements and complex setup nearly every run , but a Hobby CNC needs..as you change materials, stock etc. etc. so often.

Linuxcnc comes with a ready to go livedisk and even no linux guys can setup easily