O/T Minimill advice ?

[Fig sign]

My buddy has a little mold shop.

Actually this is one man shop (he works alone ).

He looks for some little CNC mill .

It must be really little with outer dimensions like 1.5*1.5*2 meters.

He doesn`t interested in high speed expensive stuff.

What he found suitable for him is used Enshu E130 drilling tapping center.

Anybody worked with this machine or can advice some other from this class?

How it will mill aluminium and steel ?

How long can they serve ?

I appreciate all your your replies and advices !

 

Iskander teh seeking help!

[McRae]

From the Enshu's that I worked with, I can give a positive testimonial to years of trouble free service - the only thing to repace are bearings and the odd pneumatic valve. I have not worked with the E130 directly, but I have worked on a similar DTL machine with a rotary pallet changer that was interfaced across the front of the machine. From reading the description on the net

 

Enshu E130 and Enshu USA

 

the machine looks quite robust and will scream along removing aluminum like mad. Steel may ba a little stretch for large MRR but for the work I did on Hydraulic Bymetalic components, these little machines served well (BT30 Spindle Tooling - little but accurate. Having recently become a father for the second time - everything small is now "Cute")

 

You can give my particulars to your friend and we can converse directly if you like...

 

[ 08-06-2003, 09:26 AM: Message edited by: Andrew McRae ]

[Roger Peterson]

All I can say about the "mini mills" people are making is that most people aren't happy with the Haas. Some people who have had Haas machines for years and do not like them. Now it is not because it is a bad machine it is because of the minute Z axis travel, something like 10". It doesn't take a very deep hole before you are doing all kinds of refixturing or moving to a machine with more Z travel. Fadal, Milltronics, and several others make mini's with closer to 20" in the Z. Other than that the ones I have seen seem rigid enough for the horsepower of the spindle and drive motors and you can get many options just like their big brothers.

 

 

HTH

 

And yes they are cute

 

I also have two young ones...

 

[ 08-06-2003, 09:20 AM: Message edited by: Roger Peterson ]

[skeetboy25]

intellitek / light machines crp will try to sell you their line of cute little "pro lights". Don't bite, these should be avoided, they are quirqy as h#ll. I 've had a fairly good expeirience with the hass, however.

[crazy^millman]

Well with the tax laws the way they are now you can write off alot of the machine the frist year. If you buy a new machine and it cost you $1200 a month in payments how far out is that. We have fadal's where I am at now. I will eave it at that. They are good for what they do. I am not sure about the HAAS's. I like the Mazak's personally and with all the functions you get for the price espically when you go looking at all that come standard. I would look at it this way with mastercam or any cam program doing molds he can get more out and can set it up to run unattend like at night. Every hour it runs and he is doing something else he is paying for the machine. I run our machins on some mold parts for up to 16 to 18 hours. Mazak has the Nexus 410a which has the specs

 

X,Y, Z Axis Travel 22.05"/16.14"/20.08"

Table Size/ Load Capacity 35.43"x16.14"/1100 lbs

Spindle 12000rpm/25hp/#40 taper

Spindle Acceleration 2.04 sec.

X, Y, X Axis Rapid Traverse Rate/ Acceleration 1417ipm/ 0.5G

Tool Magazine Capacity 30-tool

Max. Tool Dia./Length/Weight 35.43"x16.14"/1100 lbs

Chip-to-chip tool changing time 2.9 sec.

 

I think it is about $56,000 seems like alot but where does he want to go and do.

 

Crazy Millman

[Fig sign]

I want to thank all the guys who replied me !

Special thanks to Andrew !

What scared me a bit was a name drill taping center .

I`ve done a lot of independant research also and `ve got to conclusion that a machine is rather rigid one, with a bridge construction far more rigid that Haas minimill for example .

quote:

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You can give my particulars to your friend and we can converse directly if you like...

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Andrew ,my friend`s English is not so good and I am speaking instead of him ( I am his voice ).

quote:

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Having recently become a father for the second time

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My congratulations ,Andrew !

BTW , how much Yasnac controller differs from Fanuc ?

Is it easy to operate ?

 

Iskander teh thankful !

 

[ 08-10-2003, 02:19 AM: Message edited by: plasttav ]