Cheap desktop CNC mills from Hong Kong

[Kaleb]

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/CNC-3040-ROUTER-ENGRAVER-DRILLING-MILLING-MACHINE-bb-/300550396933?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item45fa331c05

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BN-CNC-3040-ROUTER-ENGRAVER-DRILLING-MILLING-MACHINE-/110693281270?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item19c5d56df6

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BN-CNC-6040-ROUTER-ENGRAVER-DRILLING-MILLING-MACHINE-/300561366054?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item45fada7c26

Would one of these be any good for our purposes?

 

[Tin Falcon]

Hmm hard to say. the specs are pretty much non existent. I would consider them more router than mill. Z looks very limited. oK 82o for the mill and a mere 500 more for shipping . Hmm
Pay your money take your chances a lot of both but could be OK do not know.
Tin

 

[blighty]

i would go for an X4/X5 or converting an RF45 to cnc. I went for the RF45 option and i'm glad i did.

 

[warranator]

If you are looking for a desk top router to mill timber, plastics and engrave then check this mob out.
http://www.taigtools.com/cmill.html

Non of these desk top machines can mill steel, if you are looking to mill steel then convert an actual milling machine or check this one out.
http://www.zenbotcnc.com/

 

[RonGinger]

What does "our purposes" mean?

If you are going to make model engines, using steel, cast iron, etc then none of these machines will do. These are all routers, fine for cutting wood, plastic. Maybe, with luck and slow cutting you MIGHT do some aluminum cutting.

For a real milling machine, ready to run and CNC there are limited choices. The KX1, KX3 from Little machine Shop are good, but start at $4k. A bigger machine, like Tormach starts around $6K

If you want to do a conversion then something like the Little Machine Shop HiTorque mill can be done for just about $2K.

 

[pcw]

well, i bought one of those cheap chinese routers. it was heavily damaged in transport so i could get it very cheap. it gave me: controller, steppermotors and all the goodies to convert a small lathe/mill to cnc. for 300 euro's it was cheaper than gather all parts loose

 

[Tin Falcon]

Congrats let us know how you make out. what size steppers did you get on it?
Tin

 

[pcw]

heh, still have to get a machine to convert to cnc, but i couldnt resist this offer. the machine would work, if the bed wasnt broken in two pieces.
on other hand, i dont know much bout the whole cnc stuff but i will look for some data on the steppers, controller and power suply and post them up. only thing missing will be a pc and software, but that wont be a problem.
pascal