Hi guys,

My first post (I think), although I've been lurking here and some other CNC forums for ages.

I've decided that I'd really like a CNC machine, to build various little parts for my track day car etc and also because I just like playing with computers anyway.

The problem is that I'm not sure if I'm better off converting an existing mill, e.g. the Arceurotrade sieg sx1 (long table), or one of the sub 500 pound machines from Amadeal, or if I should build my own router.

The materials I'd be cutting into would be aluminium and various plastic - I don't think I'd need to mill anything in steel. The largest part I can see myself wanting to machine is something like a dry sump pan (would need about 25 x 25cm x 3cm for my engine), but the majority of parts would be smaller and thinner than this. The pan would essentially be one big pocket in a block of aluminium (well, not quite, but that gives an idea of the amount of material that needs to be removed).

I wouldn't want the machining to take more than say 8 hours - does anyone know if this is realistic with one of the smaller mills? As my garage is mainly full of a car and various spares, I don't have enough room for a big machine (in fact, I had to sell my centec 2c due to space constraints :( ).


The other alternative that I keep returning to is building a cnc router. I'd be going for a welded steel fixed gantry design with an effective work envelope of maybe 50 x 60 x 10cm.

Do you think this would be a better bet for the kind of projects outlined above? I'm worried that if I buy one of the smaller mills, everything will take absolute ages to make, which kind of defeats the purpose, so which is faster? Router or mill? :)


Any comments appreciated, as I've been procrastinating for far too long already.