600LBs cast iron monster !!

Hi all, we’d like to introduce a mill we’ve been building over the last several months that is being iterated and would end up on kickstarter. We call it the Maker Mill because we’re targeting makers, micro-fabricators, inventors, hobbyists, educators and professionals. Due to its cast iron construction we built this to be able to machine all materials. The price we believe is low enough that you don’t need a business or worry about ROI if you want to purchase it. This is aimed at those who are micro-fabricators and other business owners who are looking for quality (tolerances/repeatability) at maybe the sacrifice of throughput (speed) for the benefit of a low price.

We’re currently in the testing and tuning stage of our prototype. It’ll end up definitely going through one more iteration before it’s production ready. The reason we’re posting this is because we’re planning a crowdfunding campaign (Kickstarter) soon and are looking for feedback.

We couldn’t wait and took a teaser video of it shortly after we got it finally up and running. Sorry for the bad camera quality!

https://youtu.be/RRpyIUzi1uI

We decided to build it because there aren’t many low cost robust mills on the market currently, just one brand which has a near monopoly over these size mills. The pricing for them starts at a reasonable price until you realize it doesn’t even include computer/controller. By the time you get a working mill with some industry standard “upgrades,” you’re already in the hole for a couple more thousand just in options. We wanted something you could buy that would run right out of the box. No excessive amounts of installation required, no hidden fees/upgrades required. You can buy the mill at its list price and have it come with everything you need and start cutting soon after receiving it. It’s packed full of excellent features that you normally have to pay extra for such as a BT30 spindle and power drawbar which on ours is standard.

https://imgur.com/a/nOX3uZp

Price is somewhere around $8,000 - $9,000 but we’re trying to bring it down to $5-6k for the kickstarter. We want to drop the price as low as we can get it without taking too much of a loss.

What ~$8,500 gets you:

~600 lbs of iron cast into the frame, optimised after finite element analysis and harmonic frequency analysis simulations.
Premium BT30 spindle (90mm od, (3) 7008 angulars front, (2) 7007 angulars rear) + pneumatic drawbar
25mm linear guides all around
20mm c7 ball screws with double ball nuts (anti-backlash), c5 upgrade available
Industrial 6 axis capable, higher order motion controller with robust software package included with price
Conversational programming
XYZ Travel: 16in x 12in x 16” (410mm x 300mm x 400mm)
Very small footprint, less than 36” x 36”
Relatively plug and play, assembled by us, not by you.
Closed loop steppers, servo upgrade available
Mist coolant is standard
Runs on 220v - standard in residential housing for washers and dryers
Designed and assembled in USA
Standard tooling system available world wide from innumerable suppliers
2.2Kw spindle motor
Vector frequency drive spindle controller
USA designed and assembled, USA customer support
We’d love to answer any questions you have. We just launched our landing page too, so if you want to learn more click this link:https://www.vulcanmachineco.com/. We have an email list you can sign up for to hear any news of our progress and information on our launch.

About Us:

Vulcan Machining Co is a company formed by two friends with a passion for mechatronics. They got together to build a mill that targeted makers, micro-fabricators, inventors, hobbyists, educators and professionals at a price that even hobbyists could find affordable. There are currently only a very small number of companies which are dominating the market and their hope with Vulcan Machining Co is to bring competition and show everyone that these machines do not need to be so expensive and can be truly affordable. A professional CNC today can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, with industry acceptable ones starting at tens of thousands of dollars. The hope of Vulcan Machine Co is to develop a CNC mill for under $10,000.

About the Mill:

Due to its cast iron construction we built this to be able to machine all materials. The price we believe is low enough that you don’t need a business or worry about ROI if you want to purchase it. This is aimed at those who are micro-fabricators and other business owners who are looking for quality (tolerances/repeatability) at maybe the sacrifice of throughput (speed) for the benefit of a low price.

We decided to build it because there aren’t many low cost robust mills on the market currently, just one brand which has a near monopoly over these size mills. The pricing for them starts at a reasonable price until you realize it doesn’t even include computer/controller. By the time you get a working mill with some industry standard “upgrades,” you’re already in the hole for a couple more thousand just in options. We wanted something you could buy that would run right out of the box. No excessive amounts of installation required, no hidden fees/upgrades required. You can buy the mill at its list price and have it come with everything you need and start cutting soon after receiving it. It’s packed full of excellent features that you normally have to pay extra for such as a BT30 spindle and power drawbar which on ours is standard.