Denford Mill Comparison

[ngwagwa]

Thanks for your reply Doddy. Any machine I buy would be for hobby use in brass, steel and occasionally, aluminium. The largest envelope (if that is the right word) that I can see at the moment is 9"in X 9"in X 3"in and that is an aluminium job that would be difficult on my present manual machines.
I am learning to use Fusion 360 for modelling and have just started to have a look at the CAM features.
I have no background in cnc work having been a Quality Engineer/Quality Manager in the aerospace industry for most of my working life.
Brian

You will have to look for something other than a Denford if you need to cut 9" x 9". The starmill has a capacity of 160 X 90mm and the Triac 290 x 150 so both are too small.

[Doddy]

It sounds like you know what you're doing and looking for, from your reply. The envelope is a real limiter - a 9" throat on a small mill (and for the Denfords, that includes the StarMill, NovaMill and Triac) are nowt but a dream (you'd fail to get 9" on either table or saddle on a StarMill - I have one of those, as well (160mm/90mm respectively). You could get clever with fixture plates etc but I think you're really looking at something rather larger.

[BDH]

OK, thanks for that. I may have to get the aluminium parts made commercially. I'll work out some typical sizes of other components and see if the Denfords would be suitable for them.
I'm very grateful for the advice from everyone, thank you.
Brian

[depronman]

What you will find unless you have a very large budget and equally large workshop space is that there is always a need for a larger machine because of a certain job
I had this issue for some years and as such never bought a machine
What I realised was that there was loads of jobs that it would have done and the odd one that would not fit on the machine
I ended up with a need ti mill a 19mm hex on some parts that I was making from aluminium billet. I looked to get them milled locally and realised that whilst I could get it done readable cheaply I was always at the back of the queue
So I put my hand in my wallet and bought the Starmill
It’s served me well but I was offered a boxford vmc190 and bought it

Paul

[m_c]

9" Y travel is quite a lot.

Short of an industrial size machine, you're probably looking at some of the Chinese machines, and converting one yourself.
ArcEuroTrade sell the Sieg SX3.5, which has 200mm Y travel.
Emvio sell their EMV-25VBB which has 185mm of Y travel.
There will also be other machines as well, if you search around the many other machine tool sellers.

Downside of those machines for me, is they are both R8 tapers, so the only quick toolchange option is the Tormach style system.
I personally prefer BT tapers.

[ngwagwa]

Depending what you want to cut you may get away with a Denford Router, though it isn't the recommended route it would give you well over 9" x 9" you are looking for. Most of my work is engraving or fine detail aluminium where the biggest cut I need is a 0.2mm deep facing cut with an 8mm tool and the majority is roughing and finishing with 1, 2 and 4mm tools so I bought a Denford (it may be a Pro 2600 but I am not sure) and fitted a chinese 2.2kw water cooled spindle.

[Manny]

Hi Thanks for the reply

Where did you connect the sensor to as I can not see a spare connection on the board and or rs connector

[m_c]

Hi Thanks for the reply

Where did you connect the sensor to as I can not see a spare connection on the board and or rs connector

If the mill has been converted to Mach 3, then those wiring diagrams will most likely not apply.

Also, Denford never had an option for a touch probe, so there will be no dedicated wiring in the original Harting connector for one. You'll either need to see if there are any redundant wires in the plug from the retrofit, add new pins, or run wiring externally for a touch probe.

[depronman]

My star mill is converted to mach3 so I connected to the BOB

[Manny]

:) which BOB did you use :)