Quote Originally Posted by Joshi View Post
If you guys honestly believe it possible and 'better' to build my own truly Aluminium (and possibly harder material) capable machine then I am totally all-ears.

But for the sake of argument, what sort of machines would I be looking at - if you could provide names or links to pages that would be chuffing excellent. Im all about the research and the more data I have to go on, the more I can get stuck into it :D
Yes it's more than possible to built your own machine capable of cutting aluminium and mild steel but it's not an easy or cheap task and something I wouldn't encourage a new person to under take.

The main issue is you really need another machine to build the next machine to achieve the accurecy and strength required. Then you have the Cost.!!
The cost of a spindle alone capable of cutting steels correctly and still be fast enough for aluminium will start around £2000 -2500 upto 4-5K. So hopefully you can see some of what your up against.

Now if you lower your sights and stick with Aluminium/brass being the upper limit then with the right design and choosing the correct components then it's possible to build a very nice machine with £3K. Cutting Steels really does take you into another zone.!!

Converting a Mill is an option but IME if mostly cutting aluminium then they are not always ideal. Again it's the spindle speeds.!! Upgrading the spindle isn't always possible and if it is then it won't be cheap upgrade to do correctly.

I have seen German made Wabeco Mills that have High speed spindles but they have all been very expensive.!