What's the cheapest CNC mill worth a damn?

[Daftlander]

I'm looking to expand my little manufactory and I'm shopping around for a cnc mill. At the moment it only needs to do wood and soft metals, but ideally would be expandable/upgradable. 

 

I'm looking to spend around £200-300 ($250-430). Is there anyone around with expertise in the matter? 

 

Cheers! 

[Himommies]

IDK if there's anything in that budget I would recommend. If anyone knows better your free to correct me, but your better off saving up a bit.

[Daftlander]

What sort of price range would you recommend? 

[bob345]

There wont be anything in that budget that can give you reasonable precision with metal or frankly any material. There are allot of cutting forces even when you are cutting a soft wood. Anything in that price range i would consider a cnc router. A cnc mill will easily start at ~$2000 for a DIY cnc conversion of a Chinese milling machine. The lowest cost CNC that i could recommend for getting accurate cuts would be something like a Tormach pcnc 440. 

[Hackentosher]

Cheapest machines are going to be CNC routers, but they're still not as cheap as you're looking for. I think the best one you can get for cheap is the Carbide 3D Shapeoko at about $1200. It'll do woods and plastics with ease, but metals will be difficult and require tuning with your speeds, feeds, and tooling. Also the smaller the machine the more rigid it will be, but regardless you'll never get close the the capabilities of a proper CNC machine. 

https://shop.carbide3d.com/collections/frontpage/products/shapeoko3?variant=14064088580157

[Pixel5]

the best you can do in that price range is the MPCNC which requires 3d printed parts but is pretty good for its price.

[burh4n]

On 5/14/2020 at 12:25 PM, Daftlander said:

looking to spend around £200-300 ($250-430)

So a bit above your price range, Creality just released this guy for $600 USD. Not sure how well it performs on the CNC side, but a friend of mine just got his yesterday. I'll bug him about it and make sure to share any feedback he has about it here.

ALL3DP has a round up of desktop CNC mills that might be good to look thru (prices from ~$200 and up). I think you might want to figure out the work area/volume you'll need as that'll probably be a large factor in the price. 

 

Definitely curious to hear what you find/go with. I for one would be interested to know what you go with eventually, and especially interested in seeing images/videos of the milling work.