Good sub $500 USD/$700 CAD CNC mill for making custom copper waterblocks

[Damascus]

I'm looking into making waterblocks, mods and other projects for myself.  I'm also looking at using it as a prototyping tool for industrial design/architecture.

 

Anyways, are there any good ones in this price range, BTW I'm willing to do a bit of DIY to set one up.

[LittleCarrot]

2 hours ago, Damascus said:

I'm looking into making waterblocks, mods and other projects for myself.  I'm also looking at using it as a prototyping tool for industrial design/architecture.

 

Anyways, are there any good ones in this price range, BTW I'm willing to do a bit of DIY to set one up.

Highely unlikely. More likely to find a shop to outsource too

[Hackentosher]

After machining and material costs, you could probably buy two of those gold plated swift tech blocks.

[Damascus]

5 hours ago, LittleCarrot said:

Highely unlikely. More likely to find a shop to outsource too

Any recommendations? Criteria is very simple, can I send them a wb design and have them make it for less than EK etc.

5 hours ago, Hackentosher said:

After machining and material costs, you could probably buy two of those gold plated swift tech blocks.

I'm quite aware that making 1 or 2 blocks isn't economically feasible but the more projects I do the less each one costs (unless the copper and acrylic I'd be using is more than $200 per gpu block or $100 for a cpu block)

[W-L]

1 hour ago, Damascus said:

Any recommendations? Criteria is very simple, can I send them a wb design and have them make it for less than EK etc.

I'm quite aware that making 1 or 2 blocks isn't economically feasible but the more projects I do the less each one costs (unless the copper and acrylic I'd be using is more than $200 per gpu block or $100 for a cpu block)

There won't be a machine of good quality at the price point, you might be able to get away with something like a Xcarve or shapeoko. They can do soft metals but your going to want to use cutting oil or a spray mister to prevent gumming of the material on your toolbit. 

 

[Damascus]

20 minutes ago, W-L said:

There won't be a machine of good quality at the price point, you might be able to get away with something like a Xcarve or shapeoko. They can do soft metals but your going to want to use cutting oil or a spray mister to prevent gumming of the material on your toolbit. 

 

How about if I double the budget?  Any good options there?

[Hackentosher]

1 hour ago, Damascus said:

How about if I double the budget?  Any good options there?

The machines he mentioned are about $1000, so yes. 

[Damascus]

11 minutes ago, Hackentosher said:

The machines he mentioned are about $1000, so yes. 

Ahh, ok.  I'll look into em.

[W-L]

2 hours ago, Damascus said:

How about if I double the budget?  Any good options there?

As said that would be approx price of an x crave or shapeoko, they are decent but will be limited to spindle speed by the router you get. 

[Damascus]

52 minutes ago, W-L said:

As said that would be approx price of an x crave or shapeoko, they are decent but will be limited to spindle speed by the router you get. 

Yeah, the hardest metal I'm interested in is coper/brass, could an xcarve pull that off? 1000 even is pretty reasonable for what I want to do

[LittleCarrot]

1 hour ago, Damascus said:

Yeah, the hardest metal I'm interested in is coper/brass, could an xcarve pull that off? 1000 even is pretty reasonable for what I want to do

It's cheaper to buy the blocks from EK. The X-Carve has a lot of issues apparently and is stupid loud 

[Damascus]

35 minutes ago, LittleCarrot said:

It's cheaper to buy the blocks from EK. The X-Carve has a lot of issues apparently and is stupid loud 

As I said in my post, waterblocks are only half of the reason to buy a cnc.  I would also be using them for prototyping UNI/college projects and making a few other very custom things.

[LittleCarrot]

3 hours ago, Damascus said:

As I said in my post, waterblocks are only half of the reason to buy a cnc.  I would also be using them for prototyping UNI/college projects and making a few other very custom things.

I see. Here is shop for prototyping: https://www.emachineshop.com/

[W-L]

5 hours ago, Damascus said:

Yeah, the hardest metal I'm interested in is coper/brass, could an xcarve pull that off? 1000 even is pretty reasonable for what I want to do

3 hours ago, Damascus said:

As I said in my post, waterblocks are only half of the reason to buy a cnc.  I would also be using them for prototyping UNI/college projects and making a few other very custom things.

Yes the X carve would be able to do it but will have to do it pretty slow and with a cutting fluid. I would suggest if you want to get into something like this to look at the local college or university as they would have the CNC machine's your looking for. 

 

[bob345]

Copper is not an easy metal to machine, because of how gummy it is when Cutting. compared to aluminum or even steel, it requires a much more ridged machine to avoid potentially dangerous chatter. These cheaper cnc routers are nowhere near ridged enough to safely cut copper. Your best bet would be to use aluminum and copper plate afterwards.