CNC router suggestions for metal

[MAKerr]

I was looking into designing and creating my own PC case from aluminum (and plastic). Any suggestions on what CNC router would work well for this? Preferably without breaking the bank.

[ColinLTT]

Well, aluminum and plastics are pretty easy-peasy, just take your time. a 24x24"ish machine like a Shapeoko, X-Carve, or CNC Shark would all fit the bill here. 

 

If you're more interested in the product than the process, just get a local router shop to cut the parts for you. It will save you the time of programming/setup/learning as well as the cost of the router. It's the cheapest option in the long run. 

[MAKerr]

49 minutes ago, ColinLTT said:

Well, aluminum and plastics are pretty easy-peasy, just take your time. a 24x24"ish machine like a Shapeoko, X-Carve, or CNC Shark would all fit the bill here. 

 

If you're more interested in the product than the process, just get a local router shop to cut the parts for you. It will save you the time of programming/setup/learning as well as the cost of the router. It's the cheapest option in the long run. 

Thanks! I’m more interested in the process but also the pride in something I made. I’ll check those out, thanks again!  

[Hackentosher]

We have a C-beam XL at work, but I would stay away. It's been a year of fiddling and tinkering and it's just now reliable enough to the point where I trust it to make a half accurate part. CNC routers are usually over $1000 if you want anything resembling a cutting area, and that's still sacrificing machine rigidity which I'm learning more and more is so important. Our machine can do aluminum if you take fast and shallow bites out of material, but for anything serious, find a machine shop or a guy with a mill.

 

edit: I didn't recommend a machine oops, an Inventables Xcarve, Shapeoko, or shop bot is the way to go.

[Scheer]

I did a custom version of one of the older CNCRouterparts.com machines and for one off aluminum projects it will get the job done with a small router spindle. It's the same company LTT got their CNC/plasma machine from and are great guys to deal with. All in you can do a 2'x2' machine for around $2k cutting some corners and it's a lot beefier than the to be assembled hobby machines, but you do need a decent amount of tools to build one. Figure around $4-5k to do it proper. 

 

If you have the room and think you might use the extra cutting space, build a 2'x4' with a 4' gantry. Will cost a bit more now, but in the future it is easy and relatively cheap to just extend it out to a 4'x8' machine. 

 

Fusion 360 for the CAD side is free, it has CAM as well but I don't like it so I use Vectric. The 2D (actually 2.5D) program is only a few hundred dollars, and very easy to use. For the machine controller there are some free Linux options that are a royal PITA, so just pay the $200 for Mach 4. 

 

Lastly, it wasn't worth the time messing with random issues I had with parallel ports and cards... Getting an Ethernet Smoothstepper is well worth it.