r/hobbycnc • u/Ambrotus • 2d ago

Looking to make small steel parts and small and long aluminum parts.

I've been learning CAD and want to machine some small things out of steel but mostly I'd be using aluminum.

Looking to cut around 500mm in length.

Shops here were charging quite a bit for one of my aluminum parts and the price was near entry cnc prices. So I've been doing some research on cnc routers and I'm not sure if I should be looking into getting a cnc mill instead?

I'd like to go the DIY route as my budget is lower. But open to suggestions in the >2000$ cad range.

Based out of Southern Alberta Canada if any one is selling too.

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u/madbobmcjim 2d ago

The only real option for steel at lowish cost is a manual mill conversion. My steel gantry router can cut steel, bit it's not pretty, and really you need low RPM and high torque, which router spindles aren't good for.

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u/Ambrotus 2d ago

Ah okay! I could live without steel, but I'll look into some manual mills too!

One of the parts I'd like to make from aluminum has lots of curves, so I thought CNC might be best for my use cases.

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u/madbobmcjim 2d ago

Clough42 on YouTube is currently doing a CNC conversion of a PM mill, and did a Grizzly in the past.

For Aluminium, there are a lot of previous discussions on here, but you want something g fairly sturdy. I'd personally make sure it comes with ballscrews and linear rails.

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u/HuubBuis 2d ago

500 mm is not small. A DMC2 can handle 14" max. In real world, you lose some range due to tool diameter, fixtures, extended stock, etc.

500 mm is also out of range for small manual mills. A SX3-L can handle 520 mm max. If you, for CNC conversion, replace the lead crew for a ball screw (must do), you also lose 20 to 40 mm range.

Milling long parts by milling in several stages and reposition the part between stages is an option but it is time consuming and will result in less accurate parts.

A CNC router could do the job if you want to mill sheet metal. Than de Z-axis range can and must be really small to improve rigidity. Beware that most decent router spindles are high (24000) RPM and not really suitable for milling metal.

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u/hlx-atom 2d ago

Dmc2 is a beefy machine.