Mini CNC mill for custom grips and knife handles. What CNC mill would be good for a beginner?

[42ndDR]

I have some old bone and antler material that I would like to make gun grips and knife handles out of. Another possible use would be to make CNC fishing jigs out of some light weight alloy.

I am new to CNC milling but have an extensive mechanical and electrical background.

Anybody running a desktop or mini CNC mill making similar things? Is a 220 volt mill recommended or will a 110v motor be plenty strong for hard bone and lightweight alloy metal? How about recommendations for accuracy and tolerances for such projects?



David

 

[DIYPSCM]

Do you have/able to use CADCAM software to generate the 3D files? That's your first step.

 

[weaverftw]

Man I never even thought about getting a hobbyist-level CNC mill. I make knife handles by hand with regular power tools and a belt sander/bench grinder but this would be awesome. Sorry I have no input but I’m very curious to see the recommendations and follow your journey

 

[ZeroFoxGiven]

For mini manual mill I went with Harbor Freight online model, very good 5 year plus reviews.

Gears are plastic, which just about always break at some point and everyone expects them to. Once mine did, upgraded to pulley system as suggested buy many users. Also got the air spring conversion kit. Both from LittleMachineShop.

Looking at getting a DRO to make life easier. I like this model personally and I can upgrade it slowly instead of just paying a ton of money up front.

Great little hobby mill.

 

[42ndDR]

Do you have/able to use CADCAM software to generate the 3D files? That's your first step.

I am a buy and learn as you go kind of man and am tech literate enough to learn how to use CADCAM after buying a machine. Or maybe just more money than brains.

 

[AR15barrels]

I am a buy and learn as you go kind of man and am tech literate enough to learn how to use CADCAM after buying a machine. Or maybe just more money than brains.

I recommend you price out CAM software before you start buying CNC hardware.

 

[DIYPSCM]

I am a buy and learn as you go kind of man and am tech literate enough to learn how to use CADCAM after buying a machine. Or maybe just more money than brains.

I'm not saying you can't do that, just that the CNC mill will be a fancy drill press until you can program it.

 

[RustyIron]

have an extensive mechanical and electrical background.

A CNC mini-mill would be pretty low on my list of necessary tools for making knife handles and pistol grips. Fancy tools can be fun, but can unnecessarily complicate an otherwise simple task.

 

[miles888]

Most any Chinese desktop mill can be run cleanly with proper setup. I would suggest a 4th axis rotary table with stepper motor so you don’t have to keep moving the workpiece around.

This allows helical cuts, wrapped engraving, basically turning a stationary mill into a programmable mill.

The spindle motor is actually pretty low on the list in terms of reliability.

If you focus your setup on rigidity, having a proper tram on the spindle, low to zero backlash, proper balance and indication tooling, maybe a small air blast setup to prevent chip recutting, etc

I’d be more comfortable with an otherwise crappy mill that had a quality VFD spindle and proper setup than I would be with a higher quality mill with a less than desirable setup.

Research fundamentals and buy whatever you can afford.

 

[token]

If you don't plan on going harder than aluminum then 110v machines are good. There are free or low cost CAM software such as Mach3 and LinuxCNC. Converting a manual hobby/table mill is a bit dead these days but about 10 years ago there was people making kits for Grizzly G0704 to convert the table turn screws into ball screws and adapt the servo motors. I see some of these conversion pop up occasionally on FB marketplace. A step up from that would probably be a used tormach.