Anyone familiar with CNC and Taig Mini Mill?

duffy99

duffy99

Joined
Apr 2, 2011
Messages
425
I came across a Taig Mini Mill fully set up for CNC with stepper motors and computer yesterday basically never been used . I wasn't expecting to buy a Mini Mill or a CNC machine at that but when I was able to get it for a cheap price after some bartering $500 off the asking price for $600 total. The owner was a small business owner who did engraving work and had bought it 2 years ago with making 3-d objects in mind for $2000 but never got around to using it. I watched the posting and he went from $1500 to $1100. I researched the machine and it's retail price when set up as a CNC machine and looked at some work made with it ( by people who knew what they were doing ). Then I went to see him with cash and basically said I have cash in my pocket to buy today and it's 2 years old I'll buy it right now for this price or you can just sit on it longer.

I thought it would be a good investment. I figure at worse I can just sell it for a couple hundred more then I paid and at best I can use it for guards and 3-d textures on g-10 and micarta. Now lies the problem . It comes with MACH3 but as a person with no background in writing g-code or CAD I'm looking for a good place to start with tutorials and basics to actually run the thing. I know that since it's a mini mill the size of application will be limited but the cost and my thoughts about reselling if it's to much to handle played a part in the decision. So anyone know of a good start point for studying and learning to write g-code or where to get small amounts of code written for me. Example a 1.5" x 4" piece of g-10 milled to have a "wavy " texture. I'm in a bit over my head at this point and broke my own rule about buying things I don't totally understand . How hard can it be and where's a good start point to learning to use CNC , write code or software to design that can be transferred to the machine . I've been over to cnczone and reading lots of posts over there but was wondering if anyone here has used it for knifemaking applications and how they learned to use CNC?
 
I'm wondering about this, too.
I have the same setup.
 
I would look on TheHomeShopMachinist forum in the CNC section. I don't know the limitations of the Taig or Mach3 but they are both common in the hobby shops so I think you should be able to find some info there
 
I've used mach 3 and a small mill for knife making, though not a Taig. I started out with CAD, than learned CAM. 3D texturing on a curved ergonomic shape is very do-able, but unless you're a computer wiz you're looking at a fair amount of learning curve.

You're probably going to be learning this a while before you can do what you're wanting to do with your new toy, but it is a fun process.

600 total for a working cnc mill is a ridiculous low price.
 
600 is a steal. Taig is a good company and makes a great little machine. Just be aware this is probably a table top unit and will be limited to small endmills and pretty small cuts. Also CNC can be self taught but see if there is a class at your community college. Might even score some software.
 
Hook up with a young tech person who understands how to write code; this is one of the best ways to get the hang of writing code and getting the machine to do what you want it to do.They don't need to be experienced at machining to be able to write code; they need computer skills.
We have a Bridgeport with a Machmotion three axis control system; we learned to machine from the computer back. My son has a lot of computer smarts and now after a year he is a decent machinist as welln
Its fun to learn and very useful as well.

Fred
 
Mach 3 I believe has some things called wizards. THey are small piece of software that will write G-code for you. For instance I open a engraving wizard. It asks me what text, what font, bold etc etc and or where the text starts from the origin. You hit enter it throws G code in your Mach3 software which runs your milling machine. They have wizards for holes, pockets, drilling circular holes, milling circular holes etc etc.
That might be a good place to start. I would start here, after you learn what the wizards will not do then learn g-code to fill the gaps.
Or get a cheap cad/cam package.
CW
 
Well I flipped it for $400 profit today , I kinda regret it but at this point where I'm having trouble just taking a knife from start to finish. I have had 4 HT'd knives on the bench for over a month as I repaired my grinder and decided to rearrange my tiny shop area. I think at this point I should focus on the basics of making a decent knife and not add on more projects and work . A year from now I'll probably regret it but for now I have to focus on my grinding skills , handle shaping skills , knife finishing skills and making sheaths . I'm no where close to where I want to be on any of those 4 things and have other unfinished projects sitting around taking space , so I didn't think taking on this machine is a good idea.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top