I'm a mechanical engineer working in the defense/medical

>>1212699
>I have a 200k budget but I'm going to finance over years for ~2k a month. Already own a house

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that everyone here hates you. Start another thread where you don't begin by saying "hey, I'm Richie Rich and I need help spending my money".

>>1212699
Can't
It's illegal

>>1212699
I don't think it is worth to buy your own CNC machine. I am sure there are many workshops that would love to sell you some usage time. I am pretty sure you will not end up spending more than 200k in a lifetime making parts there.

>I have a 200k budget but I'm going to finance over years for ~2k a month.
Do you plan on retiring one day?

>>1212699
Ebay has tons of decent quality, used, multi-axis CNC machines for far less than $200K.

>>1212790

And this is probably the best answer, unless you just want to learn how to use it.

t. fellow mechanical engineer

>>1212814
Once he gets the first machine he can just build the rest of them in his garage

>>1212796
>not having planning to have at least 2 million by the time you retire
Did you even invest?

>>1212699
>Where do I start?

Not on /diy/, that's for sure.

Hit up actual machining forums. Too many armchair experts here. And you WILL need expertise to get the best bang for your buck if buying a new machine, or to get advice on where to look and what to look for in a used machine.

>>1212790

The thing about owning a small machine shop is that, whether you intend it to be one or not, it's an investment. Once you have the tools and know-how, you become valuable to anyone who needs machine work done, and you can charge them appropriately. Even if you never actually have to do this, owning your own tools makes it available as an option.

If you just need parts made now and again, yeah, there's no point in spending THAT much on equipment. But if you actually intend to use them regularly, your better off buying the tools for yourself.

File: IMG_0586.jpg (59KB, 810x800px) Image search: [Google]

59KB, 810x800px

>>1212790
1212790
I've already spend upwards of 50k in a year on prototyping metal and
PCB. It's worth it for me spend 60-80k on a CNC and other items,
thinking Desktop Metal Studio since I'm good at 3D printing. I'm
making a very high resolution scanning digital camera and have working
prototypes, so it's worth it for me.

>>1212699
What do you actually plan on making? No, "anything" is not a valid answer. "Anything" will cost you millions in various equipment and tooling. What is the largest part you think you'll want to make? What materials will you be working with?

>lathe probably not needed
Fucking bullshit, this right here proves you're clueless. A lathe can do literally anything a mill can with some ingenuity and time. Good fucking luck getting a shaft that's +-.0001 in diameter longer than two inches on a mill.

At minimum to cover most basic parts you will need these machines:
>CNC mill with 4 axis capability
>CNC lathe with live tooling
>manual knee mill
>manual lathe
>drill press
>surface grinder
>bench grinder
>belt sander
>big band saw
>small band saw
>tooling and tool holders for the above

Yes you need the manual ones. Or at least, you'll hate your life so fucking much after the tenth time you just need to make something quick that would take five minutes on the manual machine but you have to spend 30 minutes doing it on the CNC because you have so much less fine control over it on manual mode that you'll buy one in a heartbeat.

Things to consider:
>weight
CNC mills of any real size are xboxhueg. Think minimum the size of a small car. They also weigh as much as three so make sure your concrete is good. This also means they're impossible to move without serious effort and professional help.
>power consumption
They suck power like a 14 year old drinks Monster. I've seen HAAS Minimills pull 5kW at JUST the spindle. That's not counting the power it uses to run the pumps, move the table, lighting, etc.
>What brand
In all seriousness buy HAAS and get all the trimmings, rigid tapping, probe, the fancy parameters, etc. They have a reputation for being "inferior" but the three we have at work will hold +- a tenth all day long after a dry run or two despite being abused and in some cases 30 years old. They're incredibly user friendly and have options other controllers don't.

>>1212699
Just buy a Torchmach cnc mill and be happy

>>1212975
Great comment man, I'm OP and the comment above yours is mine also. Thanks, I'll look into it, I do coatings and optical assemblies but I'm also working on a camera so I know how much it costs to bring a product to market.

>>1212699
If you're a successful mechanical engineer then do the research and pick the tool you want, dumbass.

>>1213027
Lots of collaboration and communication is needed in engineering, I'm asking for friendly input. This is a blue board, let's not act harshly.

are you trying to run production on something youve designed or are you making the machines to make production of something youve designed, or is it both

Look at MEEEEEEEE!!!!!

So you want to start making and selling your 'inventions' to the defense/medical field, you are an engineer.

I know a defense company, full of engineers who designed a product and built it and could not sell it because they were not ISO9000 whatever approved.

As a defense procurement guy, we dont buy shit from your garage. I hope medical people are the same.

Make patents, all you need is a bit of software.

>>1212737
>fuck this guy for having more than fifty dollars to spend on an incredibly expensive project

>>1213027
Large procurements like this are nothing you do lightly. At the very least, you're going to contact as many independent sources as possible for information that you would have never foreseen.

It's obvious you've never had to make an expensive equipment decision. Equipment that costs tens of thousands of dollars can't just be plopped into your garage and be in use thirty minutes later.

you should probably seek help elsewhere
and by that i mean psychologically.
if you think the land of shipping bunkers crab meat and ball warmers is home to anyone that knows enough about 200k machines to advise you on what to buy.
even if someone claimed to be an operator with a vast and intimate experience of different machines able to advise you why would you trust a stranger on an anonymous imageboard?

i really hope you are trolling.
no mention of capacity? resolution? what parts are you making?
if you were a mech eng you would just build your own.

>>1213074
This is the right answer.

You need heavyweight insurance (professional indemnity), certification of quality assurance like ISO standards, then there's all the H&S bullshit that you need to be able to demonstrate. There's a hell of a lot more to this than you think. If you reckon a precision machining company could start up and run on $200k then you're in for a shock, shit gets expensive quickly.

And you think you're going to do all this from your garage?

No offence, but I think you're a total dreamer.

Can you show us something that you've developed that warrants this sort of home set-up?

>>1213087
And you know when something you have made fucks up and somebody decides to take your customer to court? The first thing they'll ask is "who manufactured this part?"

Oh, some guy made it in his garage....

No.

>>1212699
>working in the defense/medical field

Check your employment contract for dumb IP restrictions first.

>>1213089
I know all about this, and the horror stories, this is a hobby I'm not going into production.

>>1213087
You assumed I was going into production, I'm not. This is a hobby. I'm not planning on having any certification, the company I work for does have certification so I know how it works.

>>1212699
Gotta be fake. No actual engineer would say they don't need a lathe. Lathes are by far the most useful general purpose machines. How are you gonna fix your mill? A lathe!

>>1213253

He's a mechanical engineering student with 200k to blow, and wants to be able to "do everything at home or in a garage", but says he does not need a lathe.

/diy/. we get all types here.

>>1212699
If you diy the cnc consider kmotion as a controller.

>>1213253
If you were choosing between two highly expensive machines, are you gonna pick the one that can only change the diameter of something?

>>1212699
Get a tormach, or find a deal on a used hass.


First see if your power company will install 3 phase.

Mine would not do a 3 phade drop to a residential, so that limited my options.

>>1213467
Depending on the demands a vfd with over rated input terminals will convert single to 3 phase.

>>1213346
Are you being real right now?
Didn't they teach you how to operate machining equipment in college?
You know you can just put an endmill into the chuck and whip up a gantry right?

>>1212699
Enjoy trying to get 3 phase power run into your home.

Here you have why nobody buys a massive cnc machine. Because a, they're fucking massive, and b, 3 phase power is a bitch to get and then maintain.

If you can even get it into a work space, even if you can get the wiring you need redone with the city's approval which good fucking luck, assuming you can dampen the sound enough because CNC machine are loud as hell, what the hell do you plan on doing with it that you can't use a regular 3 axis for?

Assuming you also have the skill needed to operate it, write the g code, know the feed speeds, et cetera.

Guns? Are easily machined on 3 axis and need to be worked on with specifically designed jigs anyway.

Car parts? Unless you also plan on being able to heat treat them and spend more than what you would instead of buying them.

You might want to look into the Markforged Metal X. It's an FDM printer that produces sintered metal components in a pretty competent range of material (including Inconel and Ti-6Al-4V).

Against the drawbacks of FDM, it does allow you to produce hollow internal geometries which would be impossible with laser sintering/CNC machining unless you're Rolls-Royce-tier in terms of R&D and equipment.

>>1213209
If you're rich enough to spend $200k on a garage hobby then why the fuck would you be asking for advice on a Vietnamese chocolate making forum?

>>1213346
Now you're really showing your lack of knowledge

>>1212737
t. Insecure beta that will never accomplish anything

>>1212699
>2k/month
>half a mortgage payment
stupid over leveraged americants

>>1213209
>>1212699
Used Mazak integrex

>>1213738
>Enjoy trying to get 3 phase power run into your home.
>Here you have why nobody buys a massive cnc machine. Because a, they're fucking massive, and b, 3 phase power is a bitch to get and then maintain.

You know phase converters not only exist, but are fairly cheap, easy to install, and maintenance-free, right? And that many CNC machines will run on single phase in the first place?

>what the hell do you plan on doing with it that you can't use a regular 3 axis for?

I don't know, literally anything with a curve in it?

Guys, I get that you're salty that someone earns a moderately good wage but could we please just stick to helpful suggestions?

>>1214340
Phase converters are great for brute force applications like saws.

I have one along with vfds. You don't wanna run anything big like this but you can get 5hp at a time if you need it no worries.

>>1214673
>You don't wanna run anything big like this but you can get 5hp at a time if you need it no worries.

They go _a lot_ bigger than that. I recently found out that it's surprisingly common for decently-sized businesses to use them instead of having 3-phase power wired in. 100hp+ units are readily available.

If you're not all that concerned about efficiency, you can get a rotary phase converter sans the "rotary" bit. Find an cheap/unwanted 3-phase motor, plug it in as the idler, and the box of electronics takes care of starting and balancing. That's what I'm doing for an industrial air compressor I got for peanuts.

>>1214340
you know one of the reasons some machines are 3 phase aren't just to annoy home gamers, but because 3 phase can deliver much more power.
all the vfds in the world won't increase your supply capacity.
i wouldn't like to see the power draw on my house say on a 5 axis machine starting up.

>>1214723
Sure sure and your services is 74600w...

Unless you have a generator you cannot convert more than you can acquire from the service. Vfds will convert at 1.7 so u need the overrated terminals or its pointless.

Also unless its a brute force application there isn't much point with phase converters they are not true 3phase anyways and cnc axis drives will convert it back to DC to recreate the ac drive signal if you're using brushless ac servos.

Most North American houses enjoy 20kva typically.

But for a controlled 5hp load sure.

Small to medium screw compressor why not.

100hp? Maybe if you burned gas too.