Taig CNC Mill in action

Mr Hoppe said:
Do you have any air filtration?
Mr H
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The blue and orange LocLine on either side of the cutting tool is connected to a dust collector, plus I have a 2.5 inch vacuum hose that also provides very good collection at the source as well. There are NO dust particles that go airborne so no need to have an air cleaner in the shop.

About the only drawback is the noise of the router, it's pretty quiet at 11,000 RPM but at around 30,000, ear protection is needed.

Best,
Mike
 
Sweet!!!!

Man I cannot wait to get to that point. That is a bada$$ setup. More videos to come? Nice work!
 
Yours is set up very similar to mine. People often knock these small mills. But with the 20 threads per inch lead screws they can produce very fine lines. Even better than many more expensive CNCs with ball screws. I just wish they had 30 plus inches of travel.
 
Taig Mill

Hi Chris-

Yes I wish they had 30" of travel too but it is still easy to manage with a little ingenuity!!

The locline is 3/4", that's the biggest they make for coolant and I have a bigger set-up I can swing in when I put a big router bit in to mill squares for points.

The beauty of these small mills is the versatility, you can make them do just about anything you need and they are small enough to get into any shop, even mine which is in my basement, couldn't imagine getting a big mill down there!!

Best,
Mike
 
conetip said:
Thanks for showing.
What is the repeatability of these Taig machines?
Thanks, Neil
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Neil, these machines are nice! The only concern I have with them is their backlash. They can be upwards of .020" unless adjusted. The will do the job though and a good place for anyone wanting to learn cnc to start. Once someone masters this taig it would be easier to go to the next level. All in all it is a great machine for its price range.


Jim.
 
When the Taig Mill is adjusted right there is not enough backlash to need to worry about. It will make the same parts and same pockets over and over.
The 4th Axis would tend to be the part that does not repeat as accurately as the rest of the mill and it is the part that Taig does not build themselves.
 
cueman said:
When the Taig Mill is adjusted right there is not enough backlash to need to worry about. It will make the same parts and same pockets over and over.
The 4th Axis would tend to be the part that does not repeat as accurately as the rest of the mill and it is the part that Taig does not build themselves.
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I disagree.

.0001 of backlash is too much and needs to be compensated for. Imagine that your machine has .001 of backlash and your spindle has .001 of runout. The thinnest border I was able to put around a part with the Taig was .008" (I think). With my new machine, I successful put a .001" silver border around a part, just because I wanted to see if I could do it. I built some pretty fancy cues on the Taig mill. I also had my machine dialed in very well, which I spent hours doing every couple of months.

Even with the machine running as well as I could get it to run, I know that anything I were to do on my new machine would come out better. Keep in mind that I didn't have an NSK spindle on the Taig. I had one of those wolfgang spindles from Ebay. I tested the machine with the Kress and the Wolfgang. The Kress has no business being used for inlays. It is junk. The Wolfgang has low torque and lower rpm's, but if you go slow enough, it works fine.

One thing to keep in mind is that the more you move, the better your chances for error are. I tried to keep all of my programs working within a 1 inch area to help minimize movements. If the butt had 3 sections, I would inlay the middle first, then move + or - the desired amount and re-zero the machine. I also would never rotate the cue until I was done with that section. Even if that meant changing cutters 20 times.

My new machine, I know 100% that I can move 30 inches away and change directions numerous times. When I tell the machine to go back to 0, the indicator will read .0000. I still do my programming the same way that I used to just in case.

As Jim said, it's a good starter machine that you can get into for not a lot of money. You will likely outgrow the machine at some point though.
 
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Tony Zinzola said:
I disagree.

.0001 of backlash is too much and needs to be compensated for. Imagine that your machine has .001 of backlash and your spindle has .001 of runout. The thinnest border I was able to put around a part with the Taig was .008" (I think). With my new machine, I successful put a .001" silver border around a part, just because I wanted to see if I could do it. I built some pretty fancy cues on the Taig mill. I also had my machine dialed in very well, which I spent hours doing every couple of months.

Even with the machine running as well as I could get it to run, I know that anything I were to do on my new machine would come out better. Keep in mind that I didn't have an NSK spindle on the Taig. I had one of those wolfgang spindles from Ebay. I tested the machine with the Kress and the Wolfgang. The Kress has no business being used for inlays. It is junk. The Wolfgang has low torque and lower rpm's, but if you go slow enough, it works fine.

One thing to keep in mind is that the more you move, the better your chances for error are. I tried to keep all of my programs working within a 1 inch area to help minimize movements. If the butt had 3 sections, I would inlay the middle first, then move + or - the desired amount and re-zero the machine. I also would never rotate the cue until I was done with that section. Even if that meant changing cutters 20 times.

My new machine, I know 100% that I can move 30 inches away and change directions numerous times. When I tell the machine to go back to 0, the indicator will read .0000. I still do my programming the same way that I used to just in case.

As Jim said, it's a good starter machine that you can get into for not a lot of money. You will likely outgrow the machine at some point though.
Click to expand...

What is your new machine?
 
I'm sure Tony will give more info, but in the meantime.... If I remember correctly, he picked up one of Jim (MC2)'s machines and tweaked it for inlays.
 
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