CNC Machine Affordability

Assembling kits other people manufactured is not manufacturing - that's assembly.If you don't need it to do a lot of work, a cheap used cnc is incredibly cheap. You can easily get a decent one for under 30k and if you can wait for a deal you can probably snag something for under 10. Lathes are even cheaper. They're easily the most accessible machine tools.I used to work for a tool and die shop. It took us weeks from when we quoted a job to when it would ship and people came

CNC would be one of the better routes. Like you mentioned, the cost is a barrier. Luckily you can rent CNC time at some hardware stores, university wood shops and some local hacker-spaces. http://100kgarages.com/ can locate you a CNC and answer any questions you may have.

You are not missing anything that I see. They allow it to be as expensive as the person's needs requires it to be.However, I spent less than this machine's total cost on a bench top CNC machine that has a larger work area and can be easily adapted to do this functionality. I just have to swap the spindle out for the correct attachment.

Would this device actually work out to be cheaper than a cnc machine milling out a solid alloy block?

A question to answer: is the enjoyment coming from actually being the machinist, or is it coming from assembling something you designed? The answer could be either. But if you just want to bring something you designed to physical fruition and you are limited on space then I would recommend finding machine shops that will make what you design for you. This is what Protolabs, Shapeways, Xometry, etc do. You don't need to actually have a 3D printer or laser cutter or CNC mill to get things bui

It's about right for what you'd pay to get something machined :)

Wow - that is beautiful.You're almost certainly right about good metal-milling CNC machines never being cheap. I think the only possibility to make such a thing economical would be by re-purposing car parts (I think if you could work out a way to use common car parts and clever software, you could step around the fact that things manufactured to high tolerances out of steel are expensive - since car parts are both cheap, and well-made).That said, the thing that really excites me about

Have you been to a makerspace? Most have, at a minimum, woodworking tools, metalworking tools, a laser cutter, and a CNC router. Very few people can justify buying all of those things for themselves. A high powered laser cutter alone is $10k+ for a decent Chinese model. A good professional model can run $30k+.

I'm often either:a) surprised that processes that seemed futuristic or industrial are available to the average person at a reasonable priceorb) surprised that others are surprisedI operate a 4kW laser cutter set up to cut metal. Once new customers realise how much product the machine can put out in an hour they understand that it isn't an expensive service, and that it is in fact almost always cheaper to have an item laser cut rather than do it themselves using any o

If you have the equipment, it's the most consistent and least risky option. Purpose designed CNC mills are not even that expensive in terms of shop equipment, maybe 3-4k.