[Jewelry making - Article 00814] - Re: [Orchid] CNC Mill Preference

[Jeffrey Everett]

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>         The linear bearing ways that you refer to in these highly
>     precise mills are no more precise than a properly constructed
>     dovetail way but they have much less friction due to their low
>     surface contact area. snip... 

    James --  Your excellent post finally clarifies the linear slide vs.
    box ways debate for me. I have worked with larger mills (Milltronics
    Partner series) that have excellent repeatability (and always home to
    the same exact location), and they use dovetail box ways. I
    understand that machine rigidity is an important factor in cutting
    accuracy because of deflection. My Roland for instance, weighs about
    150 lbs, and simply doesn't have sufficiently rigidity for metal
    cutting with all but the smallest tools and shallow passes. There
    must be a reason why so many machines are now going to linear slides
    though. The SolidScape 3D printers have moved to incorporating linear
    slides because the less rigid bar slides (once again I forget what
    exactly they are called) could not maintain sufficient accuracy. 

    Pricing, as you mentioned, is another issue. The heavier machines,
    such as the Haas you mention, are moving a lot of weight around, and
    the inertia present when making fast small moves might be somewhat
    problematic, or so I've been told. 

>         Richard, There are many good mills out there, I use the
>     Wolverine 3 from Align- Rite (www.alignritetool.com ask for Matt
>     Dunn) after months of shopping and comparing quality and price. 
>     Gem Vision offers one "The Revo" that is excellent (
>     www.gemvision.com ) that I would have considered if it was a
>     available two years ago.  Someone mentioned the Model Master mill,
>     my opinion is that is a very expensive toy compared to other higher
>     quality mills out there plus MM customer service is the worst I've
>     ever experienced.  Just my opinion. Charles 

    Charles -- The German made "Revo" mill as sold by GemVision is
    available without the legendary GemVision service and support and
    their proprietary add-ons for about $10,000, close to half the price
    GemVision sells at. I happened to be at GemVision HQ when they were
    assessing mills, and they had a ModelMaster mill there along with
    some others. It did not appear to be a "toy" to me, and it was the
    mill they were using at the time for 4 axis testing. I've chatted
    with the tech dept. at ModelMaster for hours regarding controls,
    repeatability, positioning accuracy, and so on. I was so impressed
    that I changed my opinion about them, and suggested their mill for
    the University Jewelry dept. ModelMaster 'service after the sale' is
    something I don't know about so I can't comment. 

    I would like to comment on the proMa Technologie mill (aka Revo). It
    features an option for full 5 axis simultaneous operation, something
    jewelers have wanted for years. I suspect this is why Jeff High
    (GemVision) made this the mill of his choice. A movie of the mill in
    full 5 axis operation is here (link at bottom of page)
    http://www.proma-technologie.com/englisch/rundum_l/index_e.html 

    Had I known this about the 5 axis capability of the proMa mill I
    probably would have suggested it instead of the ModelMaster. In
    essence, the deciding factor was the inclusion by ModelMaster of 10
    seats of ArtCam at no charge (a $75,000 value). I didn't think the
    university could pass up this excellent offer. They didn't and the
    grant was requested. 

Jeffrey


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