Good CNC mill for jewelry making?

[Robin Casady]

Hi,
I'm new to this BBS and new to CNC and just started a subscription to The Home Shop Machinist. I'm interested in a CNC mill for creative jewelry making. I do NOT want to carve waxes for casting. I'm more interested in things like inlay (carving a complex recess into silver then carving a matching piece of gold to fit in the silver recess), Carving a bas relief design around a band ring, carving elaborate overlays or trim for pendants, boxes, goblets, etc. Just for reference, you can see a photo of a piece I did a long time ago for the Stein Eye Institute at UCLA:

http://www.carmelcoast.com/pages/Carmel/LocalArt/MoBMAG/Casady.html

It is a simple design, but a lot of work. I'd like to do more complex designs and think a CNC mill would make that possible.

I was looking on the web at the MAXNC 15 CL2. It looks very interesting, but I'd like to hear from anyone who has had first hand experience with a MAXNC (and isn't selling them :-) ).

I'm also interested in hearing about other possibilities. I want something more robust than a Sherline. It would get some use making telescope gadgets. I have a Unimat and it is too light duty for that kind of thing.

Comments would be most appreciated,

[Jerry G]

Check out http://www.desktopcnc.com - the site has 75 desktop CNC mills in a comparison table along with contact information for the companies. It has some other useful information also. The site is informational - it does not sell any machines.


<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Robin Casady:
Hi,
I'm new to this BBS and new to CNC and just started a subscription to The Home Shop Machinist. I'm interested in a CNC mill for creative jewelry making. I do NOT want to carve waxes for casting. I'm more interested in things like inlay (carving a complex recess into silver then carving a matching piece of gold to fit in the silver recess), Carving a bas relief design around a band ring, carving elaborate overlays or trim for pendants, boxes, goblets, etc. Just for reference, you can see a photo of a piece I did a long time ago for the Stein Eye Institute at UCLA:

http://www.carmelcoast.com/pages/Carmel/LocalArt/MoBMAG/Casady.html

It is a simple design, but a lot of work. I'd like to do more complex designs and think a CNC mill would make that possible.

I was looking on the web at the MAXNC 15 CL2. It looks very interesting, but I'd like to hear from anyone who has had first hand experience with a MAXNC (and isn't selling them :-) ).

I'm also interested in hearing about other possibilities. I want something more robust than a Sherline. It would get some use making telescope gadgets. I have a Unimat and it is too light duty for that kind of thing.

Comments would be most appreciated,</font>

[Robin Casady]

Thanks very much!

------------------
Robin Casady
http://www.CarmelCoast.com

Casady & Greene, Inc.
http://www.casadyg.com

[Tony Jeffree]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Robin Casady:
Hi,
I'm new to this BBS and new to CNC and just started a subscription to The Home Shop Machinist. I'm interested in a CNC mill for creative jewelry making. I do NOT want to carve waxes for casting. I'm more interested in things like inlay (carving a complex recess into silver then carving a matching piece of gold to fit in the silver recess), Carving a bas relief design around a band ring, carving elaborate overlays or trim for pendants, boxes, goblets, etc. Just for reference, you can see a photo of a piece I did a long time ago for the Stein Eye Institute at UCLA:

http://www.carmelcoast.com/pages/Carmel/LocalArt/MoBMAG/Casady.html

It is a simple design, but a lot of work. I'd like to do more complex designs and think a CNC mill would make that possible.

I was looking on the web at the MAXNC 15 CL2. It looks very interesting, but I'd like to hear from anyone who has had first hand experience with a MAXNC (and isn't selling them :-) ).

I'm also interested in hearing about other possibilities. I want something more robust than a Sherline. It would get some use making telescope gadgets. I have a Unimat and it is too light duty for that kind of thing.

Comments would be most appreciated,</font>

Hi - have you come across this website in your travels?

http://www.5xj.com/

He seems to be doing the kind of stuff you are talking about. There are details of his Taig CNC mill setup on this site also.

I use the Taig CNC mill myself - it is (in my opinion) significantly more robust than its close competitors (Sherline and MaxNC).