Picked a 3-axis over a 5-axis mill for my garage shop and it fit my work better than I expected

I spent weeks going back and forth on dropping $8k on a used 5-axis CNC mill or sticking with a simpler 3-axis setup. I knew the 5-axis would let me do wild angles and complex parts without fixturing headaches, but the price tag and the space it needed in my garage scared me off. Ended up grabbing a 2018 Haas Mini Mill with a 3-axis config for $5,500 from a guy in Denver who was upgrading. First real job I ran on it was cutting aluminum brackets for a buddy's fabrication project, and I realized the 3-axis handled 90% of what I actually need. The extra money I saved went into a nice vise and a bunch of quality end mills from a local supplier. Anyone else decide to go simpler and find out it was the right call for their actual work load?

3 comments

3 Comments

gray31421d ago

You said you saved money on the mill itself - what made you finally decide the 5-axis wasn't worth the extra cost for the kind of work you actually do?

gray_hall421d ago

Hell yeah. A 5-axis is just extra headache for most of us. I'd rather spend that cash on tooling that actually makes me money.

zarat3721d ago

Agree big time with this, @gray314. I bought a 3-axis for half the price and it does everything I throw at it for like 85% of my jobs. The extra money I saved went straight into better tooling and a nicer workholding setup. I see guys on forums going crazy with 5-axis setups then they're just cutting basic brackets and stuff. Most people never use that 5th axis for real unless they're doing turbine blades or weird medical stuff. My simple setup gets the work done faster because I'm not fighting with software or complex setups all day.