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best metal for building a mill enclosure out of? insights?

rk9268vc

Aluminum
Joined
Dec 2, 2021
Location
Minnesota
I am working on designing and building an enclosure for my PM-30MV conversion (mill)

I am trying to figure out the best metal for building the enclosure out of. I will be TIG welding it and possibly do some bending.

3105-H14 aluminum, painted both sides 0.063" thick
3105 H14 White Painted Aluminum Sheet | Coremark Metals

6061 aluminum 0.063" thick
6061 T6 Aluminum Sheet | Coremark Metals

A366/1008 cold rolled steel 16ga
Cold Rolled Steel Sheet Supplier | Coremark Metals

The steel is the cheapest, but I will have to paint it and worry about rust
6061 is easy to weld but it doesnt bend easy and I would want to paint it
3105 comes pre-painted, but I would have to grind the pain off in spots to weld and then re-paint

Anyone have experience building an enclosure/ maintaining one that can offer some insight?
Thanks!
 
Good grief. I don't mean to be a dick, but you're talking about building an enclosure around a hobby mill. I know you've probably done a bunch of work on it, but frankly, it seems like polishing a turd. Go buy a used VMC. I bought my first industrial cnc mill for $600. f'ing light years beyond what you will ever have with that.
 
Use whatever metal, wood, plastic, whatever. It's the shape and design that are most critical. For a mill of that caliber there's only one enclosure design that's truly appropriate-

casket1.jpg
 
A standard residential metal trash can should contain the whole mill nicely.
Werther you choose to cut out hand holes to turn the handwheels is up to you.
 
Thanks CarbideBob for being the only serious reply here along with Strostkovy

Im pretty new to the forum and seems like there are a lot of guys here with nothing better to do than rag on ya for having a hobby in your garage

I hadent thought of galvanic corrosion, thats a good point.
I am leaning toward steel to avoid denting it when things go flying haha
It will also be a bit easier to tig weld
thanks
 
If you must use that hobby mill, just buy the enclosure. What's your time worth?

PM-30MV Full Mill Enclosure with Doors
– procutcnc.com

It's a hobby, I enjoy working on it. I dont care about my time's worth because I have a day job that pays the bills and the mill paid for itself in 2 weeks of doing plastic parts after work.

Thanks for the link though, its good to see how other people tackled it.
 








 
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