Exactly what do you need to mill a marker?

[slateman]

I'm just curious as to what type of machinery is needed for some the milling I've seen on different paintball guns

Also, are there any reputable shops that would be willing to do custom milling? And about how much woul did it cost?

[RRfireblade]

Umm..... you need a mill ?



You have manual benchtops you can buy for around $1000 all the way up to full multiaxis CNC that can run 100,000.

Look up machine shop in your local yellow pages and give 'em a call.

Typically you have some kind of a setup charge anywhere from $10-$100 ballpark and then a by the hour charge usually no less than $25hr up to maybe $50. Small local shops may cut you a deal on minor 'paintball' type stuf if they know what thier doing.

Of course there are online paintball specific machinists/ custom shops that a Google search will easily turn up. Even a few that tend to frequent the forums from time to time.

Whatcha want milled ?

[Pneumagger]

You need a Mill (unlss your from PBN, then dremmeling = Milling)

It depends on exactly what you want to do. You can pick up a small bechtop mill from Central Mahinery for about $300-$400. It's a good tool to purchase if you will have use for it in the future, and can be a fun thing to learn. Litke a mag, you can continually upgrade minimills with motors, cnc controls, 4th axis', etc. to obtain a mini cnc mill over time.

However, I don't reccomend buying one if you're just going to use it once or twice, as it may be slightly cheaper to have Jay (above) mill jobs for you. Hint...he's a champ!

Check ebay and "harbor Freight" for good prices. I seem to remember a good site call www.benchtopmachineshop.com
Just google it. Minimills are fun and definately worth the cost IMO. As alwaysa, remember, you gat what you pay for in most cases.

[slateman]

I do have a dremel . . .

[Jaan]

There are shops that sell used machining tools. Used stuff tends to be cheap. Manual lathes and mills just arn't desireable anymore, but there are thousands of perfectly good machines out there waiting for you to buy them.

[athomas]

Basic flat machining can be done on a manual mill. These can be had for a few hundred dollars. If you want curves, then you need a cnc mill. The price doubles when you add motors and a controller. That doesn't include the computer which most people already have, and it doesn't include the software. Basic controller software runs about $200. The design software for doing 3d-cad can run anywhere from $500 to $10000 depending on the level of complexity. Then you need a cam program to get yuor program from the design program to gcode for the controller to recognize. Theres another $500 to $1000 or more. The price of the mill is only part of the cost. You can easily have more money tied up in bits, cutters and other tooling and tables than in the mill.

I have a Sherline that I use. The basic mill is only $500. I have over $2500 invested due to tables, controller, software and bits. I manually program my g-code so my programming costs are way down. Its fun though and there is so much you can do..

[Pneumagger]

you manually program 3-d surface curves?

/make me a karta

[athomas]

I can do very basic curves. Its nothing like 3d milling that you see on paintball markers, I assure you.

[luke]

Buying the mill is the cheap part of setting up a machine shop. Plan on spending around $15k in addition to the price of your mill to get started. That is just machining tools, it takes a long list of other tools to round out your shop.