These days, the bar for home-built projects is high. With 3D printers, CNC, and cheap service providers, you can’t get away with building circuits in a shoe box or an old Tupperware container. While most people now have access to additive manufacturing gear, traditional subtractive equipment is still a bit less common. [Someone Should Make That] had thought about buying a “minimill” but he had read that they were not worth it. Like a lot of us, he decided to do it anyway. The pros and cons are in the video you can watch below.
During setup, he covered a few rumors he’d heard about these type of mills, including they are noisy, have poor tolerances, and can’t work steel. Some of these turned out to be true, and some were not.
Consider a computer. Sure, you want the giant 100-core monster with gobs of memory. But if your choice is to have a quad-core 4GB machine or nothing, you should probably take the computer you can get.
Honestly, the minimill he is using looked perfectly serviceable to us. Of course, he seems very skilled and we expect the knowledge and experience of the operator makes a big difference no matter what kind of tool you are using. He also purchased a better tool holder which doubtlessly helped.
Of course, these minimills aren’t dirt cheap. If you want bargain basement, you can always hack something together. Or, spend a little more and build something at least somewhat comparable.
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