Configuration needed for making aluminum molds

sorry, but forget it. Stepcraft is the wrong choice for that.

AS a matter of Fact, you are allways a part of the configuration 🙂

Seems you dont have any experience in molds.

Your target product size needs a much biger mold size.

I made some molds for liquid polycarbonate in pu-hardfoam.

No Problem with the stepcraft but the programming is definitely not done with a single click :S

My configuration is a very normal sc840 with kress spindle ...
Ncpc ESTL turbocad

Taking apart problems related to the use of "complex" software to produce complex parts, I think the biggest problem is the Z-axis. To mill aluminum down to 50 mm deep you need a very rigid machine.

The most rigid routers on the market (as I know) are the ones produced by cnc-step.de
But... wow! They costs a lot of buckets... (But they are equipped with ball-screws.)

Take a look at this impressive video.

cnc-step are crappy machines!!!!!

If you need a serious alu mold milling machines look for BZT, Datron, Flexicam or alike.

cnc-step are crappy machines!!!!!

If you need a serious alu mold milling machines look for BZT, Datron, Flexicam or alike.

Yeah, a volkswagen is crappy, let's go for the ferrari. I don't see your point.

Sorry but I disagree with your car comparison.

Following your cars example:
Deckel Maho and Matsuura are Ferrari
Datron and say Flexicam Viper are Audi
BZT is an honest VW
Cnc-step are simply sign making machines not alu mold making machines.

Just another example to illustrate "my point":

Say you have 1 Tn of coal on point A and you need to move it to point B, 40 km away.
You can use a truck and in a single trip will carry all at a low speed, or you can use you car and making several faster speed trips move all the material.

At the end on both cases the work is done, but when done with your car, the car will end stinky and dusty.

At the beginning I was thinking that router machines are all crappy. This holds until you face the problem of doing some milling on a large planar face. At that moment you discover that robust, heavy, traditional/professional machine are useless...

Datron et similar products are great but I think that they are too expensive for an super-hobbyist and/or for small batch productions.

I've made long researches on internet (mainly on american websites) here below conclusions. I hope that below information will be useful for somebody (I spent many nights on internet).

If you stay below 5000 Euro the best alternatives are

1) SIEG X3 machine (modified for CNC milling)
Chinese made, medium quality but extremely common between super-hobbyist. It is sold under different names (e.g. Grizzly in North America, or HBM) but is always the same machine

2) Optimum BF30 Vario + CNC kit
This seems a german machine but it is not. It's made in China 🙁 .

In both case you have high probabilities to receive a machine with problems (missing screws, poor parts alignment, poor assembly, etc etc) but you can fix them with patience.
At the moment I'm more oriented to solution number 2 (because - maybe - you can have a better customer service when the dealer is located in Germany, I don't know it for sure).

Other solutions are:

a) to buy an american TAIG machine (very robust product) and modifiy it for cnc milling;
b) to buy a Sherline machine plus CNC kit.

The main drawback for the TAIG mill is that is extremely difficult to get a customer service/assistance in Europe (I think only Paulimot distribute it if I remember right).
The Sherline it's a very good product. It is sold in large number and has a huge community of hobbyist. Also there are a lot of kits available to upgrade it. The drawback it's.... that is a very small machine 🙁

So, to summarize, the BF30 it's still at the top of my personal hit-list today.
Other opinion/helps/hints are welcome!