Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “First Look: Bantam Desktop CNC Mill”.
Welcome to make workshop, where we check out tools, toys and tech built for makers today we’re going to look at a desktop, cnc mill. This is the bantam tools desktop cnc mill like the name implies. This is the cnc mill that fits on your desktop. As far as specs go, the working area of this machine is seven inches by nine inches by three and a half inches and it can cut things like aluminum brass wood plastics like delrin and other materials like that. The spindle is a 250 watt quarter, horse spindle. As far as the physical construction of the mill itself goes, you have a an aluminum frame that is 5 8 inches thick and then the the shafts that everything rides on the rods are 20 millimeters thick.
It’S meant for cutting the softer metals like aluminum and brass you’re, probably not going to be throwing a block of titanium in here, but who knows? Maybe, if you took it, really easy, you could pull it off. The software on the machine is designed to be extremely user-friendly and simplified. They’Re simplifying the approach to machining if you’ve used something before like universal g-code center or mach 3, or for the mach series you’ll find that this is um much much much more simplified.
There aren’t as many bells and whistles to click on, but it also makes things much more approachable for a beginner. The software has several nice features like the ability to preview the job in the stock and the machine placed on a preview of the machine itself. That’S kind of nice: it’s got built-in ability to generate tool, paths for things like svgs, so if you were to design in illustrator or something like that, you could bring it directly into the software and you don’t have to generate cam yourself. It can do that for you.
It also has a built-in tool, library that has all the feeds and speeds for the tools that you’ve purchased from bantam. Now i got my machine extremely early, so my tool library was not filled out, but when you see aluminum being cut in this article, i’m using their recommended feeds and speeds, they just sent them to me by email and you can see that they work the built-in Tool, library is going to be a very nice feature once it’s fully fleshed out. They also have some templates that you can download into fusion 360 that will show you different tool paths and how they work, they’re, still kind of fleshing those out as well. They showed me the templates for delrin and other plastics, and they basically give you a feel for like what the different tool paths do and what feeds and speeds you should use for certain tooling that come with the machine.
There are some aspects to their software that are going to generate a lot of comments. I think, and that is that they have a subscription model. You can pay an extra fee to get some extra features right now. Those features include advanced probing on holes and things like that and advanced svg handling, so you can do different types of cuts just by generating specific colors and shapes and illustrator, as well as feed and speed override now feed and speed override.
My personal opinion should be there by default, but i’m actually not opposed to paying a little bit for some features that help you create tool. Paths, for example. You know there is no tool path, creation, there’s, no advanced tool, path, creation and the other things like mock or whatever that you pay for. You would end up having to buy software like vectric, aspire or vcarves, or something like that or learn how to do cam in fusion 360..
So i can understand paying for some of the advanced features that generate cam for you and i’m eager to see what they come up with for that whole model. Personally, the built-in touch probing that comes with it by default. I love that it’s just so nice to be able to throw a chunk of metal in there and have it automatically find the surfaces for you. It’S not an unheard of feature.
You’Ll find that on a lot of machines, but it’s just really well integrated into the machine, and i liked it everything you see me cutting in this article. That’S important to note is with the bass features. I did not show off any advanced or subscriber features in this article. In my explorations with the machine i found that it worked as advertised. I have a tendency with milling metal to kind of turn everything way way way down.
You know and be very timid and go slowly, but they kept giving me feeds and speeds that were recommended that just chewed through the aluminum much more aggressively than i would have personally attempted at first and the machine handled it. Just fine, as you can see in these results, cnc machining is hard uh, even even like simpler stuff like this are just as hard as some of these more complicated looking ones. It’S not like a like a modern-day 3d printer, where you drop in a file select what spool of material you have and choose your quality and hit. Go it’s a lot more complicated than that, but you can learn how to do it. Thanks to a collection of books, we’ve got on the maker set right now at a reduced price. We’Ve got the cnc bundle in the maker shed. It is six books to help you learn how to do different c and c projects and learn skills for cnc routing and milling it’s 34.95 for the bundle of six books. That’S you know, learn how to design infusion jimmy deresta’s tips and tricks book from the workshop. Uh using cnc for producing leather work, i mean tons of great tips and tricks, there’s a link to that bundle down below and don’t get too discouraged.
I’M actually not an expert. Even though i made something that looks as awesome as this, i think i would fall more on the advanced side of a beginner, and so you can totally pick up these books learn what you’re doing make stuff like this no problem. I find this machine really interesting.
It fits in a very specific niche in the cnc mill ecosystem that i am excited to see filled i’m gon na parallel this a little bit to laser cutters. If you’ve watched laser cutters for the past few years, you know that you can get a very cheap laser cutter. That technically is the same power and capabilities as a more expensive one like a k40, for example, you can get one of those for pretty cheap and then you have to add all the bells and whistles yourself to make it easier and more usable kind of, like A glow forge or a full spectrum, lasers, muse, or something like that.
This is vaguely similar in that you could import a basic cnc mill for much cheaper. That is the same flip for the the same size, but then you’re going to be stuck having to add all your own bells and whistles like an enclosure and the e-stop, and your software experience is not going to be as good the price on this is comparable. You know to something like a glow, forge or a muse, and i think that’s really interesting.
I think it’s um. I think it’s a market that that makes sense. There are a lot of people willing to pay for that ease and reliability that don’t want to tinker with a machine people like you know, maker spaces or even schools. I could see high schools and stuff using this and it it makes sense to me. I like it, i i would love to see all kinds of competition in this space.
You know people competing with this machine as well um. So that’s that’s kind of where i see this as a product fitting in the ecosystem. If you’re going to be doing major parts, you know like engine parts or something like that, you’re probably going to move up to something beefier more substantial. You know heavier, you know a full-size vertical milling machine or something like that, but for prototyping containers, enclosures for your electronics, small sculptural items.
This is absolutely capable. The bantum desktop cnc mill is available. Uh right now for three thousand six hundred dollars go to bantamtools.com. To learn more about the machine, their subscription services and their other products thanks for joining us, i hope you enjoyed the video be sure to subscribe to this website and click the little notification bell, so you can find out whenever we put out new videos about cool New tech, community news, different interviews and things like that i’ll see you next time you .