Manually milling mendel metal parts?

I have access to several milling machines, pillar drills etc.. and i was wondering if there was any real help out here on the forums, or anywhere else to help me to manually mill some metal mendel parts, as i am on the tightest budget known to man so buying a full set for +£200
is pretty much of of the question
Any help?

How about £125, they haven't been £200 for some time now? [emakershop.com]

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Some sets sold recently on eBay for a little over $50 (the Prusa variation) which is cheaper to build and easier to mill or even build as a Wood Mendel. You can also search for Custom Machined Metal Mendel, a user by the name of swighton built a very nice Metal Mendel and made a number of drawings for it that you can also find on the web, he built based on the original which would cost you more.

I think if you built the Prusa mendel you can save around $ 100 ( no bearings - $ 40, an additional stepper + $ 15, cheaper rep rapper parts ( - $70), shorter belt for the X axis and no belt for the Z ( - $ 8), less hardware.

The electronics will still cost around $ 200 unless you can figure how to use the 4 axis controller sold on ebay for $ 70 and use EMC2 or Mach like a couple of users.

Regards
Tayeb

You can also search for Custom Machined Metal Mendel, a user by the name of swighton built a very nice Metal Mendel and made a number of drawings for it that you can also find on the web, he built based on the original which would cost you more.

Yup:
http://reprap.org/wiki/Metal_Mendel

Mind you, the important thing about Metal Mendel is that, like Wooden Mendel, it's a little bit silly. Mendel is optimized to be printed; if you've already got the available tooling, do up:
http://reprap.org/wiki/Eiffel
http://reprap.org/wiki/ORE-Bot
http://reprap.org/wiki/T-Slot
or heck, a
http://reprap.org/wiki/WolfStrap-English

Each of those machines needs more development and documentation loving. Then we'll have something to use as a platform for
http://reprap.org/wiki/Shape_Deposition_Manufacturing
and PCB Milling. And, ideally and eventually, a self-machining reprap.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/2011 08:06PM by SebastienBailard.

Thanks for the info guys, its much needed.
As to the shape deposition manufacturing, thats what actually started me thinking about achining the parts for a stronger base. A self machining reprap would be a pretty nice pice of kit, especially since it could be used on both metal and plastic. ><