Are 5 axis milling machines worth the expense?
That depends on your operation. If you manufacture injection molds with complex geometry and have sufficient volume, yes! But if your work is rather “simple” and low volume, you might have a difficult time justifying the purchase of CNC mills. Also, having the right CNC tooling is critical to any milling operation, especially using such a precision machine tool. Because these remarkable machines are so versatile, you will find that you are able to machine cores, cavities, electrodes, and inserts as well. This is, of course, what can be done on a 3 axis machine, but that requires much more set-up time and programming. Plus, any time you break up a set-up, you lose precision and vast amount of time.
