About a year ago, Langmuir Systems introduced a new CNC milling machine that’s advertised as being “designed for industry, priced for the hobbyist, and simplified for education.”
The Langmuir MR-1 is a $4500 gantry-style mill designed for cutting metal.
It’s like a CNC router, but is advertised as being rigid enough to cut aluminum, steel, titanium, and stainless steel, “all while maintaining excellent finishes and accuracy.”
Advertisement
The mill features a 3.4 HP spindle that operates at 0 to 8000 RPM, and can run “larger diameter cutters such as face mills, fly cutters, boring bars, and drills up to 1/2-inch.”
Langmuir also says that the mill can exert over 135 lbs of cutting force at 100 inches per minute (100 IPM) in any direction. The material removal rates are said to be up to 10 cubic inches of aluminum per minute, or 3 cubic inches of steel.
The Langmuir MR-1 isn’t quite “plug and play.”
When first setting up the mill in your workshop, you have to mix a couple of bags of cement to fill the base with. This plays a big part in contributing to the system’s weight and rigidity.
Langmuir also sells an epoxy sealant kit as a recommended finishing option.
Here are the system and components at the time of this posting (December 2023):
Advertisement
- Base CNC Mill/Router: $4495
- Control PC with Touchscreen: $750
- Enclosure: $600
- Flood Coolant System: $300
- Leveling Feet: $80
- Computer Stand: $100
- Full Assembly Service: $2496
- High Powered Drive Motor Upgrade: $100 each (you would need 1 for x-axis, 2 for y-axis)
The full assembly service is optional. If you consider the base machine with control PC, enclosure, flood coolant system, and leveling feet, that’s over $6200, not including freight or cement.
I’m seeing a quote of $711 for shipping to a residential address with liftgate service, for just the base machine – and not the pre-assembled turnkey setup.
Work holding is extra:
- Low Profile Modular Vise – $390 each
- Toe Clamp Kit – $100
- Modular Vise Clamp Set – $60 each
- Baseplate Threaded Plugs – $20
- Modular Vise Parallels Set – $50
You’ll likely want a probe:
- Electronic Touch Probe: $150
- Automatic Tool Setter: $160
- Bundle: $280
They also have a flood coolant relay box, flood coolant, marine epoxy kit for sealing the concrete with a self-leveling finish, and wireless jog pendant.
And, don’t forget to get some end mills, either from Langmuir or elsewhere.
The MR-1 looks to be an interesting system. Feedback from early adopters seems to be optimistic so far.
Here’s a promo video showing the MR-1 in action:
John
They just announced a new CNC press brake. Hunt down more info on that.
Stuart
They took the page down, but there’s some info available via Google cache.
Titan 25T, $3995 with $500 deposit
25-ton capacity
33″ max bend width
3000 PSI max hydraulic pressure
4″ max ram travel
10″/min max stroke speed
9.6″ opening (ram-to-table)
Weighs ~700 lbs
Operates at 240V AC, 10A (fused)
It makes sense given their plasma cutter products.
MM
Designed for industrial use? Seriously? This machine is an absolute joke from the perspective of a professional machinist. It’s weak, it’s slow, it’s lightweight, it doesn’t have a tool changer.
Now Hobby stuff, DIY? Absolutely. Education? It looks fantastic for that–and cheap enough so that a school can have many of them to go around instead of having 20 students cluster around one machine.
David Z
If you more loosely interpret industrial as “business,” it can do work for for some businesses that have smaller needs that aren’t met by desktop CNCs that can’t effectively work metal. Since not all work requires 4+ axis, for example, this enables prototyping, individual or low count runs, or just the ability to work in-house.
MM
It is certainly capable of making simple parts, but it’s still very slow in terms of cutting feed rates, and since it doesn’t have a tool changer or a method of clearing its own chips an employee would have to constantly babysit the machine. You save money buying the machine but it really costs you in terms of time and labor. Things like prototyping are low-volume so it’s not like you’re trying to crank out mass production, but people are still waiting around for those prototype parts. Engineers are expensive, I’d rather not have their work or a major project deadline held up by a slow machine.
Troy H.
“Since not all work requires 4+ axis”
Who is talking about 4 axis? The problem is that this isn’t terribly capable for a 3 axis machine. If you’re running one off’s then CNC doesn’t actually make as much sense in machining from a business perspective. If you’re prototyping, there are much better ways of doing it. A combination of 3D printing, manual milling and outsourced manufacturing will tend to be more cost effective. With work holding and tooling, you can easily get to $10k to start before you start thinking about labor costs and that buys you a fair bit of work at xometry. For volume production, a real machine shop becomes an option.
This would be fun for a hobby mill or an educational environment where you can learn CAM and the fundamentals of CNC. I would wonder how it compares to the benchtop solutions from Avid CNC. It looks cool. I’d love to have one. I wouldn’t attempt to use it to make money.
There’s a reason why “industrial” mills don’t usually use this gantry setup (I don’t know of any). It just isn’t cost effective to give this kind of machine the rigidity required to compete with more traditional form factors. Gantry CNC’s are great for lower precision and lower tool load applications like routers. Calling it a “mill” and saying it has industrial capabilities is easy to do. That doesn’t make it meaningful. Go watch some NYC CNC videos on Youtube and you’ll see why CNC isn’t the panacea that some people make it out to be. Figuring out the setups and programming the machines takes time and skill (and this machine will run slow once it is programmed)… Manual machinists can use that time to just make the part.
Saulac
I would say that it would work for light industrial/production where the machines are set for a single tasks. I would say its primary customers would be specialty shops.
Hobbyists should be aware of the costs of and skills, especially the skills, required. The video skips a few steps and may give a false idea of how difficult/expensive what shown in the video really are.
Nick
As a former professional machinist turned engineer, it’s important to look at this objective and not discredit the system because it’s not a $600k Mazak or DMG Mori.
Several newer small platform gantry systems, like Datron, have increased Material Removal rates through optimized toolpaths and radial chip thinning for high-speed machining methods. The more modern cutting approaches are increasing the depth of cut (DOC) and reducing with radial cut width, normally 8-12% of the tool diameter. This allows you to run at a higher RPM and feed rate. Deeper but narrower cuts at higher feed rates reduce cutting forces greatly, allowing the heat transfer to go from material to chip instead of into the tool, which is the primary cause of wear and work-induced stresses to the base material. This machining strategy can enable the processing of materials like titanium or stainless as the machine does not need the same power to cut as conventional machining practices.
Many businesses now aren’t just single-service shops. They offer more than just machining. A system like this could absolutely be used professionally if machining was a complementary capability to the company’s overall service.
We need to be less tribalistic and esoteric and more objective.
Ian
I’d like to add that even many off brand end mills are razor sharp now. That wasn’t the case 20 years ago.
When more affordable motion components hit the market, I considered building myself a super robust bench top cube gantry mill. Looks like I wasn’t the only one.
MM
Nobody said anything about needing the absolute biggest and baddest or dropped fancy brand names. There absolutely are small mills which are very capable. But this is not one of those machines. It is not capable of operating at the spindle speeds or feed rates required for the modern CNC toolpaths you mentioned.
Now if this article had been about something like a Datron Neo? That’s a totally different beast. It has a high speed spindle and feedrates fast enough to make use of modern toolpaths. It has a tool changer. The Datron may be small but it has the capabilities to make up for it. This Langmuir does not.
Joe
Off the top of my head I can name a job these could do quite nicely in an industrial setting…8k rpm spindle geared to smaller tooling would be perfect in a wire shop for making electrodes. Be them simple or intricate. I like it and would love to try one in my shop. For a full investment of less than 10k I could make hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of electrodes.
Doug
Nick
Well thought response. Seems reasonable for what it is designed for. And the price point.
It would be nice to hear from someone who actually has one instead opinions and conjecture.
Mopar4wd
For small companies that need to make a few parts here and there it seems like a good deal. I used to work for a company that made control panels. Most were modular and punched from aluminum by another shop (we did the design engineering and final assembly). But when we had call for one offs punching them was hugely expensive and a machine like this would have been ideal it would cut the aluminum plenty quick and clean up etc wouldn’t matter much when the out side shop would charge 5x normal cost for one offs.
Drew M
No.
Marketing of this needs to be slapped. HARD.
eddie sky
I want a wood CNC that is simple to use, but with features either as good as intermediate or upgradeable as you grow (from a 2×2 to a 4×2, 4×4 and 4×8 work space) and 1-3hp motor – not some drop in name-brand router, down draft option and integrates with free software as well as paid apps.
I have some projects and repetitive work. This one here, I realize is beyond my needs and cost. But I wonder if commenters have experience with some brands that might contribute?
Stuart
Maybe look at Shapeoko, AVID, or Laguna?
William Adams
The Shapeoko 5 was mentioned at:
https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/shapeoko-5-pro-cnc-router/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
paul gibbel
I have the Onefinity CNC and you can start with the smaller size and upgrade the size up to 4 by 4 as your needs grow. Also start out with a router or a 2.2 kw spindle if needed. I have owned mine for about 2 years with almost no issues.
Troy H.
Avid is generally upgradeable. They have benchtop machines that top out at 2×3, but their pro machines are much more flexible.
The most cost effective way is to get the gantry as wide as you will feasibly want it to be, because it is the most expensive to upgrade. So you could start with a 4×2 or 4×4 machine and upgrade to 4×8 in the future if you want. The electronics would stay the same and the gantry would be reused, you just extend the table. They already have the kits figured out.
They sell turnkey solutions or you can drop in a chinese spindle up to about 4hp. There are even automatic tool changer options that you can get.
Nathan
Yeah I see this as hobbist or cheap prototyper for a business
It’s not a production machine for big parts. But if you ran a shop and didn’t want to tie up a production machine for making prototype for development. Hell it could be worth buying 3 of them .
But for making say one off restoration car parts or just general hobby use. Might be good
But how much is a used CNC mill these days of the small size
Boris
You can get yourself a reasonable used American-made CNC mill R8 tooling for under 3k. It will have even slower feed-rates but more powerful spindle. In my hobby shop I run it even against hardened alloys at very gentle rates. One-off parts, I can wait. Mine has 5000 rpm and 25ipm max rates, but the motor rates at 0.9hp.
Simon
This machine runs 8k rpm, 100ipm and 3.4hp.
Joe
as a hobbyist I just go to my local makerspace and use our old but reliable HAAS mill. We’re saving up for a much newer mill with more features but the ole HAAS has met everyones needs so far