Roland MDX-50

[cosmetic1]

I've been using it for over a year now and the machine is working every day cutting ZR without any problems. The advantage of using MDX-50 is that it is cheap, strong and accurate. Half price of DWX50 However, there is a lot of knowledge that must be learned to use it for dental purposes. Especially CAM setup is difficult, at first I managed to do it with the deskproto recommended here, I tried fusion360, but it was too difficult so I went back to deskproto again. PMMA will be cut, but I think it will take a considerable amount of time to get it right. If you want to make a digital denture, I think you will use a 3D printer. Also, the round material holder from the PDI is not suitable for hard materials, the vibration will loosen the screws and the disc will come off. I sell this triple disc holder on EBay for the time being. Please take a look if you are interested.

 

[npdynamite]

I can see the cost benefit for the person who can figure out the CAM side, though I would still question if it's worth the savings.

That said, my comment was more because Millbox is made to allow people with absolutely know idea about anything with milling to successfully operate a mill. I have literally seen people who don't understand the right click function of a mouse run millbox successfully. That said, someone like that should definitely not take on a project like this.

 

[dentexpert]

I've been using it for over a year now and the machine is working every day cutting ZR without any problems. The advantage of using MDX-50 is that it is cheap, strong and accurate. Half price of DWX50 However, there is a lot of knowledge that must be learned to use it for dental purposes. Especially CAM setup is difficult, at first I managed to do it with the deskproto recommended here, I tried fusion360, but it was too difficult so I went back to deskproto again. PMMA will be cut, but I think it will take a considerable amount of time to get it right. If you want to make a digital denture, I think you will use a 3D printer. Also, the round material holder from the PDI is not suitable for hard materials, the vibration will loosen the screws and the disc will come off. I sell this triple disc holder on EBay for the time being. Please take a look if you are interested.

Thank you for your reply.
I have been printing digital dentures, cast partial frames, models, splints and crowns on my Asiga UV Max for several years already. I found the denture resin is not as good as the one on the disk. I have Dentca just in case if I need to do immediate dentures) I know Dentsply Sirona came with a new Lucitone Digital resin which BAM! technology - a body-activated material. It was only for Carbon printers but now it has approvesd for Asiga and Sprintray. I believe the final announcement is going to be in Chicago in a week.

If you are saying it creates the vibration then the other option to mill the wax bases and flask them with teeth with conventional way but I would like to stay away form that.
I might mill the wax tryin dentures which I could use to checking VD, occlusion, lip support and if any corrections needed doctor can cut or add wax easy in the same time.
Vita has this workflow.

What is the reason for you to sell triple disk holder? Did you switch to the different brand?
I discovered this one long time ago but don't know if it is better then yours.

PDI Roland Round Material / Dental Fixture System

The PDI Round Material Fixture allows you to hold round material on Roland MDX-50 and MDX-540 or other ordinary 4 axis milling machine. The fixture mounts directly to any Roland 4th axis unit. It can also be used directly with any milling system using a 3 or 4 jaw chuck.

www.pdi3d.com

They have an option for single and double fixture systems.

Do you mill zirconia crowns only? How about implant supported restorations? Single full contour crowns over Ti-bases and bridges?
I'm afraid to ask if you tried to mill big bridges. Any pictures to share? How is the machine finishing your margins?

Regarding the CAM. I have someone from my dealer tech support who can connect the MDX-50 to Millbox. I assume if this is a case (and he is able to connect) i can run both MDX-50 and WDX-52D from the same software. I don't have a problem to use deskproto if I absolutely have to.
However I wanted to know the limits and difficulties of using MDX-50.

By the way does it have a suction?

I love when people saying buy "dental" and you will do it right (without headache). If something goes wrong and you don't know how to fix it or what to do- it does' matter if it is branded "dental" or not. Meanwhile most of it came to the dental manufacturing from the other industries and adapted for our needs. Yes, if person can't figure our things it is better to use "1,2,3" steps to work. But if the hardware is not capable to do the job, it is the different story.
3D printing rapidly came to our dental life and many of us learned form inexpensive printers / materials many years ago. They were not dental and we learned why and how to use them for our needs. Now, the same companies are promoting newer models of their printers as "dental" They all learned from us too! Thanks to all enthusiasts who spend their time to figure out how to adapt things for dental use.

 

[cosmetic1]

As you may know, some laboratories are already using large CNC machines. That's because it has many abilities that aren't in dental Mill, and recently Chinese-made dental milling machines have come out, some of which seem good, but they're heavy. The sintering oven I bought was 40 pounds and the shipping cost was $ 1300. But a good milling machine weighs between 200 and 400 pounds, importing it would cost $ 2000-4000, and I'm not sure if you can get the parts without any support. That's why this was the only machine available in the USA that had ATC and was reliable. And the first thing I needed was an attachment to hold the material. The only thing I had was the PDI Round Material Holder, but when I tried it, the design wasn't dedicated, so if it loosened due to vibration and the material became thin, that part would crack and the rest of the material would be wasted. Therefore, by making it myself, it became possible to hold up to 3 materials using the maximum cutting area of the machine. Sure, there's a CAM issue, but it's great if you can create a custom MILLBOX post for the MDX50. I want to buy it if possible.
I will try attach PIC but don`t know how.

 

[dentexpert]

I'm totally agree.
How do you deal with dust? Do you have a vacuum attached to the unit or you vacuuming only at the end?
Did you machine came with Rotary Axis Unit or you bought it separately?

 

[cosmetic1]

Yes machine came with Rotary Axis Unit So far I'm pulling the hose through the hole in the back of the machine, but it's not enough. So I already made a custom vacuum inlet that I designed with CAD. However, I can't print large geometry with my current printer, so I'm looking for a cheap and large 3d printer.

 

[npdynamite]

The reason to suggest buying something for dental is because in most cases it makes the most sense. Buying something like this mill would generally be to save money correct? It is only 4 axis and cost 1/4 to 1/5 of the machines you are talking about it along side so the only reason to buy such a mill is cost savings. It is extremely seldom that it would make any sense for a lab to purchase a machine like this to save money because you will lose that money in time getting it to operate correctly and consistently.

When someone hops in here asking how to make a machine like this work for a specific dental application, someone has to point out that it likely won't save them money, because that is normally the motivator. The fact that this is maybe a better solution for say, 1% of labs, is fairly irrelevant to most people who visit this forum. Just because this could be the solution for you, doesn't mean that it shouldn't be pointed out that is a generally bad solution.

Yes, most dental solutions came from other industry. But unless you are trying to start a company providing milling solutions to labs, it is almost always going to be better to let a larger company with a research team sort this stuff out. Unless of course you have a lot of disposable time and money like most dental lab techs

 

[cosmetic1]

It may be exactly what you say. Perhaps this method is not suitable for everyone, but it is also true that many small laboratories cannot make such a large investment. It's important for everyone if there is a way to save as much as possible. In fact, many ZR labs will find that one milling machine is not enough. So if you can buy two for one dental milling machine, or for backup, this is a big advantage.

 

[npdynamite]

If a small lab cannot make the investment in a milling machine designed for their purpose, they absolutely can not afford the time and material suck that is buying something like this and making it work. If you are making this work, congratulations, you could have saved yourself time and money buying something else.

If a lab has enough production to keep multiple mills running they can afford to buy the appropriate mills, if they can't, they aren't managing their business.

 

[npdynamite]

Also, if it were back in 2010, this conversation might actually make sense. But it's 2022, dental milling is common place and there are borderline too many dental specific mills available for very affordable prices. At this point in time this is just a backwards approach to the problem

 

[cosmetic1]

You're right. Sure, it was possible because I had some knowledge, but as I said before, you can see in this thread that not everyone can do it. However, it was a great advantage to be able to operate all night without changing the three discs in this challenge. Next, we will develop our business so that we can buy high-performance dental mills.

 

[npdynamite]

You're right. Sure, it was possible because I had some knowledge, but as I said before, you can see in this thread that not everyone can do it. However, it was a great advantage to be able to operate all night without changing the three discs in this challenge. Next, we will develop our business so that we can buy high-performance dental mills.

I should probably note, my comments weren't really directed at you or what you are doing. Yes, I may believe there is a better way, but I'm glad that you have had success and I'm sure that you learned some useful things along the way.

My reason for continuing the conversation is more to add more info for people trying to decide if they want to take something like this on