End mills and tool holders
A mill cuts with end mills held in collets or tool holders sized to its spindle taper (R8, BT30, ER). The taper decides which holders fit, so buy tooling to the machine's spindle rather than generically.
Bantam Tools
Bantam Tools Desktop CNC - Specs, Score & Price
The Bantam Tools Desktop CNC is a industrial CNC mill with a enclosed powder-coated steel frame frame. A mill is judged on rigidity before anything else - the mass and frame that let it hold a tolerance in metal.
CNC millIndustrial
The Bantam Tools Desktop CNC was a precision instrument rather than a general-purpose machine: a fully enclosed, powder-coated steel mill with a 28,000 rpm ER-11 spindle and a roughly 7 x 9 x 3.3-inch work volume, built for PCB milling and small aluminium and soft-metal prototyping. It was the spiritual successor to the Othermill, and it was very good at the narrow job it was designed for.
What it was
It is on this site as a reference rather than a live recommendation. Bantam Tools has pivoted to art machines following the Evil Mad Scientist acquisition - the AxiDraw and EggBot pen-plotter line - and the desktop CNC mill now reads as sold out on their own store, with retailers having dropped the category. The evidence points to a CNC line being wound down rather than actively sold, so we do not present it as a current buy.
Why it is here as a reference
The honest reading is that the company has moved on from CNC milling, and the machine is no longer something we can send you to purchase with confidence. Rather than link a listing you cannot complete, we keep the page so the specification is on record and point you at the machines that now do its job.
What to buy instead
If you came here looking for a Bantam or an Othermill replacement, the two closest current machines are the Carbide 3D Nomad 3 - an enclosed, quiet desktop mill for PCB, brass and light aluminium in the same precision-instrument spirit - and the Makera Carvera Air, a slightly larger enclosed soft-metal mill with a quick tool change. Both are current, both are honestly scored on this site, and either is a better answer today than chasing a discontinued machine.
Rigidity & frame
The Bantam Tools Desktop CNC is built on a enclosed powder-coated steel frame frame. Rigidity is the property that separates a mill from a router: the frame has to resist the forces of cutting metal without deflecting, and mass is how it does that. It is the single most heavily weighted axis in our mill score for that reason.
Spindle & power
The spindle and turns to 28,000 RPM on a ER-11 collet taper. On a mill, power and the torque behind it matter more than peak RPM - torque is what drives a cutter through steel without stalling, where a high-RPM router spindle would rub and burn.
Work envelope
The travels are 178 × 229 × 84 mm. Mills are deliberately small and deep rather than wide - metal parts are thick, not sheet-sized - so a modest envelope with generous Z is exactly what this class is built around.
Full specifications
| List price | Not published |
|---|---|
| Frame | Enclosed powder-coated steel frame |
| Machine weight | Not published |
| Ways | Not published |
| Work envelope (X × Y × Z) | 178 × 229 × 84 mm |
| Spindle power | Not published |
| Spindle speed | 28,000 RPM |
| Spindle taper | ER-11 collet |
| Tool changer | Not published |
| Coolant | Not published |
| Enclosure | Fully enclosed with safety interlocks and e-stop |
| Software | Not published |
| Metals rated | Not published |
Frequently asked
- What metals can the Bantam Tools Desktop CNC cut?
- Bantam Tools does not publish a material rating we can verify, so we do not state one. Ask them directly what it is rated to cut before buying.
- Is the Bantam Tools Desktop CNC a CNC router or a CNC mill?
- A mill. The difference matters: a router removes material fast in wood and plastic across a large bed, while a mill is rigid and slow and built for metal. See our guide on choosing between them if you are unsure which your work needs.
What you'll also need
A mill is not a finished setup out of the box. These are the parts a working metal setup needs alongside the machine itself.
A vice and workholding
Metal has to be clamped hard and square. A precision milling vice, and a set of clamps or fixture plate, is what actually holds the tolerance the machine is capable of.
Cutting fluid or mist coolant
Metal cutting generates heat that dulls tools and welds chips to the work. Flood or mist coolant, or at minimum a manual cutting fluid, keeps the cutter alive and the finish clean.
A touch probe or edge finder
Finding the exact zero on a metal part is what makes the second and third parts match the first. An edge finder is the minimum; a touch probe automates it.
Sources
Every figure on this page is transcribed from Bantam Tools's published specification. Where a figure is not stated, the page says so rather than estimating it.
Specifications last verified July 28, 2026.