Hello, just introducing myself to the forum.
Am now at the stage where conversion of my old universal mill to CNC control is just about done.
I've sort of haphazardly documented the process, including the mistakes, partially for a record for myself but also because in my research prior to doing this I didn't find any links to anything that actually dealt with any of the questions I personally wanted answers to, so this is probably only the 10,000th time this has been duplicated on the web so far....
The donor machine had an XYZ envelope of approx 300 x 150 x 75 mm, (though that envelope could be considerably expanded, just unclamp and raise Z 350 mm or tilt head etc) that is just the envelope of precision movement) belt drive 1 hp motor with spindle speeds up to 2500 rpm, a bridgie was too big for my space, but despite being an older style machine it was actually still quite accurate with only a little wear in the (trapezoidal) leadscrews, which I have not swapped out for ballscrews.
I made a deliberate choice to build a CNC machine rather than simply buy one, because you don't get to understand something unless you have built it, but most importantly for anyone considering this option, you cannot know, going into the build, what you are going to learn, so your estimates of what you will learn are a lot lower than what you actually do learn, so if this "learning bonus" is a factor in your decision the chances are you will come out of it at the other end wishing you'd made the project a higher priority.... it took me near three years to get in gear, and six months from actually buying the first parts, stupid, because I'd have saved all that time (and more) on the other projects that got in the way in the meantime.
Have pictures of the various stages at
http://picasaweb.google.com/fasand.words/CNCMillConversion#And (so far) 4 videos
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7470965926215097427&hl=enhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8046410346841899515&hl=enhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9162676120633297756&hl=enhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1905201439466713100And (home server on cable so be patient) blogged the process here
https://surfbaud.dyndns.org/sites/blog/index.php?/categories/23-Mill-Lathe/P5.htmlhttps://surfbaud.dyndns.org/sites/blog/index.php?/categories/23-Mill-Lathe/P4.htmlhttps://surfbaud.dyndns.org/sites/blog/index.php?/categories/23-Mill-Lathe/P3.htmlhttps://surfbaud.dyndns.org/sites/blog/index.php?/categories/23-Mill-Lathe/P2.htmlhttps://surfbaud.dyndns.org/sites/blog/index.php?/categories/23-Mill-Lathe/P1.htmlhave phun
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