7499
« on: February 09, 2011, 11:12:17 AM »
Hi CW,
A lot of people have converted the X3 to CNC but it is quite an involved task. The standard leadscrews and thrust washers have quite a bit of backlash, an awful lot on the quill (Z axis) and many have replaced the leadscrews with ballscrews and proper thrust bearings adding considerably to the conversion cost.
If you have not already purchased the X3 then there may be better options such as the purchase of a little used, ex-educational machine such as a Denford, Boxford, Emco etc which are already CNC'd (eBay always seems to have on or two, bench top, ex-college machines listed). You would still have to replace the control electronics with more modern (microstepping) units such as Gecko's or similar but I think you would end up with a much better machine.
I have the X2 mill which is a wonderful little machine for manually milling most of the parts I need to make but I know it would cost at least double its purchase price to convert to CNC and even then it may not be truly suitable.
Your list of parts seems pretty complete although LazyCam comes with Mach3 and you may need belt and pulley or flexi couplings to connect the motors to the screws. (for a small machine like this, stepper motors would be a cheaper option than servo's). Also there would be some machining of parts required so some ally plate would be useful to budget for.
Just my thoughts.
Tweakie.