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Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Refitting Mini Mill
« on: July 25, 2006, 03:31:41 PM »
I highly recommend the Ron Steel conversion. 200oz motors will do all the mill is capable of.
http://www.stirlingsteele.com/millplans.html
Here an older pic of mine, hasn't changed much since this was taken. I has Ron's belt drive kit, Driven by a Hobbycnc board, was running it with Turbocnc but the old laptop died and I've got a replacement that is Mach capable. I've added an auxilary high speed spindle to the side of it as well.

Here's a review I did of his belt drive kit that has a few close up pics of stuff.
http://www.outdoorsunlimited.net/~chucksmy/Mini-Mill/Mini-Mill_Belt_Drive_Upgrade.html
Oh, the backlash comp works fine in Mach, in addition you can tweak your lead screw steps to dial things in. But keep in mind that even though you can compensate for backlash, it doesn't solve the backlash problem. If you are climb milling with a heavy cut, it will want to pull the work for the distance of your backlash. You can run the gibs a little tigher for light cuts and get by. Best thing is to use anti-backlash adjustable ball nuts or at the very least acme lead screw with a home made anti-backlash nut. Roton will custom fit your ball nuts to your ball screws for for the least amount of backlash fwiw, still not as good as anti-backlash nuts.
http://www.stirlingsteele.com/millplans.html
Here an older pic of mine, hasn't changed much since this was taken. I has Ron's belt drive kit, Driven by a Hobbycnc board, was running it with Turbocnc but the old laptop died and I've got a replacement that is Mach capable. I've added an auxilary high speed spindle to the side of it as well.
Here's a review I did of his belt drive kit that has a few close up pics of stuff.
http://www.outdoorsunlimited.net/~chucksmy/Mini-Mill/Mini-Mill_Belt_Drive_Upgrade.html
Oh, the backlash comp works fine in Mach, in addition you can tweak your lead screw steps to dial things in. But keep in mind that even though you can compensate for backlash, it doesn't solve the backlash problem. If you are climb milling with a heavy cut, it will want to pull the work for the distance of your backlash. You can run the gibs a little tigher for light cuts and get by. Best thing is to use anti-backlash adjustable ball nuts or at the very least acme lead screw with a home made anti-backlash nut. Roton will custom fit your ball nuts to your ball screws for for the least amount of backlash fwiw, still not as good as anti-backlash nuts.


