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LiquidRulez · 02-04-2003, 10:34 AM

Dax:
Well then if youre a DIY kind of guy, why dont you just build a gantry mill or the like.
Its not really a complex machine to build. And if you search around Ebay, you could probably find everything you need to put it together for around a grand.
The ballscrews can begotten from Reidtool.com cheap....the ballscrews are @$12.00 a ft. for 5/8"dia.with 0.004"per ft. accuracy. And the ballnuts@$24.00 each.....combine two on each screw and preload them against eachother and you have zero backlash and good repeatability. Thats what I did, I made my own preloaded ballscrews.
You can either use pillow blocks,ball bushing bearing blocks and linear shafts on it or go with linear rails for each axis.I would go with the former becuase its more versatile and cheaper if you decide to change it later.
Stepper motors and drives can be gotten cheap on Ebay too. I bought a set of 3 305oz-in hybrid steppers on there for $40 , and they have plenty of power to move my 25 pound head on the Z axis quite fast.
The drives...well you can buy them second hand, but I figured that they are the most important thing on the mill convertion, so I opted to buy new ones @$149.00 each, rather than buy cheap ones.
There are many ways that you can put a mill together, but will be impossible to do without some sort of accurate equipment to build it in the first place.

Depending on where you live, you can get a nice Bridgeport type mill on there for around $1500. Some already converted for around $2500....just best to go pick it up if you can casue shipping will kill ya on a 1500+ pound machine.

Which ever way you decide to go, I wish you the best and will gladly welcome you to the wonderful world of CNC......where you can sit back and watch the machine do all of the work!

02-04-2003, 10:34 AM	#22
LiquidRulez Cooling Savant Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: In Hell Posts: 322	Dax: Well then if youre a DIY kind of guy, why dont you just build a gantry mill or the like. Its not really a complex machine to build. And if you search around Ebay, you could probably find everything you need to put it together for around a grand. The ballscrews can begotten from Reidtool.com cheap....the ballscrews are @$12.00 a ft. for 5/8"dia.with 0.004"per ft. accuracy. And the ballnuts@$24.00 each.....combine two on each screw and preload them against eachother and you have zero backlash and good repeatability. Thats what I did, I made my own preloaded ballscrews. You can either use pillow blocks,ball bushing bearing blocks and linear shafts on it or go with linear rails for each axis.I would go with the former becuase its more versatile and cheaper if you decide to change it later. Stepper motors and drives can be gotten cheap on Ebay too. I bought a set of 3 305oz-in hybrid steppers on there for $40 , and they have plenty of power to move my 25 pound head on the Z axis quite fast. The drives...well you can buy them second hand, but I figured that they are the most important thing on the mill convertion, so I opted to buy new ones @$149.00 each, rather than buy cheap ones. There are many ways that you can put a mill together, but will be impossible to do without some sort of accurate equipment to build it in the first place. Depending on where you live, you can get a nice Bridgeport type mill on there for around $1500. Some already converted for around $2500....just best to go pick it up if you can casue shipping will kill ya on a 1500+ pound machine. Which ever way you decide to go, I wish you the best and will gladly welcome you to the wonderful world of CNC......where you can sit back and watch the machine do all of the work!