I thought I'd start a more specific thread dealing with my conversion.
I took the bed off and removed the screws. Checked out everything. I think it'll work. I thought about having the bed scraped or ground or whatever but the local guy wanted $3500. I went ahead and redrilled all the lube holes and tapped them for 10-32 to use quick disconnect pneumatic fittings, I'm going to use them for oil of course. I did also pickup the correct oil for the head and ways or at least the closest I could find. I got the correct way oil and for the spindle I got grade 15 instead of 22, I figure thinner is better than thicker. A gallon of each. I used to use 10W motor oil. I'm still deciding whether I need to use little valves so I can concentrate the oil to where I want it. The only reason I think this is necessary as everything will take the path of least resistence. So in my mind if there is an area that the oil flows easy then it will go mostly there. With valves I can make sure it's getting everywhere. For the head I did the same thing quick disconnect fittings. But I'm going to use a cheap hand oil can and just push the hose onto it so I can manually lube the spindle with the correct oil.
I also ordered rolled ballscrews from Hiwin, I asked 10 times to different people and they are zero backlash and use one nut. It comes with the yoke.
I ordered off ebay a bearing bracket for a bridgeport to see if my clone mill was the same as no one I know has heard of the brand, it's called a First Mill, Dwayne at Elrod said it's a non-U.S. version of Sharp. Who knows? Anyway I got the bracket today and it matches up perfectly which is a relief, especially since the bearing holes on my bracket and the BP one match. I was a little worried because the bearings my mill uses are much largers than a BP. The BP 6204 is 20mm I.D. and the bearings I have on my mill are 1", so quite a difference. But everything is good. What is real good is the bracket I bought is going to be used as the Ballscrews I ordered are the BP replacement ones and they are much cheaper than having ones made from scratch. If I had a lathe with a Spindle bore big enought I would have just done it but I don't and if I had them sent out it actually would have some out more expensive, plus I would have had to build my own double nut to make it backlash as I have no real knowledge with oversizing the balls and my way I've done before and am familiar. But I don't have to now as the ballscrew I got is zero backlash. Anyway I'll be using my new BP part as the floating side.
I also got my Power Supply from Keling 72V 20A, a monster. I was real nervous hooking this thing up to my current CNC as when I upgraded from Keling last time it was disasterous. What happended last time is I went from 24V to 48V on 5056 Keling Drives and blew all my drives, not my fault but a design flaw as Keling sent me new ones and they blew. I convince him I knew what I was doing and the only thing that could blow those drives according to their specs was crossed voltage and that definately wasn't the case. So for a hundred or so he let me upgrade to 8078 drives. I posted all this a long time ago on here but the skinny was the 5056 drives were way faulty as my motors used to heat up to 130F and since it was my first CNC I didn't know this was not correct. THen I hooked up my 8078 drives with the new Power Supply and of course everything worked perfect and the motors never got hot even after long cutting. Now skip forward to today I was REAL nervous hooked up this PS as I didn't want to go through the same thing, but thank God it started up fine and the cnc runs, now I have to tune the dam thing, but I'm sure I'll get way more power and speed, not that I needed it, but I need the PS for the 1200 oz/in. motors I got coming.
Next thing I posted whether I should keep the brand new DRO I just bought. I bought one because my old one went tits up and I purchased it before I decided I was going to convert my mill. Then I neede to pull the table anyway to redo the oil lines as the old ones had finally broken. When the table was off I decided to go for it. I think this is going to be the best decision I ever made. So I decided the DRO is already paid for and I've purchased all the parts for the conversion so I figured it will be absolute verification that everything is working perfect all the time. It will give exact feedback to the table movement, plus it will help with the setup and tuning of mach with regards to number of steps and screw mapping. Also if I do need to use the mill manually I have a DRO, but anything that would require a DRO I would CNC anyway. The only reason I would use it manually is to clean up an edge.
I also went ahead a machined on my other CNC a Power Draw Bar. I didn't but the plans as it's a very simple thing to make, plus I had all the parts in stock. I buy pneumatic cylinders all the time.
I can't think of anything else to say now. Here are some pics of everything, enjoy.
My goal is after it's all together maybe work on making it able to do rigid tapping, but once I'm confotable with using a Tapmatic on CNC maybe I'll just stick to that as I've got a big Tapmatic a 70. For larger sizes I'll be thread milling.