i just purchased a jet jdm-18 milling machine and i would like to convert it over to cnc. i know that an old bridgport would have bean cheaper better bigger bang for the buck but they apear to be for sale strictly east of the mississippi as the saying goes and im in oregon and have a hard time buying something i cant see touch look at kick shake or pry on to see if it breaks. and ive had good luck with jet stuff if i break it they fix it no matter how much ive welded on it as long as i didnt cause the problem directly. also new is nice cause bearings are in better shape(i am hoping this is an acurate thought process) and it fits in my garage a little better and is more than large enough to start my bussiness with till icome up with something larger to make.
that being said i would like to convert it over to ball screws first to get the slop out of x and y(not sure how to do it on the z axis im hoping someone here will be a little more ingenious than me on that thought) first and keep it manual for now untill i learn a little more about the conversion proccess and i dont have any cad or cnc experience so its all going to be a crash course for me.
P.S if someone could recomend a good cad and cnc related software for us ignorant typ folk it would be nice as i said before i have no experience so something easy to learn would be a good start. thank you all for yor help