G0704 enclosure questions

Hi guys I'm thinking about building an enclosure for my g0704 mill and had a few questions and was hoping some guys here could chime in.

I can't decide if I should leave the mill mounted to the original stand or build my own stand out of welded steel tubing. I think that the cast iron base that comes with the mill provides a good degree of rigidity that a steel tube stand might not.

However I plan on building a full enclosure not just a chip tray and I'm worried that with the original stand the mill will get even more top heavy and easier to tip over.

I don't want to lose any rigidity by moving away from the cast iron base even if I just build a small low wider frame that simply goes underneath the original stand.

I saw one guy who filed his tubing with sand which is a good idea or I could even fill it with concrete to give the frame more weight.

Any suggestions? Thank you

Does the stock stand base (which I assume is the only cast iron with the rest being sheet metal) detach from the sheet metal portion? If so you could always attach that to the steel tubing frame.

I plan on doing something very similar myself (minus the cast iron base, I'd probably just get something like 1/2" steel plate instead) with steel tubing as soon as I get around to getting a welder and some steel tubing.

Attachment 406992

The stock cabinet is about as flimsy as it gets, same for putting it on a tool box. I made mine wide and filled it with sand, the cross members are 1.5" .25" square tubing and the rest is .125" wall. The mill is suspended this way, coolant and chips have someplace to go. If you choose to fill it there is no drilling into it later without a mess, keep that in mind for future upgrades.

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Originally Posted by toddbeau

Attachment 406992

The stock cabinet is about as flimsy as it gets, same for putting it on a tool box. I made mine wide and filled it with sand, the cross members are 1.5" .25" square tubing and the rest is .125" wall. The mill is suspended this way, coolant and chips have someplace to go. If you choose to fill it there is no drilling into it later without a mess, keep that in mind for future upgrades.

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Thanks! Could you share a few more pictures if you have them. Would really appreciate it. Time to learn how to weld!

I used 1 1/2" tubing, way better than the original base.

I can't weld so I'm stuck using wood :rolleyes: Recently just got the leg base part done. Weighs around 15kg.
Next I'll be putting a small worktop piece on top for the mill to sit on with an enclosure part built from aluminium sheeting and equal angles on top of that.
Not brilliant but it's all I've got. Reckon total weight will be around 30+kg when finished.

Wondering whether to put a thin rubber sheet between the worktop piece and the ally enclosure base piece or not?

I've used a wood enclosure for like four years now. After lots of changes and adaptation I am now ready to build a steel unit based on the current iteration of the wood version. My wood enclosure uses the stock stand.

Luckily my father can weld, but construction of the new enclosure won't be all that different from my wood one, witch the exception that I'll be getting rid of the stock stand and moving my coolant to that area in a very similar fashion to shopbuilt's setup above.

All I'm getting at is that a wood stand/enclosure is a great option for the hobbiest, especially for developing a design. You can't beat the price point or ease of work.