Planning PM-30MV Conversion

I just received a new PM-30MV mill for a CNC conversion. There are a few things I haven't seen talked about very much in the forums.

1) How do you disable the quill? Do you remove the course and fine gears and all the other quill components? How do you lock the quill from moving?

2) Why don't CNC controllers use the DRO installed on mills?

3) Does it matter which side of the X-axis the stepper is installed on? It seems that most people mount it on the left side.

Thanks for any insight into these burning questions.

Mark

Very briefly as I suspect Landmark may not check his post again

1) I have th same mil - just use the locking lever on the left so it cannot move, only if you have issues would it be necessary to do anything else
2) Very few have closed loop control to DRO but dynomotion kflop or linux are 2 viable options, the built in DRO is only accurate to 0.02mm if going to the effort of running closed loop people would use a glass scale as it is much more accurate ranges typically 0.005 to 0.0005mm
3) No

Thanks for the information. I checked back for several days but slowed down after not getting any replies.

My mill is similar to yours - PM-727V.
1. I intent to simply use the locking lever to lock the vertical quill movement just as it is designed to be used. I won't care about anything more to do - all parts will stay as they are except removing 3 quill manual handles.
2. DRO is designed only to read the part's position without need to control motor to move it. "Pulse" and "Direction" commands from controller to the motor driver tells where to move from where it is now - DRO data does not fit into this picture. Although exception to this is spindle variable speed control - this module I intent to use by using dac output for the mills speed potentiometer.
3. It does not matter which side of X motor mounted on. I will mount on the left simply because I am right handed and hence I want right side to be my typical working spot free from obstructions.

@eBirdMan Thanks for the information. Again I'm late seeing your response. I'm used to getting email notifications when a thread is updated but don't seem to get them from CNCZone.

How is your mill conversion going? Have you created a build thread for it? I considered getting the PM-727 but decided to go with the PM-30 because it was belt driven which I have seen is popular with CNC conversions.