Sparky, That sounds like it's exactly what I'm looking for... Can you post a pic?
John
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Sparky, That sounds like it's exactly what I'm looking for... Can you post a pic?
John
Found that older thread here discussing a Z drive. The one post has a link to some excellent pictures of a homebrew Z drive.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33456
Bump.
Anyone have any drawings or plans that they can share of a z axis housing design?
I like the Elrod type design and don't really wan to reinvent the wheel.
Max
I am planning on driving the knee on my J head step pulley BP. I mounted a timing pulley on the existing Z acme lead screw just below the bearing. I had to remove an inch or so of the lead screw threads to provide some space for the pulley to mount. I then cut a window in the right side of the knee casting between the ribs to route the timing belt to a 2800 in-oz stepper that will be mounted via a bracket on the outside of the casting. My pulley ratio is 3:1 and I am planning on a couple of air cylinders to take up some of the knee weight. This was as large of pulley I could fit and still get the timing belt through the window without cutting through casting ribs or using idler rollers. I recorded all the weights of the pieces when I put the mill back together to make it easier to size the assist cylinders.
Just got the mill back running last week after cleaning and painting and still need to build the Z stepper mounting bracket before I can test the Z drive system.
Pictures of the mounted pulley can be seen about half way down the album: http://picasaweb.google.com/cschaffter/CNCMillProject#
Craig
Find a Boss 3 Mill and poach the head
i second that !
here are a couple i have for current / future retrofits
boss cnc head
hiedenhain conversion
centroid conversion ( i think this is the elrod kit )
they pop up on ebay occasionally and i try and scoop them up..
also had another off a prototrak that was similar to the elrod...
good stuff !
and the boss head most likely will have the erickson 30 taper or quik 200 spindle for quick change tooling