[Anokiernan]

I'm working on doing this conversion currently, but just out of curiosity has anyone else successfully completed this?

[fretsman]

I haven't but here's the link to what looks like a great mod. Just click on the "Z" and "X and Y" icons.

http://www.chicobritish.org/CNC/index.html

There's some other nice mods in there as well but it looks like the ballscrew mods should help you out immensly.

Dave

[Anokiernan]

Nice find, thanks!

[fretsman]

Your welcome.

Forgive me as I don't know much about ballscrews but shouldn't he have anti-backlash nuts on those, or are they built in to the ballscrew blocks he installed? Usually I see a delrin type nut next to the ballscrew housing.

Dave

[Hirudin]

Oh man I want to do this too! As a person with "only" one mill at my disposal (the Taig) I'm afraid doing this conversion might mean buying a bunch of the parts again.


I also don't know much about ballscrews, but it's possible those are preloaded nuts - nuts that have slightly oversized balls that fill the gaps so there isn't any backlash.

[fretsman]

lol! Unfortunately I use mine almost daily so I would have to buy another whole Taig to pull this off! :withstupi

Dave

[Anokiernan]

The solution that I come up with might not apply to your machines, my taig is a first gen one, with the dovetail z ways as opposed to the box ways. The X-Y is similar though, but there are still some geometric differences that might cause an issue.

[Burn]

Does anyone here maintain a backup of the chicobritish page? I wanted to see his motor mount but it looks like the website is down for good

[doanwannapickle]

Does anyone here maintain a backup of the chicobritish page? I wanted to see his motor mount but it looks like the website is down for good

Yes, unfortunately the website, along with the car club, has met it's demise.

I'll attach a couple of pictures of the motor mount to this. I have cad drawings of it but it won't do much good unless you can find the same motors. I'll look around for the name and model of the motors, they come up on eBay from time to time.

Cheers,
Walt

[doanwannapickle]

Oh man I want to do this too! As a person with "only" one mill at my disposal (the Taig) I'm afraid doing this conversion might mean buying a bunch of the parts again.


I also don't know much about ballscrews, but it's possible those are preloaded nuts - nuts that have slightly oversized balls that fill the gaps so there isn't any backlash.

Exactly. In fact those ballscrews are sitting in a drawer somewhere. The balls were getting pretty loose and I couldn't find any larger ones to put in there. They need some .127 or .128. If someone can find the balls (or wants to compensate for the backlash), and is feeling really brave, make me an offer.

The new ballscrews use the same system but are of much higher quality. Had some picture of the new screws but can't find them. There is still a bit of backlash but backlash on ballscrews is very consistent and easy to compensate for.

I discourage people from trying this upgrade just because of the equipment and degree of precision required to pull it off. There are a lot of other upgrades with much better bang for the buck.

What is really needed, in my opinion, are some 10 tpi screws similar to the OEM screws.
This would make them easily adjustable and be a system that everyone is familiar with.
It would be half as fast as my ballscrews but I never run anywhere near full speed, it's just too fast.
It would be twice as fast as the OEM screws.
It would be a drop in replacement.
Know anyone with a thread grinder?????
I expect sales would be brisk if they could be produced for a reasonable price.

If anyone wants any specific pictures and or explainations, just say so and I'll upload them.

Cheers,
Walt

[Jeff-Birt]

What is really needed, in my opinion, are some 10 tpi screws similar to the OEM screws.
This would make them easily adjustable and be a system that everyone is familiar with.
It would be half as fast as my ballscrews but I never run anywhere near full speed, it's just too fast.
It would be twice as fast as the OEM screws.

I can already do 100 IPM all day long with the stock screws, no need to replace them with anything else. Anything faster than that and the screw whip becomes an issue. You would need a way to fix the screw and both ends and put it in tension to think about going faster; and the Taig machine is just not made for it.

[doanwannapickle]

100 ipm * .05 ipr = 2000 rpm. All day long?

100 ipm * .1 ipr = 1000 rpm. Twice as nice for the lead screw and lead nut. And, it puts you more in the usable torque range of steppers.

100 ipm * .2 ipr = 500 rpm. Now you need more torque at the motor or less friction. You get that with ballscrews.

[Jeff-Birt]

Yes, all day long

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzrBcXCNDhU"]YouTube- 90 IPM SS[/nomedia]

Also check out the video of it doing 250IPM with modest acceleration; this velocity is really not practical for a number of reasons including really bad screw whip and that the steppers are doing about 5K RPM. All of this with my 'little' 166 oz-in motors.

The point is that you need to match the machine, steppers, power supply and driver to get the most performance out of the system.