Hi all, over the past few months I have been working away on my X2 conversion, all the while gathering many tips and tricks from this site. Its time to post up the results and hopefully give back something to the community.
This started out as a stock X2. I then added a Steele belt drive kit, a CNC-Fusion ball screw kit, motors and drivers from Kelling, and finally an enclosure and coolant system. Along the way I have removed all the now unnecessary manual controls, fabricated limit switch brackets, increased the Y travel in the CNC-Fusion kit, added splash covers for the motors, added a splash cover for the Z screw, and changed the mounting of the rubber way-covers for improved travel and reduced risk of pinching. The computer is mounted under the table and the screen and keyboard are on an old adjustable CRT monitor arm.
The enclosure is 1m x 0.6m x 0.6m. Following inspiration from Hoss I built a contoured table out of wood, added a lip around the edge, fitted the 4 aluminium uprights and then used epoxy resin with glass fibre matt to seal it all. Then I fitted the back and side acrylic panels which are just screwed and sealed to the 4 uprights. The front "door" actually just hooks over the top of the two front uprights. I wanted something that could be completely removed so I just lift it on and off as necessary. The table has blocks under the feet of the mill and all the other faces angle down to the drain.
Here you can see the Y motor splash guard and way-cover mounting. The enclosure table detail can also be seen. The epoxy is a little rippled but it cured very hard and there are no leaks. If you look carefully you can a 10mm drain hole in the front face of the mill table. There is one at each end and they let the coolant drain out of the T-slots.
The drain is a regular kitchen plumbing fitting which I recessed into the table before coating it all with Epoxy. I found a strainer at the hardware store which sits nicely in the drain and catches the large chips.
The coolant system has a 15L reservoir and a 2L filter box. I purchased the reservoir, fabricated a stainless steel lid to mount the motor and cut a recess for the filter box to hang in. The pump is from a local machine supply store.
The drain pipe comes into the filter box and the coolant is strained by some Scotch-Brite scouring pads before it flows out through 5mm holes into the main reservoir. The pads are zip-tied in place. You may recognise the source of the filter box...
The filter box lid slides down the drain pipe and clips in position to prevent contamination of the coolant.
Here you can see the Steele belt drive, coolant hose and tap, and the Z ball screw shield on the CNC-Fusion kit.
The Y limit switches are under mounted to the underside of the base casting. The X limits behind the table under the way-cover and a protective bracket. The Z limits are on the R/H side of the column behind the ball screw.
So all in all it is now a pretty good setup. I've learnt heaps and am getting more and more confident with my machining. Thanks to all who have inspired this build and I hope it is a useful source of ideas.