[TangentAudio]

I thought I'd post some links to my blog, where I've been documenting my CNC mill build for several months now. I bought a Grizzly G0463 last May and had it delivered to the local freight depot. Played around with it manually all summer, and started the CNC conversion in the fall. Went with the ProMiCA kit, but I sourced my own motors, drives, controller, sensors, etc.

I'm new to machining, but I've been fabricating things the cave-man way (drills, files, saws) since I was a teenager, mostly in support of the various electronics projects I pursue. It's an unbelievable feeling to finally have the right tools for the job.


You can read through all of the posts directly on my blog, but here are several highlights:

• It started with delivery of the mill, last May.
  
• My first experience making chips manually.
  
• Deciding on the ProMiCA conversion kit, with just the hardware (no motors or anything else).
  
• Receiving the steppers. I used the higher torque variants of the motors that ProMiCA was specifying at the time (they've since switched to liquid-sealed versions).
  
• Receiving power supply (48V 800W from Antek).
  
• Receiving the stepper drives (Gecko 203V):
  
• Testing the steppers and drives.
  
• Receiving the ProMiCA kit.
  
• Performing the majority of the conversion work.
  
• First test! (yes, I know, bad form milling with a drill chuck, but it was a tiny amount of cutting force).
  
• First actual parts out of polycarbonate and Corian.
  
• First metal part, a heatsink/mounting plate for my Gecko drives.
  
• Cleaning up the wiring for the steppers.
  
• Reorganizing the shop.
  
• New tooling acquired from several ebay auctions.
  
• And, the most recent from this weekend - home sensor installation: Part 1 and Part 2.