[feederic]

Well I had a fortunate surprise on thursday. The crate the mill arrived in was in excellent shape, and opened up fairly easily. Luckily for me I was able to pay the driver a small fee to move the mill into my garage. The lighting was bad so I could not take any pictures. Once I get some time and sunlight I will post more pictures up.

I am also in line for a CNC Fusion kit.

[feederic]

I have been waiting for CNC Fusion to put their BF20 kit up, but I am not sure how much longer I can wait. I was told I am in line for one of their test kits but I may need to pass soon. I am also in the process of renting a garage to run this bad boy in. Hopefully I will make some real progress soon. In the meantime I will be reviewing Hoss' excellent plans and see if I can motivate myself to roll my sleeves up and get something done on my own.

[Nater]

Taggin' this thread to keep up on it. I also scored Hoss's DVD in preparation for diving into a G0704 and the machining world in general (hands on anyways, I've done product/CAD design for a few years now).

Spent this past weekend completely cleaning out our (meaning wife as well) 24' x 32' detached garage to make it MINE. Hopefully pull the trigger on ordering the mill real soon.

In the meantime I will be reviewing Hoss' excellent plans and see if I can motivate myself to roll my sleeves up and get something done on my own.

I planned on starting by learning how to make the motor mounts manually with the mill, before I ever purchased ANY of the CNC upgrades.

[feederic]

Taggin' this thread to keep up on it. I also scored Hoss's DVD in preparation for diving into a G0704 and the machining world in general (hands on anyways, I've done product/CAD design for a few years now).

Spent this past weekend completely cleaning out our (meaning wife as well) 24' x 32' detached garage to make it MINE. Hopefully pull the trigger on ordering the mill real soon.



I planned on starting by learning how to make the motor mounts manually with the mill, before I ever purchased ANY of the CNC upgrades.

That will be a nice size workspace! If you plan on having the mill within a few months, you might want to order now with a credit card. They have been back ordered for months, and will not charge you until they ship. If I had known they would not charge until shipping, I would have ordered months ago.

[feederic]

I am in the process of leasing a cheap shop to work in, since I live in an apt right now. I will need to heft the mill over there, and I will begin prepping it for conversion. I will make sure to bring my camera with me and take good pics of everything as time goes by.

I am also ordering the Hoss Heavy Duty Digital CNC Package, I would like to cut through stainless and carbon steel fairly quickly as well as aluminum

Hoss Heavy Duty Digital Package.


CNC Fusion emailed me and said two more weeks. If it is really that close I might hold out.

[Nater]

That will be a nice size workspace! If you plan on having the mill within a few months, you might want to order now with a credit card. They have been back ordered for months, and will not charge you until they ship. If I had known they would not charge until shipping, I would have ordered months ago.

Yeah I should have! I ordered it on 3/22, and it's of course back-ordered until 4/16.

Which isn't so bad, I still need to buy all of the accessories, and I'm torn on what I need to buy, how many, quality, and where. It's absolutely frustrating too, I had a cart all full of goodies from Shars, and at the last second decided I would spring for a Glacern vise. I deleted the cheap-o 50lb vise from my Shars cart, only to see my shipping charges still up near $50.

I closed the browser on principal at that point, not going to be raped on shipping like that.

[DRock]

CNC Fusion has been saying two more weeks forever.

Just get the screws from Ballscrew Kits for G0704 and the mounts from bdtools on eBay.

[feederic]

Yeah I should have! I ordered it on 3/22, and it's of course back-ordered until 4/16.

Which isn't so bad, I still need to buy all of the accessories, and I'm torn on what I need to buy, how many, quality, and where. It's absolutely frustrating too, I had a cart all full of goodies from Shars, and at the last second decided I would spring for a Glacern vise. I deleted the cheap-o 50lb vise from my Shars cart, only to see my shipping charges still up near $50.

I closed the browser on principal at that point, not going to be raped on shipping like that.

Ouch! I am still trying to figure out the accessory game too. I probably won't spring for much though until I have the machine up and running.

[feederic]

CNC Fusion has been saying two more weeks forever.

Just get the screws from Ballscrew Kits for G0704 and the mounts from bdtools on eBay.

I am looking at these right now actually. :boxing:

[Mad Welder]

I am looking at these right now actually. :boxing:

Before rushing in to spend, have a look here too High-Torque Stepper Motor, Stepper Motor, Driver, Stepper Motor kit, DC Servo Motor, DC Servo Motor kit, Stepper Motor Power Supply, CNC Router, Spindle, and other Components. Automation Technology Inc this is Keling's new website and I bought and used Kelings (non-machined ballscrews as I machined the ends myself) for my BF20L conversion (G0704) and I found them a very reliable and cheaper company to deal with.......it's just a suggestion as they're a bit cheaper than the link Ballscrew Kits for G0704....

[hoss2006]

CNC Fusion has been saying two more weeks forever.

Just get the screws from Ballscrew Kits for G0704 and the mounts from bdtools on eBay.

The ballscrews from CJA are for my conversion only, you gotta make the mounts yourself.
Hoss

[rayross11]

The ballscrews from CJA are for my conversion only, you gotta make the mounts yourself.
Hoss

Hoss, are you saying the the bdtools mounts won't fit on your conversion?
can you print some for me?

[Mystichrome]

I believe what Hoss was getting at is that the bdtools mounts are designed around the linearmotionbearings2008 ballscrews. The link DRock posted is for Roton Ballscrews. Roton ballnuts won't work with ballnut mounts designed for linearmotionbearings2008 ballnuts.

[DRock]

Ah ok, I didn't realize that when I was posting.

Do you have to grind the Roton ballnuts too? Which are better quality?

[Mystichrome]

Ah ok, I didn't realize that when I was posting.

Do you have to grind the Roton ballnuts too? Which are better quality?

I'm certainly no authority, I'm a newbie actually, but if I recall correctly the roton ballnuts don't need grinding on the ballnuts themselves, but you will need to either mill or grind a clearance pocket for the x-axis ballnut mount (assuming you're using hoss's ballnut mount design). Hopefully someone can confirm if i'm correct on this.

[arizonavideo]

The 5/8 Roton nuts thread on with a .938" x 16 thread which will require a tape or thread milling.

[Mad Welder]

I'm certainly no authority, I'm a newbie actually, but if I recall correctly the roton ballnuts don't need grinding on the ballnuts themselves, but you will need to either mill or grind a clearance pocket for the x-axis ballnut mount (assuming you're using hoss's ballnut mount design). Hopefully someone can confirm if i'm correct on this.

Yeah I used the SF1605 Ballnuts from Keling Block and Rail in USA (scroll down the page) which are very similar in dimensions to the Linearmotion2008 3 ballscrew 1605-250/550/1050mm-C7 end machined | eBay and they are also larger than the Roton 5/8" Ballnuts 5/8 X .200 Right Hand Recirculating Lead Screws & Nuts for Power Transmission - Roton Products, Inc., so if you go with Roton you don't need to machine the Ballnuts themselves, and you go with LinearMotion2008 you will need to Machine off some part of the Ballnuts, and for both you need to make Ballnut mounts.
Also the mill bed slot where the Y axis screw is positioned is slightly off centre and I had to machine some side clearance off the Mill bed to compensate for the larger dimensioned SF1605 Ballnut, later I added a modification and extended the Y axis and for this I used a Roton 5/8" ballscrew and Ballnut and I was quite surprised at the smaller dimensions and had I gone with the Roton initially I would have saved myself a bit of maching....
and as Mystichrome said when you add the new X axis Ballscrew you will need to machine a small pocket clearance off the Y axis saddle to mount your new x axis Ballnut....

I hope I haven't confused you more and you can follow my explaination.....

[feederic]

Yeah I used the SF1605 Ballnuts from Keling Block and Rail in USA (scroll down the page) which are very similar in dimensions to the Linearmotion2008 3 ballscrew 1605-250/550/1050mm-C7 end machined | eBay and they are also larger than the Roton 5/8" Ballnuts 5/8 X .200 Right Hand Recirculating Lead Screws & Nuts for Power Transmission - Roton Products, Inc., so if you go with Roton you don't need to machine the Ballnuts themselves, and you go with LinearMotion2008 you will need to Machine off some part of the Ballnuts, and for both you need to make Ballnut mounts.
Also the mill bed slot where the Y axis screw is positioned is slightly off centre and I had to machine some side clearance off the Mill bed to compensate for the larger dimensioned SF1605 Ballnut, later I added a modification and extended the Y axis and for this I used a Roton 5/8" ballscrew and Ballnut and I was quite surprised at the smaller dimensions and had I gone with the Roton initially I would have saved myself a bit of maching....
and as Mystichrome said when you add the new X axis Ballscrew you will need to machine a small pocket clearance off the Y axis saddle to mount your new x axis Ballnut....

I hope I haven't confused you more and you can follow my explaination.....

This is great information, I appreciate the input on the mods needed for various brands. It is quite clear and concise.

[feederic]

I am not sure if I mentioned it yet, but I will be moving sometime soon into a place with an actual garage that I can work in rather than an apt. I am waiting until then before I really start digging in.

I ordered up Hoss' Heavy Duty Digital kit, and it has arrived. I've been so swamped with work I haven't been able to pick it up from the post office yet. Hopefully some time will clear up for me. I'm eager to make some chips!

As for software, I am studying for my Master's and can get nice student discounts. I was looking at Solidworks, MeshCAM, and of course MACH 3.

[Mad Welder]

This is great information, I appreciate the input on the mods needed for various brands. It is quite clear and concise.

You're more than welcome, just glad to be of some help...

As for software, I am studying for my Master's and can get nice student discounts..

oooh yippee make sure you do avail of the student discount if memory serves me correctly from some of the more expensive 3D CAD software design suppliers you get the CAD for one tenth of the retail price, but not sure if they also give CAM at student prices but there are still very good affordable CAM packages and don’t forget also Autodesk Inventor will give you their whole Inventor package FREE (nuts)if you register as a student all 600 or 700MB just sign up and download itAutodesk Education Community