[CS900]

first and foremost I love my Taig mill. I've had it for around 15 years now and it's the machine I learned CNC on. It's been thru many an upgrade to this point. It started with one of those terrible Xylotex driver boards which was upgraded to a G540. After that a 4th axis was added. Then the big upgrade...The spindle motor was upgraded to a 1hp DC treadmill motor. What a difference that made, it really woke up the mill. I even filled the column and base tubing with epoxy granite. Even with all those upgrades I've always fought with the leadscrews. I could never seem to get them tight enough to eliminate backlash, yet loose enough so I could still jog at a descent rate without stalling the motors. So this is something I've always wanted to do, but I can't justify the price tag Taig lists to convert a mill to ballscrews. So I'm going to try some of the chines 12mm ballscrews. So here's what I'm starting with:


and here's what I'm shooting for:



So I'm going to start with the Z axis. There's not much room so the extrusion needs to be machined out a bit.


fits pretty well.




stay tuned for more fun!

[CS900]

Moving right along. I have the X and Y axis done as well. The saddle had to be machined out on both sides to fit the ballnuts and ball screws. Extensive modifications to the ballnuts were required as well.




Even with the modifications to the ballnut it's still a fairly close fit. I was also able to retain the set screws that secure the wipers in place.


After the saddle was modified I went to mount the bearing blocks. I ended up putting the Y axis bearing block on a slight angle. The stock mounting holes were going to overlap my new mounting locations so this seemed like the simplest solution. The X axis, I just flipped the table around so i wasn't competing with the original mounting locations.


I'm super cheap as well so instead of buying nice anti-backlash couplings, I made some solid ones.


Almost done.


Still need to get the belt connection on the Y axis complete, reinstall all the way covers, and I think while I have it apart i'll add some gas springs to counter balance the head as well as some home switches. More to come, so stay tuned.