[catsm58]

Hi all, This is my first post,and indeed my first experience with Cnc routers.
I am primarily a Sound engineer/Electronic technician/musician and I have been prototyping some valve guitar amps and compressor limiters. Part of this requires some metal work to cut various holes for pots,switches,and IEC power connectors,not to mention engraving text and artwork. The cost of having this done can be quite high,so I decided to try and build a machine that would be capable of doing all these things.
I started looking around various sites and vendors and short listed 2. Because I want the machine to route holes in the front and back of the chassis's I work with I had to get a dual y drive machine so I could clamp the chassis in the work area without a problem with depth. I have yet to build the steel frame for the machine to mount on but its not far off.
Ultimately, I decided on the Pilot Pro dual Hybrid kit from the USA as it appeared to be a strong and accurate machine with good control.
I duly bought the machine kit and after a few weeks a few boxes arrived with all the parts.
I have to say, even though it was a little slow on being put together and shipped Phil was always in touch with updates.
Well... started to lay out the bits to see if it was all there and soon found that there was a bit of a mixup. Because PDJ is updating every thing to a 8020 frame and I had a hybrid with a steel frame, its not surprising that I got got a bit of both. Of course this slowed me down somewhat. Most of the problems were with machine screws. Anyway not to dwell on this Phil has supplied the right bits and I'm almost at the wireup stage. All the mechanical aspects of the kit has been assembled and appear to be functioning smoothly.
I suppose the hairy parts will getting the unit wired up and talking to the controller. I sourced a relatively cheap HI speed spindle and VFD so I'm hoping this will turn out to be a kick ass machine.
Then I have to learn to program It
I've attached a few photo's for those who are interested
I'll post more as I go along

[FandZ]

Looks like you have some quality gear there. Should run nicely I'd think. With the kit you ordered, did you have machine anything or did it all bolt right up?

[catsm58]

The kit comes prepecked for drill hole locations so that's fairly straightforward.
However some of the holes for the lead screw brackets are 3/4"(19mm) and the holes for the bearings and the Z axis linear rail need to be tight so I had them machined by an engineer which costs a bit,but I think its worth it.
I have had some drama's with incorrect parts supplied which has cost me because I've had to get some machining redone and the assembly guide is out of date for the unit I am assembling. The sequence of assembly is important and there are some parts that need to have provision made for fitting right at the beginning otherwise there's a fair bit of dis-assembly to do to rectify it. Not fun!
However overall I think the quality is very good and his backup is good, he just needs to do an up to date assembly guide

Simon Glozier