Originally Posted by Pretorien  I just stopped by a local Harbor Freight to look at the micro mill - $299 and I have this apparently good forever 20% off coupon = $240 + tax. Then I started thinking - the conventional wisdom advises replacing the X & Y movements with the LMS units - $150 - and - I don't like the fact that there is no lock on the quill and the motor is too slow for my applications - Why not buy the X & Y assemblies from LMS, add the column $30, gibs $9, spindle head $30, Z axis screw $10, locking levers, set screws, nuts etc - perhaps and additional $25 and then get one of the Proxxon high speed grinders and machine the spindle head to take a simple adapter - and then proceed with the CNC fitment? The only issue I can see at the moment is that there is no way to hold my favorite crutch, my laser edge finder.
The whole head assembly will be a lot lighter without the motor/gearbox component which should mitigate the less-than-ideal geometry of the Z axis feed screw vs head postion and all that is lost is the quill feed for drilling and the chuck capacity. (I doubt that, even in standard form, one would want to go hogging through brass or aluminum with a 1/4" end mill)
Am I missing something?
EM |
I still can't believe what you guys in the US pay for everything - the X-1 is £280/$500 over here!
Instead of buying an X-1 and uprating everything, why don't you just buy an X-2 or X-3 - there are CNCfusion kits for those as well?
I am planning on adding a Kress high-speed spindle to my next machine - that will take 6mm and 1/4" collets, so my laser-edge finder will fit
