Originally Posted by shortbus_cnc  Thanks for the reply.
Can the things you mention about precision be corrected? Do you think it is mainly from the backlash?
I do plan making the mill portion cnc at least. I should have mentioned that in the original post.
Is it worth it? I mean, I see X2's turned into cnc mills, and people have good success. Surely the same can be done with this, right? |
I think you have to chose backlash or higher friction in the nut. I had the same choice on my Optimum BF20L mill, and decided to buy ball screws, but that was also because of the large and heavy table and headstock. Backlash can be corrected in software by the way.
If the dovetail design is made adjustable, which it almost certainly is, I think you might tighten it to get close to perfect fit for the table.
If you compare it with the X2 you will notice that the Z-axis on the 3in1 is located far away from the table. I think runout might be a problem when the drillpress-style Z is at its full length. The advantage of the X2, and most other dedicated mills, is that the headstock and thereby the spindlebearings can be lowered down close to the workpiece. You might be able to lock the Z-axis and run CNC on X/Y with OK results.
I can think of uses for this machine as a manual tool, but for a XYZ CNC mill I think there are better options. IMHO a small lathe and a CNC X2 would work better.
Jan