If you want a simple mod that can make your setup alot more solid, try stiffening up the column/base. Use epoxy, epoxy-modified cement or just plain 'ol cement and fill the lower half of the column- gets you a lot more stability. For extra added measure, chuck the thick washer on the back of the column and replace it with a steel or aluminum plate- its shape makes it act like a spring. If you wanna go full-on ridiculous (like I did) you can rig up either an angle plate, a brace system or something similar to put the coup-de-grace to deflection in the column.
A belt drive (look at Sterling Steele or some of the others mentioned through the forums for the X2) is almost mandatory if you want to not go out of your mind while machining with it. If a belt drive isn't in you plans, if you don't want the temptation of taking a hammer to it WHEN (not if) you break a drive gear, I'd suggest replacing the plastic gears with metal ones- littlemachineshop sells 'em.
An air spring conversion kit is a good investment- it gets you a bit more Z travel. If you wanna upgrade even more, you could use a counterweight system.
DRO's are a good idea if you are going to keep it a manual machine.
If you want to do any 4th axis work, a rotary table or something similar is needed, and can be cheap if you hit ebay alot.
...and of course, CNCing it is always a good idea. If you like to mod your machine, you're likely to go that route in any event eventually...
-Farasien  |