[jdelaney44]

Money so far? Well, $3200 for the machine, $400 for the motors, $300 for the power supply after all my screw ups, uh.....misc stuff $1,000.00, break out board $100.00. Kurt vise $400.00. Cutting tools $500.00. I'm not done yet $2000.00. Wozt that? About $8K.

Yeah, after I value my time, I will probably be over the cost of many other options. But my time is only worth something if I can make money doing something else AND if I have the cash on hand to buy the machine. So it's a hard decision at that point. Do you try to save for the machine? I prefer to get going on the project then I have a drive to put the cash into that instead of the 18 other things I want. That's my oddness.

Heck a new CNC'd BP is $27K. Not that much really. I looked for used CNC machines. I probably should have looked a little longer and harder. Anyway.........here I am. The other objective here is to learn how to do this. I'm getting plenty of that.

Well, today was a bust. I'm working on the lower bearing block / mount for the z-Drive. I've decided to go Elrod style and grab the pads for the quill engagement lever and the quill speed. So it'll be a three point mount. I've been working for a week on the knuckle mounted bearing block. Today I over bored the bearing journal by a hair. I may be able to save it yet with a further over bore and a sleeve. Done that a couple times. :-) Also, I discovered that the top of the screw is going to hit the oil fitting up top. So I may need to back off the screw some. Which means a whole new part. Well, it'll take less time on the second go 'round. Could be worse.

In the attached pics you can see the block from the top and the bottom. Note the 5/8" allen bolt. I reduced the thickness of the cap on that and counter sunk it into the block.