[NEATman]

Well, I have finally had the time to complete my little engraver / micro mill.
Here is picture fo the micromill, and it's drive box. The system has 4" of X and 4" of Y travel, and 2.5" of Z travel. Currently, I have only been doing light engraving, and the dremel is working out well. It's not great for fine detail though, as the bearings are not real accurate.

I'm designing a small high speed spindle to mount in it's place, or I'm going to try to adapt an 30,000 RPM air bearing spindle to it. My only problem with the air bearing spindle is the toolholder. I would have to make one that is extremely accurately balanced to reach that speed! I'll probbably have to have it sent out for balancing.

Other projects that are sloooowly taking shape are two Minimills. The one on the left will have 4" of X, 4" of Y and 4" of Z travel, with and additional 4" manual height adjustment on the Z. The one on the right will have 4" of X, 8" of Y and 4" of Z, and the same additional 4" of height adjustment on the Z. Both of these systems will have 23frame stepper motors. I am thinking of buying a taig spindle for these systems. I'm also working on an anti-backlash 4" rotary table for the larger travel machine. All of the power supplies, drives and spindle drives are concealed inside the welded and machined steel channel bases. I'll have to document these builds with another thread.

One more project that I need some more money for is the additional XY table that is in the same picture as the air bearing spindle. It's an air bearing XY table with BLDC motors already attached. It's stunning what my company throws away! This thing is probbably accurate to about .000020" or so. I don't currently have an application, but an all air bearing lathe is certainly a thought that has crossed my mind...

Keith