after a good bit of reading and a little encouragment from one of the guys at work i have decided to retro a bench mill. i am afraid along the way i am going to hit a few stumbling block and it seems as though this might be the best place to get around them. i have a bench mill on the way from penn tool, a box of servos and a few lead screws so far. i plan to use gecko drives and mach to drive the thing. when i get the machine in i will take some pictures as i go and post them as well as what my plans are.

good luck.

well, i got the mill in tonight, its a dm45 from penn tool, looks like it fell of the truck. i will take some pictures of it tomorrow evening to post.

i have also aquired 3 reliance dc dervo motors, two 242's and a 243.

i have just won my third lead screw on ebay and am awaiting it in the mail. i plan to go at this all from the mechanical end of things knowing that when i get to the electronics that i do not understand i can buy time from someone to help with them. i have studied the gecko's a bit as well as the pdmx breakout board and think this is the direction i am going to end up going.

side note, the motor is wired 16 amps 110 volts, i have the option to rewire it to 8 amps at 220 volts, could anyone tell me why i should or shouldn't do this. (i know a dc motor would be better to give me control over, but for now ill start with putting together all the things i have and buy what i need first before getting on with the fun stuff.

next question, is there any reason not to build my nc controller into my pc if i have the room for it? power supply and all?


just talked to penn tool, they will be shipping parts to replace the broken/missing ones to me.

here are the pictures i said i would take, the lead screws are really healthy, i was supprised by this face. i have not got power to it yet, hope for that by Sunday evening.

Alright! You will have a good time converting that mill, everything is straight forward and been done before.

Are you gonna use it as a manual machine to make your brackets and such?

Keep up the rapid pace. :cheers:

JRouche

well, to tell the truth i work in a large tool room with lots of CNC's to use as well as a deep scrap bin full of good stuff for salvage... so i will do most of the work there. i have yet to buy bearings for my screws, so that must be my next purchace. i will try to keep this one on the front burner, but have many other projects going on at the same time. will keep you posted.