Ok, I gotta start somewhere.
I just bought the HF 42827 gear head, round column mill the other day. I've been doing a lot of searching for information on converting this mill and there seems to be a real desert of information on the web, and on this forum, about this machine. Plenty on the mini-mills, and Sherlines, but not mills of this size. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places. lol
The mini's are just too light, and small, for what I want to do.

Anyway, to start, just so I know what to start looking for.

1. What size stepper motors, or servo motors will it take to drive this thing?

2. How many amp controller, and power supply, will I need to drive it?

3. Are there any motor, controller, power supply, kits made specifically for this size machine? If so, where?

I've already downloaded the Mach software and it looks quite acceptable, so I'll probably go with that till I find something more to my likes.

It's hard to build live steam choo-choo's on the mini-equipment.:cheers:

do a search on this site for round column mills. of all the ones that are out there, the one you bought has the most stuff that everyone wants to remove from their mills.

1. round column...not exactly great for cnc since your limited to the travel of your quill.

2. gear head... most people want to go with a vfd and belt drive for the higher cutter speeds.


Now saying all that, i started with a round column mill and i still have it and it works very well. but you have to work around the limitations.

I know that it isn't everyones favorite, but....I got it cheap, I got it then, and I didn't have to pay freight, or wait. If I'd wanted to wait several days, spent more money, and still end up with a cheap aisian machine, I' went ahead and got the dovetail column machine. For $700, new, I can't complain.

I've got one of those HF5980 P.O.S.'s that I've been trying to use, and the 42827 is "worlds" better than that thing.

I'm just trying to get an idea what it would cost to CNC the thing. If it ends up being too much, well, I'll just stay manual and keep twisting knobs, and put the money into building the loco.

my machine has so far cost me about $2000 and its still not running. granted i've had alot of side projects come up and i'm using servos as opposed to steppers but thats probably a good ball park. mind you there are plenty of people who use the round column mill successfully, for the most part i don't think they have production oriented goals.