Originally Posted by
atomarc
Kenny,
I see what you're saying and I am surprised at the cost of this thing so far but I can't really look at it in that regard. It was suppose to be a father & son project and it has worked well for that. I'm not going to add up my time on the project because it wasn't a 'job' per se, and the small size of the machine fits the available space left in the shop. This was a 'get your feet' wet kind of thing so maybe later down the road there may be a full size, factory machine in the mix, but not now.
Having said that, let me ask this. The linear rail thing on the X axis could be viable. I used 15mm Hiwin's on the Z axis and they worked well and the relative geometry of the column and spindle housing remained the same. I could use 15mm units on the X axis too but I want the location of table and saddle to stay the same and I'm not sure the 15mm Hiwins are compact enough to pull this off.
Has anyone put X linear rails on their G0704? Is there one style that is more compact than another and allows the table to stay pretty close to stock height? I have some 15mm rail but no car so I can't readily test this out...maybe I should order a car and see how this all fits together.
Thanks,
Stuart (and Nick)