"Caging" a small mill?

[bogiestl]

Okay - after I got my BF20 type mill set up, I discovered that things can get a little wiggly... As in, if you hit the side of the column, the dial indicator moves.

I dunno about you, but that bothers me...

So... a little research, and help from various zonians, and I discover that some folks have bolted the suckers to walls, etc... Seems to fix it for the most part. Nothing like a 20 ton CNC machine, you know?

Anywho...

As things progress, I'm going to probably put together an angle iron "cage" for the thing, incorporating enclosure, bigger drip pan, etc... Heck, we've got the MIG, and angle scraps are cheap... Has anyone else done something like this? I'm thinking that I'll make an angle table, then run a beam up the back of the thing, brace it back down to the table and then do the same basic thing in the front. The enclosure will quite likely weigh more than the machine...

[hoss2006]

Probably not what you are looking for but just food for thought, there is a guy in Germany that made
a column support/brace/girdle a long while back that when added is supposed to give the bf20 much better stiffness.
They used to sell kits but seems to be down now but there are plenty of pics to see how it was built.
This is the google translated page.
http://translate.google.com/translat...2F&sl=de&tl=en
Go to engineering projects page 2, girdles for the bf20.
Hoss

[bogiestl]

Interesting - I'm probably going to actually go over the top of the machine. One or two small I beams should be able to be screwed to the back of the column, and then secured to the rest of the cage. Heck, if it doesn't work, there's always the cutoff wheel...