Nate's G0704

[Nater]

Hey guys,

Finally got my machine after a solid year or so of research and learning as much as I could (not to mention $saving$). It got to the point where I can only stand learning so much from books and forum lurking. Purchased Hoss's G0704 DVD after settling on the G0704 as my first machine- one as a good base to learn, two - because my internet connection sucks, and 3 - he deserves every dime he can milk out of us noobs. I had planned to get the CNC Fusion kit and go for the CNC straight away, but after learning more and more about machining (and the general lack of availability of CNCFusion kits), I'm going to take the long road and do everything I can myself and ride that learning curve. I apologize if this thread goes slow, but not only am I working with the mill, I also came into the Atlas 618(bonus!), plus it's fireworks season and money will be even tighter than usual. If my mill is CNC'd by the fall it will be a grand victory.

I'm in CAD Design professionally (SolidWorks/AutoCAD), and I figure if I can draw whatever I can dream up, I might as well be able to make it as well. On to the pics:


Mill had it's spot laid down a good month in advance. I gave myself plenty of room to walk around after it was bolted down. I'm sure as the shop fills with machinery and such it'll get moved.


Mill delivered, everything looked good. UPS man even brought it right into the shop for us.


I wasn't home at the time, I had my dad there to accept delivery. He pressure washed my dirty old concrete floor for me, and even gave me his old Kennedy machinist tool chest. Literally my first and only toolbox, and it couldn't have come at a better time. ($400 worth of Shars crap was on the way)


Out of the crate. At this point my dad was real ancy to see it installed and run, so we unbolted the column and laid it down on some cardboard w/ the head still attached. Bolted down the stand w/ concrete anchors, hefted the table onto the stand, then hefted the column/head up and got it bolted back on. I wiped off as much cosmoline as I could while he was drilling holes in the concrete.


Mill assembled, not too difficult - I'm glad I didn't waste money on a shop crane like so many seem to recommend.


First thing I noticed is the 3 bolt mod already completed for me?


First thing I didn't like and I mentioned it over in feederic's build thread was the sand caked in the corners at the back of the Y-axis leadscrew. My dad found it and was chipping at it w/ a screwdriver and big hunks were coming off and he was getting sand all over the screw. Clean it later - on to spindle break-in.


So that night I ran the spindle break-in per the manual. They never tell you specifically to switch from Low/High gear, but I went ahead and did anyways like it said earlier in the manual depending on what speed you're going for. Shown here is going for the 2250rpm in high gear, and it wouldn't quite get there. If I turned the knob anymore the motor would cough and quit on me. I left it there and after about 6 minutes it really started taking off and sounding a lot better, and surpassed the 2250rpm. Satisfied, this week I've been learning how this thing goes together to give it a better cleaning. Gotta get the sand out ya know?


Got the table off.


A shot of the crosslide(?term?).


Shouldn't the nut be a little more level than that? The screws weren't very tight.


Some ugly surface finish there. One can assume that's to hold the oil/chip clearance?


Had to clear the table of goodies to make way for mill parts. The Steelcase desk in the background is destined to be my gunsmithing desk, if you want an idea of what projects are to come. (hint: I'm left handed, and I'm not paying $5k for a Cabot when I can spend that money learning all this stuff!) Right now it's a makeshift cleaning station for that Atlas 618 lathe.


The table is deceivingly heavy.


A before/after cleaning the rest of the sand out. Shouldn't have any problems from that down the road.


And here is where I stopped last night...at the bearings. I wasn't sure if I should degrease and relube the ball bearings. I was careful to keep them clean in case it was a lot of trouble. What about just replacing them? They look like cheap pieces of junk. Regardless, what grease to use? I don't really have anything laying around, but I did pick up a tube of lithium grease per the manual, but I didn't catch any mention of fiddling with the bearings.



Also, concerning the way oil, the manual states "light machine oil and grease" to the leadscrews. The gentleman at PTS said their way oil would work fine on the leadscrews. (he had also never heard that Vactra had the tackifiers removed years ago, and was replaced by Vacuoline after industry outrage, apparently I'm a super-noob or misinformed, but if he didn't set me straight there I question his knowledge) One? Both? Neither? I've been cleaning everything w/ WD40 and then hitting them with gun oil. Way oil if their wear parts or the ugly ass black oxide screws.

Let me know if any of this doesn't show up or is a pain in the ass to read. Any and all input is welcome! To be continued...

[Fastest1]

You are doing great. Nice clean and orderly area. Keep the info coming.

[DRock]

Awesome pics!

This greatly helps out amateurs like myself, I haven't yet taken my G0704 apart but when I do I will refer heavily to this thread.

Nice to see that the 3-bolt mod is already done! I must have gotten one of the last shipments before they started including that...damn.

[Nater]

Awesome pics!

This greatly helps out amateurs like myself, I haven't yet taken my G0704 apart but when I do I will refer heavily to this thread.

Nice to see that the 3-bolt mod is already done! I must have gotten one of the last shipments before they started including that...damn.

I thought about modeling the entire mill in SolidWorks, but it would be a huge undertaking and I just don't have the time for it. I could make animations of assembly/disassembly, BOM for mods, etc. That and I'd get halfway through and someone would come by saying "So and so did that already over at bla bla".

I was somewhat saddened seeing the 3 bolt mod done already...it was a "simple" mod I thought I could cut my teeth on to get a little confidence.

Anyways, thanks for the encouragement fellas. If only my Droid Razr would get a 4G signal out here. Pics turned out better than they look on the phones screen, that's for sure. I'll get a PC out in the shop here soon, and be able to update more often.

[691175002]

I just got my g0704 a few days ago and have been taking it apart as well.

Three bolt mod was done and I got my fair share of sand as well, a lot in the column too.

Way oil is fine for screws. Vactra or vacuoline would both be great although pretty much any light oil will do.

I'd recommend doing something about the gibs first. I tried spotting and indicating all the axes to get an idea of how well the machine was finished:

(Ink transfers to the high spots, you want an even distribution of ink to show the surface is flat)
The ground ways on the z and y look okay but the scraped surfaces are pretty bad and the gibs are awful. One of my gibs wont even sit flat, it rocks back and forth.

My X axis is all kinds of weird. Both the table and saddle are wedge shaped, in fact one side of my saddle is 0.003" higher than the other which is ridiculous.
I'm thinking of correcting the saddle but I'm not sure if the two wedges are offsetting each other. My table rises 1.5 thou over the X travel (plus a fair deal of flex near the end of the travels) but its hard to tell how much of that is from the gibs.

[nolage]

Sounds like you have a heck of a project.
I have an X2 which I recently got going, but still haven't ripped it down. Seeing all that makes me afraid to actually take it all apart and find how off it is. Then again I don't do "precision" anything, so I'm not even sure it's worth it just yet. But it would be nice.

Following this

[Flexo!]

Sounds like a pretty familiar story!

I managed to improve the Y Axis "wedging" (table rising in the Y axis) by scraping the high side of the X dovetail. Can be hard to measure, because the table rises and falls at each T slot.

I dont think the castings have been stress relieved - They'll probably keep warping for a year or so.

[nolage]

Well it's been sitting unused for a while now.
Finally got around to having the cash and time to get a proper vice, and collets, etc. So still not much use except some drilling ( ) Being a med student sucks up all the time.

Still have to tram.
It's great to have these projects to read and learn from... especially when there's an upcoming test

[Mad Welder]

I thought about modeling the entire mill in SolidWorks

Great pics, thanks for sharing and keep them flowing too.... and as stated already like your methodical approach to your build too....

And I think I read some where in Starleper1's thread PM25MV (BF Series) that he has the PM25 (G0704 Clone)completely measured and drawn up in SolidWorks.....

[Starleper1]

Someone must be watching the common mods made to these machines at Grizzly. It's cool they are actually improving the mills here and there to get the most out for your money.

Nater, check your PM.

[DRock]

You guys keep scaring me with your posts...now I have to worry about warping because the castings aren't stress relieved?

All I want to do is hold a .005" tolerance, is it really necessary to scrape these guys flat and possibly replace the gibs to do so? I don't want to do all this work and then have it warp out of whack again 6 months down the road.

I haven't yet taken mine apart but I just finished tramming it last night, I am going to make the tramming aides and do the 3-bolt mod first.

[Connor9220]

So they're coming from the factory with the 3 bolt mod now? Hmm.. I wonder if they're watching the forum?