rob_b's G0704

[rob_b]

Hi all. After much research and a little sweet talking to my finance manager I picked up a G0704 last week. I have started the tear-down process and plan to model the mill in Inventor to start planning my conversion.

A little background... I work for a fab/machine shop as a CAD designer, we have many manual machines but no CNC's other than the plasma table. My main hobby interest for the last 20 years has been R/C. I picked up a 7x lathe around a year ago and was bitten pretty bad by the machining bug. So at this point machining is my main interest with R/C morphing into a medium to produce parts for. This will be a slow build as garage time is limited to around 6 hours a week and I'm very picky about the fit an finish of my parts. I have not ordered any tooling yet but I think that works out in my favor because I won't be rushing to make any chips. I enjoy forum surfing and build threads. I also plan on learning, sharing and contributing to this forum; both in this thread and in others.

Just incase no one has seen a G0704 on a pallet


Got to love China QC

[hoss2006]

Welcome to the club rob!
Wow, they cbored that one half way to china.
Hopefully that's your only real fault with the mill, did yours come with the 3-bolt head mod done already?
That makes 2 of the mods on my site they've added since the beginning, wonder what's next? Belt drive?
Hoss

[rob_b]

Yes, it has the 3 bolt mod. Build date stamped on the head is 3/12.

[hoss2006]

Boy, they aren't wasting any time shipping these out now, hope this isn't a sign they are cutting corners again.
Best of luck, Hoss

[rob_b]

I have to agree that they are obviously rushing these out the door. While the botched hole location should ultimately have no effect on the machine operation it does show a general lack of concern towards build quality. Like others have posted there is still sand from casting and many edges have not been de-burred at all. Oh well, tuning these up is half the fun right.

[Connor9220]

Welcome to the club rob!
Wow, they cbored that one half way to china.
Hopefully that's your only real fault with the mill, did yours come with the 3-bolt head mod done already?
That makes 2 of the mods on my site they've added since the beginning, wonder what's next? Belt drive?
Hoss

What's the other modification they did?

[hoss2006]

What's the other modification they did?

They added a hole in the spindle and a spanner wrench for leverage when tighten/loosening the drawbar.
The retaining cup is known for coming loose in it's original usage.
Hoss

[Mad Welder]

Oh good another new build thread, welcome rob, and when you do get to making chips you'll be able to machine some pretty good 3D parts for your RC hobby and who knows you may even make a few bucks with your new designs too and pay off your finance manager

Thanks for sharing and keep loads of pics flowing.....

[fatal-exception]

Hi Rob. Nice machine you have there. I too started down the machinist road making parts for RC, but left that stuff in the dust since...too expensive, not enough money to buy tooling and other machining stuff

Your going to like that mill, even before CNC'ing it.

Good luck with the build.

Paul

[Mad Welder]

meant to add in my last post too jeez I love the truck.........and yup as you said the missing casting won't affect your ability to adjust and tighten the X axis stock Leadscrew Nut.....and if it's of any significance to you I used these screw points to secure my X axis Ballnut for my conversion too….

[rob_b]

Thanks guys. I have actually been designing, producing and selling R/C products for the last 4 years or so. Made some pretty good money for doing it as side work/hobby. However its gotten to the point that I needed a cnc mill in the garage to elevate myself to the next level. So I am putting it all to the side for now with plans to go back swinging after the conversion is complete. Pretty nice for a work truck isn't it. They take care of me well.

[jdurkin]

Well done Rob on deciding to jump on board.
Good luck with the build.

Im in the middle of my build which is a slow one but hopefully be as right as I can get it.

Ive not got access to another mill and have bought a lot of off the shelf stuff so to speak.

Theres plenty of info on here which has been a great help for me, hoss's plans are great even for just in-depth insight.

Have a browse through my build so far (link below) - nothing rocket science however Ive been getting great comments on the one shot oiler which I recommend having a think about intergrating into your build.


Cheers
John