Mini Mill Advice and info help

[ClintonH]

Originally Posted by RomanG Recently I came across cheap ($6) LED light at Princess Auto. It's round and has 23 bright white LEDs. It required little modification but makes nice spindle light. Roman

I did the same thing a few weeks ago for my RF45, but I built a new ring and added an ac adapter for power.



Clinton

[RomanG]

Nice job Clinton!
Mine is just quick hack
Mine spindle has DRO adapter so I could not go with continuous ring. I had to split it and make a relief for DRO adapter. LEDs that were removed in the process were added on the opposite side. I am also powering it with small AC adapter.
For fastening in on to the machine I used two small rare earth magnets.

[ClintonH]

Originally Posted by RomanG Nice job Clinton! Mine is just quick hack Mine spindle has DRO adapter so I could not go with continuous ring. I had to split it and make a relief for DRO adapter. LEDs that were removed in the process were added on the opposite side. I am also powering it with small AC adapter. For fastening in on to the machine I used two small rare earth magnets.

Sorry I meant to say yours looked very nice as well. Sometimes quick hacks are the best.

Clinton

[pobanion]

Hi Clinton...

Your spindle light setup is pretty cool.

How is your RF45 working out for you?

Pat

[Rhodan]

Just read through the thread and it eased my fears about the CT129 quality. I was at Busy Bee in New Westminster during the week and had a look at the CT133, 129, and 129N. The 133 looks pretty decent but the 4" short travel is just too small and the machine is very small/light. I don't plan on doing much steel just brass and aluminium and I simply do not have room for knee mill. As it is the benchtop mill would have to actually go on my bench and not get its own stand.

Has anyone actually CNC'd their 129(N) yet?

It looks like the table leadscrews are 1/2-10 and the backlash was about .004 on the short axis and .006 on the long (at least on the store display machine) so I figured some AB nuts would be a good investment then realized I don't have a clue what AB nuts to use that would be strong enough - I'm used to the kerk style plastic nuts on my router but I can't imagine those would be any good on an actual mill. Hmm, maybe those linearmotionbearings2008 ballscrews? A couple short 16mm ones would be pretty inexpensive.

Of course, having the mill means I could make my own motor mounts!