well my j head is a two axis cnc now

[fast89]

I've been pretty quiet here since i joined. Been busy learning and converting.
I picked up a j head back in january for $1600. Turned out to be a very good machine, it didn't need much except for cleaning and maintanance. I decided on stepper motors for simplicity. (1200oz/in) I used the original y-axis bearing mount and located it inside the box. For the x-axis, i made a new bearing mount that is welded/machined into the box and used angular contact bearings on both axis. The power supply, b/o board and motor drives are located in the column. It made for a nice install but it's a bit of a pain to work on anything in there. I had some problems loosing steps though. I was able to get 170ipm but detuned it to 120ipm. It would be fine for a while then it would loose steps on startup or after the motors were good and hot. It only lost steps once while machining at a 10ipm feed rate, i don't know what that was about but it seems to have solved itself. I've loaded some pics of the conversion and a pic of my first part.

[fast89]

For the z-axis, i want to move the knee. I'm not a fan of quill drives and i'd like to keep the quill for manual stuff. I'm thinking about the homeshopcnc 2500oz/in stepper and another g201 drive. The current should be under the g201's rating and it should have enough power to move the knee with a reasonable rapid. The only thing that concerns me is the backlash in the bevel gears in the knee. The weight of the knee should keep the backlash out of the screw but i'm not sure about the gears. Hopefully you experienced folk will chime in here.

[HuFlungDung]

Neat looking job. Well done

[fast89]

a pic of my first part

[NOCARRIER]

Excellent job. Do you have any pictures of inside your bracket mounts? Your part looks really good, and for what yo have in this machine, I am extremely impressed with the surface finish.

This really inspires me to convert mine.

Adam

[fast89]

I don't have any pics of the bracket mounts. I'll try to get some over the weekend.