Buying my first cnc mill. Please help!

[NeoMoses]

www.cnczone.com has lots of good information... Lots of intelligent people there.

You should check out http://www.homecnc.info/, he's got lots of good information.

Although I never made a complete writeup of my conversion, I did take LOTS of pictures, so I can be of assistance as well. Here's the post where I sold my machine. It's got a link to a video and some pictures of the machine. Just let me know if you'd like to see more pics, I've got tons.
http://www.cnczone.com/showthread.php?threadid=1275

I, too, think the best 'bang for the buck' is to convert a manual machine yourself. I can't believe how much money those sherlines sell for sometimes, especially as small as they are.

Converting a machine is not that difficult, it just takes some time. If you want the best performance, I would recommend first replacing the acme screws with ballscrews. This will likely be one of the more expensive upgrades, but I think it will be well worth it.

Getting power to the ballscrews on the X and Y axis will be easy, you'll just need to build some brackets to hold the motors. The only part of the conversion that might be a little tricky will be driving your Z-axis. It took me about 2 weeks to design and build my Z-axis assembly.

Good luck, and let us know what you decide.

[NeoMoses]

http://fineartlight.com/cnc/

That's where my CNC machine went to live. Looks like it's still doing well, too.

[touser]

Thanks again dcd121 and NeoMoses. I think i am going to try and convert something like an Enco. If i do i think just buying the plans off of homecnc would be my best bet and just use the exact mill he used as well. I am just not sure what the total cost of everything would be.

[HomeCNC]

Touser, My cost is what I stated above. Including my Drill/mill I have about $2500 in my machine.

BUT!!! I did not have to buy a PC, or software (CAD/CAM) I did purchase the controller software. I got most of my aluminum material from the scrap bin at work.