New project hot off the truck

[SJ781]

Just recieved a new dovetail column mill from enco yesterday. Now I've got plenty of work to do. My last conversion was on a round column mill 14"X-6"Y-4.5"Z and had a rapid of 65ipm. I'm shooting for 250ipm on this one preload ball screws, software controlled motor, coolant, enclosed cabinet, and tool changer if I can figure it out. This one will have a larger work envelope also 20"X-7.5"Y-16"Z..

[JOE65]

Sounds like lots of fun.
Keep us "posted"

[CNCadmin]

What did that cost you?

[TyRex]

What type of spindle is on it???

[JFettig]

wow thats an awesome mill, do you have any links or other information on it?


Jon

[SJ781]

It was just over 1500.00 shipped to the door. the spindle is R-8 but I may modify it to something similar to a cat30. I want to add a tool changer, and an R-8 spindle would'nt be very practical. I plan on using an air cylinder to hold and eject the tool. Here is a link to the Enco site:
http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=325-5184

[SJ781]

Got a good bit done today. It is now in pieces. I have a little clean up work to do but that will give time for the servos and ball screws to get here. I hooked power to it before I tore it apart to make sure the motor ran right and got a nice surprise. The motor when switched from forward to reverse and vise-versa changes directions almost instantly no matter what the spindle speed. Soo...I should be able to tap with this machine also. My old machine when switched from forward to reverse would keep going in the same direction you had to let it spin down before changing directions (not good for tapping).

[SJ781]

another pic

[lt paul]

Wow the finish on the ways looks absolutely amazing. have you done some work on them or were they like that out of the box. either way they shoul be very nice to use.

[SJ781]

That's staight from the factory. The way under the table had a little surface rust on them because it was hard for them to put the protective greese on them I guess. Other than that I am impressed with the machine. It runs smoothe and quite also.

[owhite]

First, I just have to say it -- gawd, I wish I had a milling machine.

alright, fine its out of my system -- what size motors are you going to put on that for cnc? steppers or servos?

owen

[SJ781]

I've got 690oz/in 2150rpm servos on the way. If I run them at 20A (max current of the gecko drives) I get over 900oz/in. I'm going to run them 2:1 which will give me 1380oz/in and 1075 rpms at the screws give or take friction loss in the pulleys. I'm going to run 500 line encoders on the lead screws so I don't loose any accuracy through the belts and pulleys. Ideally I want the screw to turn 1000rpms to get 250ipm. I'm going to run 1"dia x .250 lead ball screws. My current computer is a 1600 athalon with 256mb ram, g-force2 video card and 20g harddrive. By the time I'm done with the mill it may be upgraded to a P-4 2.5-3g 512 mb ram. I plan on running 70-76v 15A to the servos. I played with steppers for a very short time and realized that servos are the only way to go...imo...