Keep the ISEL guides or upgrade to THK/Rexroth etc?

[dar303]

Hi,

Me and a friend started building an all steel fixed gantry mill a couple of years ago. We based it upon ISEL components I was given at the time.
The frame is very sturdy and eveything is welded, heat treated and milled flat on big mill so a lot of work has been put into this.
The we lost focus (kids, work, life etc.) and the project stalled.

Fast forward a few years...

Since then I have learned a lot about CNC from this forum and other and with high quality surplus readily available I'm thinking, why not go with high quality THK or Rexroth linear guides that is all steel in comparison to the ISEL part aluminium ones when we spent all this time and money on the frame?

Also we have 16mm 5mm/rev ballscrews, will they really cut it? The table is steel and weighs around 30kg, we have 6N Berger Lahr steppers or Sanyo Denki 750W servo for that axis. Maybe time to ugrade there also?

What do you guys think?

Here is a pic of the machine frame, it is approx 900x700x700mm:


Here is one ISEL rail + carriage:



/Daniel, Sweden

[svenakela]

The Isel type guides you have are pretty good. If I were you, I would finish the mill with the existing guides and then replace them in the future if you want to upgrade the machine.
Where in Sweden are you located?

Regards,
Sven

[dar303]

My thought is that when i'm finished with the machine i'm not likely to take it apart again (will be making chips instead!), better to do it the best I can from the start!

I'm located in Stockholm, south of the city.

[svenakela]

If you refill with grease and keep them clean (as with any guide) they will do the work for you in a long time. Save the money to a good spindle instead.