X2 Column and Head with larger crossslide table

[Rodm1954]

After finishing 3 CNC gantry routers I am going to convert a small mill for my next project.

My plan is to use the X2 head and column and use a larger XY table to get some extra travel. Seig make a stand alone table that has travel of 260mm by 160mm and there is plenty of room for ballscrews without carving out chunks of cast iron or shoehorning ballscrews in.

I have the belt drive conversion kit for the motor, rolled ballscrews, 497 oz steppers, Xylotex board and RHS tube and steel plate to make the connection between the table and column. Constructing it like this will give me an opportunity to add some rigitity to the column.
I have to do a major cleanup of the shed before I start but I am looking forward to this project.

Photo is of the XY table and X2 head and column.

[Rodm1954]

Finally the shed is clean or it was this morning anyway.

Well this is becoming a fun project. I played around today and made a trial fit of the column and base. The column is 100mm square RHS sandwiched between two 100 by 75 RHS for the base. A 300mm steel plate sits on the base RHS and has a square hole milled out of it to let the column through. The column has additional support of two 250mm wide plates at right angles. I will cut some shape into the plates once I know where everything is mounted.
See first photo
I will also fill the column with an epoxy and sand mixture.
With everything just clamped together there is no ringing in the steel if you thump it so the signs are good.

The next three photos are of the Hybrid X2 bits clamped in place on the column. I have gained heaps of Z travel as you can see from the photos. That is a 100mm vice on the table and seeing how much room I have I will be looking at a 125mm vice very soon.
Apart from the extra travel of the hybrid table by spacing things as I have the table can travel under the column so there is an additional gain there. I will bolt the X2 column to the steel.

This exercise has been good because I am thinking about the Nema motor mounts and position of the ballscrews and in particular Z axis while I am tinkering.

[LongRat]

Looks like you will end up with a working volume slightly bigger than an X3. Is this significantly cheaper than an X3?

[Rodm1954]

With scrounging the steel RHS but having to buy the plate I have outlayed slightly more than half the cost of an X3 and under half the cost of a super X3 - in Australia.
This of course doesn't include any of the CNC components.

[Rodm1954]

We have had quite a heat wave in Perth with 40 plus degree centigrade temperatures so progress has been slow. I finished the column and base and have fitted the cross slide table. I need to trim a bit off the bottom of the column just above the large hole and mount the column to the framework.

Once this is all done I will tram the head to the table and do a couple of manual runs to make sure it is solid. I have plans to fill the 4 inch steel column with a mix of exopy and sand to dampen the vibration.

When the testing is over I start the CNC conversion.

[ZipSnipe]

Looks great Rodman, my only concern is the the spindle over the center of the table y axis. It looked like it was offcenter? This of course could have been just the way the photo was shot. I too thought about that x y table that your using but instead used a drillpress xy table http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18992
My Manual small mill project - CNCzone.com-The Ultimate Machinist Community

[Rodm1954]

Hi ZipSnipe
My history is it was your thread that inspired me and when opportunity presented for the table and X2 head I jumped in head first. Prior to this I was toying with the idea of heavy linear slides and fabricating my own table.

The axis is central over the head. The travel on that table comes out to about 5mm off the handwheel so I have got it tucked under the column to get full table support on the given travel.

Are you planning to CNC your mill at some stage?

[ZipSnipe]

I might but I also have planned now to build a cnc gantry mill, it will mostly route wood but I plan to be able to swap the router out and place the manual mill head in. I tell ya I searched high and low for a better table than I have, the one you picked is really good, I had given that a lot of thought. Yours is lookin beefy, keep up the good work.

[Rodm1954]

Manual mill is now finished. Since the photo I have fitted the belt drive kit and I can recommend this to all X2 owners. Much quiter and higher top speed.
On to the CNC conversion now.

[Micro Rotors]

Hello Rod,

Were did you get the larger XY table from? I cannot find it on the seig web site.

Bill

[Rodm1954]

Hi Bill
I am in Perth, Western Australia and got it from a local business so that will not be much use to you.

I have it in a Seig catalogue I can email you but it is 2mb in size. The part number quoted in the catalogue is s/n 10095 and with the auto feeder it is s/n 10096. The travel quoted on the catalogue varies considerably to what it actually does travel.

Like you I could not find it on thier web page either.

Hope you can track it down.

[Micro Rotors]

Rodm1954,

Thanks for the info. I sent you a PM. How much difference was in the actual travel than what the catalog quoted?

Thanks
Bill