Man, I'm lost

[mrcodewiz]

Hey all. I have read through a lot of past posts but I am now more confused than ever.

I just picked up a mini mill from Homier and would like to CNC it.

I'm just trying to figure out what the basic components I need are in order to do this.

Do I have to do the ball screw conversion right away?

What pieces do I need?
A controller like the 3-axis from Xylotex?
3 Stepper motors ~ 200 oz?
PC
Some way to rig the motors to the existing handwheels? What is the difference between direct drive and using a belt??


what else? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

-Kevin

[CNCadmin]

I'm working on my conversation and it's a lot of work.

I'm using-
5/8" ball screws on everything ( a lot of machining work)
pinions for 2:1 ratio, belt driven
servo motors
gecko drives

I will post some pics this weekend

[mrcodewiz]

Why are you going to ball screws? To improve the backlash?

[CNCadmin]

Yes, the stock have to much BL.

[CNCadmin]

I will post some DWG of my modifications when I done.

[mrcodewiz]

I would love to see them!

I would really like to find an article that someone wrote that not only said what they built up on one of these mills, but the reasons they chose the methods they did and a well detailed outline of the whole process.

It's pretty overwhelming to jump into this stuff and try to get it all figured out. I have worked with a hobby lathe somewhat but all of this CNC stuff is pretty involved.


-Kevin