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Going to convert my X2 and Mini Lathe

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Brass_Machine:
Yeah the X2 is tiny. It is termed a 'mini' mill. I don't have a lot of room, so had to go with this until I rebuild my garage. For a little sucker, it does work good (after hours of tuning and modifying).

I am going to use steppers. Going with a 4 axis set-up. My drivers will probably be Geckos.


Eric

Alphawolf45:
  I want one of everything, dont you?....I like all types of machinery....Along in there I also want a small tabletop cnc mill because-- I like engraving faces, scenery etc but that type work needs to be done with fast spindle and very rapid X,Y and Z feeds...That is far more abuse than I want to subject to  my old retired from the factory cnc mill..
.
 Youre going to have your mill out of commission while you change it into cnc configuration...That could be tricky..I'd be uncomfortable working without a mill during a project that will require use of a mill...And once completed you will only have a cnc , no longer have a manual mill....Thats interesting too , I hope you get to that point while I still a member here, I'd like to hear your day to day impressions of making the transition from exclusively manual mill to exclusively cnc...
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 May I suggest that you spend a few dollars to get an electromechanical time clock , wire it in series with your drivers so that when your drivers are "on" the clock keeps a running total...You will much of the time be working at the computer getting set to run a program but have the drivers turned off- for real sense of working hours just  keep track of the drivers 'on' time..You will be amazed how many hours you will  log on it..I am over 800 hours in 2 and a half years since I got this second cnc mill going..Contrast that to my Kubota riding mower has fewer than 400 hours after 15 years mowing my 3 acre yard.

Brass_Machine:

--- Quote from: Alphawolf45 on August 14, 2008, 08:41:14 PM ---  I want one of everything, dont you?....I like all types of machinery.......

--- End quote ---

That says it all i think.

This conversion that I am doing will allow manual and CNC use. Gotta keep the manual for awhile as this is my only machine. I plan to buy a bigger mill and convert it to CNC only at a later date.

The time clock idea sounds cool. i think i will do that.

I am order some of the aluminum today to make the stepper brackets... so hopefully the conversion will start in a couple of weeks. I will be doing a build log here as well.

Eric

Brass_Machine:
The aluminum arrived this week. I will start making the mounts next week or the week after.

Eric

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