Round column build

I have a ZAY7032G mill that I have owned for about 10 years and it is mostly used for drill press purposes as it is a geared head... I have a bridgeport clone mill for general milling

I was wonder what the feasibility is of removing the round column and geared head which I would keep to use for a drill press (attach it to a steel frame) and construct a new direct drive head and column and CNC it all...

Does this sound feasible... I know it would be a lot of work, but I need to keep the geared head for drill press duty but want a small CNC mill as well...

it depends...are you looking for cost effectiveness or you just need a new challenge?

i do believe a square column machine of this size...ZX45? can be had for about $1700...that being said why not just keep your machine the way it is for heavy duty general work and get something like a G0704 or any of the BF20L machines to convert to CNC...the G0704 is a steal at about $950. remember the bigger the machine the more expensive it will be to cnc...

Over here you can double those prices for what we pay even though our dollar is nearly parity with the US $..

With the dollar as it is, importing looks pretty attractive at present.