Another G0704 conversion - Hoss's plans - LinuxCNC control

Hey just starting another G0704 conversion, I've got the mill, cleaned it up and put some holes in it in anticipation of CNCing with ball screws. I think we've all seen a G0704 unboxed so I won't go there.

I've got the mill together, and sitting on a HTC roller base, I'm not sure I love the base, kicking the wheels down lift the front up about two inches and really shifts the center of gravity, hopefully with some weight in the cabinet it will be ok.

I'm trying to get the column to base alignment tuned up, it's pretty horrible as delivered and needs some shimming. I think I'll be adding the set screws to the back of the column like Hoss did, to make this easier, and I may try and correct the column a bit next time I pull it off. This is a shot of the initial milling operations, on the Bridgeport at TCMaker's HackFactory where I'm working on my conversion. (And hold the flames, I'm aware this is not in the top 10 of best ways to secure the column to the BPs table) If you are in the Twin Cities (MN) area give a shout, we have an open house every Weds Night.

I plan to use my CNC Router to make the motor mount plates etc. I'll likely use the Bridgeport for any fine tolerance work.

It will be stepper motors and ball screws, nothing that hasn't been done numerous times before in the basic conversion.

Pete

Got things trammed in and managed to make my first cuts, taking the keys for the t-slots down on my Shars 5" vise. The tramming issue turned out to be insufficient deburring, of both my and Grizzly's work. I'd gotten a new deburring tool since I put the mill together last, so it was a good chance to use it and clean up my ball screw hole and the column bolt holes, with a bit of paint scrapping for good measure. Tramming was still fiddly, but it seemed more consistent this go around. I found that the gib, and or locks on the gibs tension was important to get the alignment just right.

Pete

So I've been using the mill a fair amount manually to get a feel for it and I'm a bit shocked at how low it is. It's a terribly low working height for me, and it's on a mobile base which makes it taller than it would normally be.

What do tall people do that own a G0704? I'm less then 6 feet tall and it's too low for me. I was planing to use the base, but if I have to jack up the height I may just build a stand for it.

Anyway I made my first set of parts, a set of stand-offs. They aren't much too look at but I sure learned a lot, these are the 3rd attempt at trying to make these dang things. On the plus side I had plenty of chances to get good with my Tapmatic tapping head. I got it with the drill press I bought at an auction, and it's in great shape and works very well. A shot of the crude depth stop I made out of the old shield / guard and some Aluminum is attached. I wasn't sure if a magnetic indicator base would hold the arm, but it seems to work just fine. My router was cutting out the motor plate while I messed with this, but no picture of that yet.

# Tip: Enco had flex collets for the tapping head at less than 1/2 of what the Tapmatic ones cost.

Pete

Looking great. Do like me and take a load off.:)
http://www.wttool.com/index/page/pro..._shopping=true

http://www.wttool.com/common/images/...n/41820045.jpg
Hoss

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hoss2006

Looking great. Do like me and take a load off.:)
http://www.wttool.com/index/page/pro..._shopping=true

http://www.wttool.com/common/images/...n/41820045.jpg
Hoss

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Haha,

Yeah that's great advice Hoss, my mill and router are at my makerspace, so I never seem to have enough time and end up running between them, and rarely sit down, or remember to drink water, get food etc, having a sit is a great idea.

Pete

Yeah I like the guys that have an old couch or recliner in their shop, gotta take those coffee breaks in style.:)
Hoss

I made a few parts, or at least roughed them out with my CNC Router and then did some clean-up on the motor / ball screw hole, just so I could play with my boring head. The hole wasn't terribly round as my router was more out of adjustment than I realized. The boring head with the fine down feed on the mill worked really well though. I got a bit impatient, and could have used the shorter boring bar, but I'm happy with it.

The piece being cut on the router is a second motor mount, I don't have a picture of this one being routed.

Also for anyone debating which vise for the G0704 I've been very happy with the Shars cheapie ~120 5" so far. I thought about getting the Tormach 5" CNC vise, and I may some day, but since this is my first mill, and crashing into the vise is somewhat likely I'm more comfortable with the Shars for now.

I haven't been able to spend as much time with my machines, and thus make much progress lately, however I took some of the time at home and decided to see if I could make a fogless mister with mostly off the shelf parts.

For background on the fog less mister and other builds check here. I have a lathe to turn parts on and had actually made some parts including a brass nozzle before I tried the OTS approach.

So I basically used a bunch of fittings from Menards / Harbor Freight and a blow nozzle, two manifolds / splitters, and a regulator with guage from the same. I picked up the cheapest water filter tank I could find at Menards too, I think it was $20, clear would be nice, but it was almost twice as much if I recall correctly. I happened to find some awesome flow controls at a surplus place for cheap in mid build so I dug and found some with the 1/4" MIP thread that fit the air manifold.

The general idea is to have very fine mist without atomization, and thus "fogless". I think I'll be cutting a few more AL pieces on my CNC router, and like to keep coolant to a minimum there as it's an all MDF bed. So what the mister produces is a fair amount of air with very fine drops of coolant. This is produced by splitting a 15 or so PSI connection and running it to both a pressure tank full of coolant, and a block which the coolant has a in-line connection too, after flowing through a regulator. The thread above has lots of details on all of this.

Anyway here's the pictures, of what I came up with.
I took the small raised section near the air connection on the nozzle down about 30 thou with a sanding block after chucking it in a drill press, to get to the 1/8" MIP size for threading, it mostly worked.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...1&d=1353898612

The tapping went pretty well, but I got the threads a bit crooked, I didn't want to buy a bigger pipe tap, and had an 1/8" MIP in my tap and die kit so there's a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter between the nozzle and the manifold block.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...1&d=1353898612

Next is the complete nozzle side with the flow regulator for the coolant on the left and the air inlet on the right. The blue water filter tank is behind.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...1&d=1353899769

And last the whole setup with the other manifold and regulator on top of the tank. (The short little hoses are for testing, I'm going to attach the tank to some kind of frame and then figure out the hoses next.)http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...1&d=1353899985

I've got a movie of it in action uploading to Youtube, but it's going to take a bit. I believe this will be the video link. I don't see any embed bits yet.

Pete

I just heard from Chai at linearmotionbearings that my screws have been machined and will be shipping out soon. Time to get busy finishing up my motor plates, and ball nut mounts, and man there's a lot to do yet, ah well it will be great to see them, and verify I've collected the right parts so far.

Pete

So Pete, any progress?

I saw your post about the belt drive tucked away x axis and wondering where you stand with everything.