I got the enclosure a few days ago and have just finished assembling it. I haven’t done much heavy use with it, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

1) Are you pleased with it?
For the most part, yes. It is a solid enclosure with some well thought out aspects. Some parts of it do feel rather cheaply/ fastly cobbled together. The electrical shield is poorly designed for two reasons. It covers the screws holes on the troughs, so the back wall panel must be put on before it (contrary to the instructions). It also has nothing attaching it to the mill on the right side, so it will bend and hang down if not supported by putting an additional hole there. Other than this, I am happy. It was a bit of a struggle making every piece fit together, but I think this is to be expected from a sheet metal enclosure. I did have to drill a few clearance holes a bit bigger/ bend some of the metal a bit.

Attachment 246530


2) Does it rattle as the spindle goes through it's harmonic ranges?

While I haven’t used it much, I’m going to say no. I did some moderately heavy test cuts in aluminum at various RPMs and nothing made it rattle. I was very afraid the doors would shake like crazy, but so far so good.

3) The door tracks look a little "basic", do they work okay?
They are a little basic. They get the job done, but not very elegantly. There are tracks on the bottom to keep the doors in place, but I may end modifying these in the future. It seems like a relatively easy job to put some rollers on there.

4) Can the top center cover be modified to work with an ATC/PDB? Primary need is to control dust from Ductile Iron machining.

Top center already works with the ATC/PDB, there is a hole in the top for the cable carrier to stick thru. To make it really dust proof you may have to make some small modifications. There are several holes in the top where dust could get thru- nothing a bit of duct tape couldn’t fix.

5) Are the ATC components on the back of the column accessible after removing the rear cover trough?
Yes, they are completely accessible. It’s actually easier to access them than with the old side walls. I actually cut my trough in half with a band saw so that I could leave them accessible.

6) Are the lights effective mounted in the top covers?
Yes, lights work great.

7) Are the lights wired to the main control switch?
No. Each light has its own 110 V chord. I plugged them all into a single power strip and now have an extra switch to turn on in the morning.

8) Is it substantial enough to mount a handling device for the 8" fourth axis?
No, I wouldn’t trust sheet metal for this. I had to put a vice on today and it was definitely harder now the front sticks out more. For a 100+ lb 4th axis I would definitely consider giving up my man-card and using an engine hoist.

9) Any issues or problems?

Aside from what I’ve already mentioned, no. I skipped the butyl tape for sealing. It seems pretty good to me without it and silicone caulk would be much easier to apply if I need sealing in the future.

10) After using it would you buy it again?
I would definitely buy it again. It would cost me more to design my own, and it probably wouldn’t be as good.