Now that I'm coming up on a year of making parts for my fly reel and fly reel kit making business, I "need" a larger more capable mill. I've read every post on X3s, "BF20" types of machines, etc. It really seems that the BF20 class is what I need - good X and Y travels, large table, BEEFY (Hoss' videos on milling steel are great!), compact and good looking. I'll keep my X2 set up for some small parts I make often and use the new mill for bigger and better things!

So, first up, where to get the machine. I called Grizzly - estimated January 2011 delivery. I have a call in to Matt at Precision Mathews to check their availability. Most likely, it will be a several month wait for the mill.

Meanwhile, I've decided to follow Hoss' route and ordered his conversion prints. This way I can get started with ordering electronics and parts and start fabricating the motor mounts, etc. I hope to use my X2 for everything except ball screws. I have some leads on getting Rotons machined, so that should work out.

I'll use this thread to document my trials and tribulations and hopefully add some value to others.

To get started, here is some good reference material. I am not going to repeat all of the great work Hoss has done, so I'll just defer to his excellent info:

www.G0704.com - Hoss' "All things G0704 plus other BF20 type machines!" A must read for anyone going down this path.

Hoss' G0704 thread here on the zone

My plan is to go a step up on this mill. I also want to fabricate the parts myself as much as possible now that I have a fundamental understanding of the mechanicals and a small mill to help make the parts. I do plan to convert to belt drive and use Roton ball screws. I'd love to get backlash down to about .002 or less on the X and Y. I don't really need this precision but it would be nice to have for future projects.

So, I've ordered the Hoss Conversion Prints and intend to order the machine from one of the above today once I hear back from Matt. Once I have the prints and ordered the machine, its off to Keling for electronics.

Stay tuned...

cheers,
Michael