Hi Michael
Great job on your round column mill conversion. Thanks for putting the pictures up. They help allot. If you have anymore I would love to see them. Do you have a web site?
I am starting on my round column mill in the near future and I am just trying to get some ideas of the best way to go about it. I have been looking at that round column of this mill for along time trying to figure out what to do with it. The limit of 5 inches of Quill for Z travel is just un-exceptable, especially when trying to change tooling. I knew what I wanted to do with it but everyone told me that I was nuts to try it. Now that I see other guys doing it, (like you) I don't feel as bad to give it a try.
I have some questions which I hope you don't mined me asking about your conversion.
(1) What size is the vertical tube that you used for the replacement column?
(2) I see you welded some bars onto the front edge for mounting the linear
rails. Did you have any problems with these warping anything after welding?
(3) What did you have to do to true everything up after welding? I am limited
to what I can machine and the column would be to large. I guess I could take it
to a machine shop to get it trued up if needed.
(4) What size are your linear rails? They look massive. Wow, six bolts per
bearing.
(5) What are you planning to use for a spindle motor?
(6) Do you have a good place to get replacement bearings for these spindles?
(7) What are your thoughts on trying to keep the coolant out of the lower
spindle bearing of these cheaper spindles? I don't think my spindle even has a
proper seal in it down there. I think it has a rubber washer that screws into
the bottom of the spindle body? And I am planning to put the mill in a fully
enclosed cabinet and use full flow coolant. So there is going to be lots of
coolant flying all over the place. What about making some kind of aluminum
adapter that would fit onto the bottom of the spindle that you could put air
pressure to for a positive pressure to keep the coolant out. Something like
what the big boys do on their spindles? A type of air purge? Any thoughts on
this?
I have lots of other questions, but I will wait for another day. I have ask to many questions now. I really appreciate all your help with my questions. Thanks.
Talk to you later.
Bill Blackburn
Also known as Willyb