My wife is on my case if she spots any chips in the house (and there have been a few!) Not good for the dogs paws or for barefoot humans either! So I leave the shoes in the garage when I come inside. But somehow they still migrate indoors! I think it's a lesser known corollary to the "socks dissapearing from the dryer" mystery.
Barry, your Shiz is looking great! (check out
www.barryfish.com if you haven't seen his Shizuoka retrofit) Your machine really came out sparkling!
There is a lot of discussion here on the 'zone about making your CNC with manual handles. Generally, I discovered two main reasons people don't usually do it:
1. If you use ballscrews, they are so efficient that the reaction forces from the cutter could backdrive whichever axes you don't have your hand on. Manual machines have low efficiency ACME screws and so there is lots of friction to prevent backdriving.
2. CNC machines (especially routers) would have the handles in very awkward locations. That wouldn't be a problem on this machine.
The Z axis is the only one that has any appeal to me as a manual axis. Since I don't have a drill press in my garage, I use the Bridgeport, or else I just drill by hand. There are times where it might be nice to use the BP in jog mode to position the part in X and Y, but do the downfeeding by hand to 'feel' my way through the drilling operation.
To do this I would have to somehow disengage the Z axis ballscrew, or else force it to backdrive the Z axis motor. I think it will be too much work for the return. (I'll just get a drill press). =)