Originally Posted by
CNC-Joe
Thanks Vert !!! - You can never have enough CNC conversion. You do nice work. Looking forward to your post. I have a round column mill in my garage (bought it before the SuperMax YCM-30) that is overdue for converting.... I'd love to do what Dave DeCaussin did to his round column mill... that Z axis is the real tricky part with that machine, though.
Interestingly Dave once suggested a quick and dirty way to handle the old RF-30/RF-31 was to put a stepper or servo directly onto the input from the quill feed, and then reverse the quill spring so it forces the quill down against the backlash. I have an old RF30 I was discussing adding an external ballscrew with a mount that clamps to the quill in place of the clamp that pushes the indicator up and down. I haven't done either of course because I finished my Hurco Mach 3 conversion (will it ever really be finished) and I've been using that for everything.
Anyway, Dave's quick and dirty solution could get you going on your project until you decide how to do something better.
Bob La Londe
http://www.YumaBassMan.com