I've been doing a little posting here and there on the forum, but the mill arrived, so it's time to officially start a build log. This is my 3rd mill that I've converted. My first was a round column and I learned a lot from that one. Basically, don't convert a round column. I didn't really listen and bought it because it was the best bang for the buck in terms of machine size and price. But it wasn't a great machine and the conversion wasn't really all that great.

This kinda stopped me from pursuing CNC and machining in general for several years. I caught the bug again and bought a cheap X2 clone from craigslist. I did a very basic conversion, knowing I'd get something bigger some day. I just laser cut all the mounts and kept the original ball screws. It works surprisingly well considering. But it's tiny, underpowered, and just not the right mill for me.

I ended up with a PM-30MV-L after a bit of debating. I just realized the G0704 was a great mill, but for a bit extra, the PM-30MV-L was bigger, more powerful, and better quality (in some aspects).

I put 'open source' in the title because I plan on sharing every aspect of my conversion, down to all the design files, which I will throw up on 3D content central, so people can convert them to their favorite platform, or just download the drawings. I come from an open-source background (work for a hardware/software company that's completely open source), and I like the idea of information being free to everyone and easily accessible.

I've started a blog to document my journey, and have updated the posts to where I'm at right now.

I got the mill last Wednesday and put some casters on the base, cleaned it up a bit, and hoisted the mill on the stand. Now the fun stuff begins!

I really hope people find the information useful. I've found a lot of great information here and I just want to share further.

Here are the posts on my blog so you can see the progress. Warning, I have a ton of photos (first the first couple of blog posts anyways):

CNC Conversion: Part 1 – Choosing the Right Milling Machine
CNC Conversion: Part 2 – The Mill Arrives
CNC Conversion: Part 3 – The Stand and Leveling Casters
CNC Conversion: Part 4 – Overcoming Gravity

Lastly, here's my 'roadmap' for what I plan to do. In short, I'm not doing anything special... 570 oz/in steppers, KL-5056D drivers, ball screws, etc. I may plan on doing a power draw bar down the road and some other stuff, but I'm gonna start with just getting the mill going first. Here's the full rundown on my blog:

CNC Conversion: Part 5 – Conversion Roadmap