Quick update,

Few major assemblies. Below is the column brace. I am using a 2" spacer under the column if that rings a bell. Opted to make a column brace. Turns out the deflection is 20x less with 2" spacer when using the 1/2" brace than the mill is as it comes from the factory with no spacer or brace. Deflection is measures at .001 now with the Z axis and having 2" more travel. Twist it not noticeable/measurable by me at least. It uses sixteen 3/8"-24 bolts to bolt it to the column. I surfaced the face that sits against the column with a 2.5" face mill on a Bridgeport. The mount foot not shown offers rotational as well as forward/back and side to side angle play. Bolting it without moving the column is the trick but I think I know how I can do it. Just takes several iterations and lots of time and measuring. We'll see.

You can see I have the one shot oilier and manifolds for the oil and air hanging off that as well. The mill will be oiled both X and Y axis as well as the X and Y ball screws. Will be manual oiling.

Mock up of the pneumatic draw bar, it compresses 6 bellvile washers at 75psi. Once all set up I'll have the parts re-cut with a water jet.

Using Leaded brass gibs that are countersunk and gib screws are now hex head bolts with lots of contact can see them in the pic. The gib profile is now more like the old Emco gib profile. You can see the new hex head gib adjusters as well as one of the fittings for the saddle. There are more on the rear side as well. Took lots of thought, not much room for oiling and under the saddle was even tighter. I worked it out though. Got the cncfusion kit in a drawer and made an additional 1/4" spacer plate for the Y axis as to go with it.


Some of the tooling, got a drawer full as well as the 2" steel column spacer block and granite surface plate. No Chinese end mills, all of the end mills are OSG, Niagara, Weldon, Kennametal or what not. About 50% are carbide, got a drawer full of all kinds of spares and sizes ranging from 1/8" to 3/4".

CNC enclosure so far, getting close to powder coating it. That's a 3/4" steel plate the mill base bolts to in the enclosure. Got a small 700 lumen LED light for inside the cabinet that I'll be mounting as well and I'll be welding in rails for the computing power hanging under the enclosure. After all that I will set up the mill in the enclosure and assemble it with the CNC fusion stuff and spend lots of time squaring the mill. I already squared the head to the the column with shims between the 2 spindle housing parts using 3/4 drill rod.