Craftex CX601 Conversion

[lucsimoneau]

Hi all,
Joined this forum not too long ago and decided to bring you along my bench mill conversion process.
Bought the machine a few weeks ago and I have took it apart to start doing the CAD of the machine. This will help greatly for doing parts to accommodate the ball screws and motors.

Here's a picture of the machine before disassembly:



Steps involved for disassembly:

X-Axis (table):​

- Remove handles from both sides;​

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- Remove side plates with bearings;​

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- Remove table stops;​

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- Loosen gib by unscrewing gib ajustement screws;​

- Slide off table exposing X-Axis lead screw (watch out it's heavy);​

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- Remove lead screw by removing 2 SHCS from side of table;​

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Y-Axis (Saddle)​

- Repeat same steps as for X-Axis;​

- Unthread the lead screw nut to get the lead screw out.​

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Z-Axis (Carriage and Spindle Unit)​

- To facilitate access to the Z-Axis lead screw, I decided to remove the spindle unit;​

- Remove motor cover;​

- Remove motor (need to unplug from control board from front of unit)​

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- Remove spindle unit by removing pivoting screws and center screw (careful it's heavy)​

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- Bring carriage to upper most position de remove carriage (mine has a counterbalance piston);​

- Use locking levers to tighten position of carriage​

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- Unscrew 4 SHCS to detach lead screw from carriage​

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- Remove side handle and bevel gear assembly:​

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-Remove top cover and top plate (remove carriage block before lifting out)​

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And there you have, a disassembled mill waiting for a conversion!
Thanks for reading

 

[lucsimoneau]

Time to model up the castings ... starting off with the machine BASE and the COLUMN

 

[lucsimoneau]

Next up is the Z-Axis CARRIAGE - notice the 3 notches for positioning the head at 90 degrees or +/-45 degrees.


Then the SADDLE and the TABLE:



And a bit of assembly of the components:

 

[lucsimoneau]

Just finished ordering main components for the build:

* Teknic Clearpath Servo motors and Power Supply:

XY: CPM-SDSK-3421S-RLN​

Z: CPM-SDSK-3432S-RLN​

IPC-5 with cable IPC35-CABLE110​

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* AliExpress:

X-Axis: DFU2005-1000mm Ball Screw and Double Nut​

Y-Axis: DFU2005-500mm Ball Screw and Double Nut​

Z-Axis: DFU2005-750mm Ball Screw and Double Nut​

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Next up will be to design attachments for each axis and the motor mounts. To be continued ...

 

[Thriller]

Just finished ordering main components for the build:

* Teknic Clearpath Servo motors and Power Supply:

XY: CPM-SDSK-3421S-RLN​

Z: CPM-SDSK-3432S-RLN​

IPC-5 with cable IPC35-CABLE110​

​

* AliExpress:

X-Axis: DFU2005-1000mm Ball Screw and Double Nut​

Y-Axis: DFU2005-500mm Ball Screw and Double Nut​

Z-Axis: DFU2005-750mm Ball Screw and Double Nut​

​

Next up will be to design attachments for each axis and the motor mounts. To be continued ...

any updates? I have a cx 601 as well and you are peaking my interest

 

[lucsimoneau]

Yeah, been a while since posting an update ... the machine is up and running. Will try to get some info out with pictures of most of the modifications.
Here are a few parts that I needed to machine to fit with the ballscrews:

 

[lucsimoneau]

Went with the Centroid Acorn system for the CNC control with a mini Dell computer to run the software:

 

[Thriller]

Did you buy the adapters or machine them yourself? If you bought them who did you buy from?

 

[lucsimoneau]

Machined them myself

 

[Thriller]

Machined them myself

Nice job. where do you source metal like that size and do you have access to a different mill while working on yours?