Homemade vertical mill drill

There was a guy local to me selling the castings from a Delta radical harm saw. Bed, column, and then the articulating parts for the arm for $25. I looked at them hard as they seemed to be half way to a light duty mill already.
 
There was a guy local to me selling the castings from a Delta radical harm saw. Bed, column, and then the articulating parts for the arm for $25. I looked at them hard as they seemed to be half way to a light duty mill already.

Naw naw naw man - CNC welder :)
 
Excuse my ignorance. How will you "Tram" that?

Hi Robert,

The column is hollow and fits over another very stout steel tube, it's not welded to the base. There will be bolts to hold it in place and others to provide adjustment.

Thanks,

John
 
Interesting, I believe you possess a million times my patients.

Hi Robert,

I took on this project because I wanted a challenge and the winters here are brutally long and cold (I'm originally from the SF Bay Area). I also don't really have the expectation that it will be super accurate but it should be good enough for my use and by building it myself I know I'll be able to improve it as time goes on. Mostly I really just wanted to learn about building machines and CNC so there's that.

I have less than $500 into it so far and expect to have it completed for less than $1000, I already have linear rails for the table and some of the control pieces I will need. Sure I could have bought a used RF30 and been making chips already, or I could have gotten one of those cheap Chinese CNC "engravers" but where's the challenge in that?

I'm still looking out for a full size knee mill but that will probably have to wait until I (hopefully) move back to California. If all goes well I should have a place in Santa Cruz soon so maybe we could meet up and talk shop.

Cheers,

John
 
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