Resusitating Some Chinese Iron

[Baithog]

The machine was doing Quick and Dirty CNC before I tore it apart. It will be going back into service as CNC. I have the motors, drivers, and software. I just didn't have a machine that worked very well. I didn't originally go whole hog in case it wasn't as useful as I thought it was.

 

[chevydyl]

I should elaborate on that, the cutting forces will actually pull the table or push it away because there is no friction on the ball screw, where as the acme thread form resists that because of its thread form. on my machine ive never noticed anything moving when manually machining but just for safety sake when im manual machining I lock the axis for heavier cuts. also with the ball screw you will be able to climb cut

 

[Baithog]

I put the Y-axis together last night and it didn't work. The saddle slide nicely right after the scraping, but once I got the ball screw installed, it started hanging up a little over halfway back. I took it all apart and just installed the saddle. Sure enough it no longer fit. So out came the scraper and I managed to get it to traverse. It's stiffer than I wanted, but it moves the full distance under hand power.

On to the X-axis for more scraping fun.

 

[chevydyl]

So, she settled out, you need to put those parts in the clean cycle oven for several hours like your straight edge, otherwise I'm afraid it's gonna move again

 

[Baithog]

I probably should have, but it's a little late now. I didn't expect it to keep moving. The traditional way to season a casting is to let it sit. Well, this mill base is almost 7 years old. Maybe the machining to relieve the base for the ball screw nut introduced the movement. Gotta love cheap asian tools.

 

[Baithog]

I finished fitting the X-axis today. Drilling the little divots in the gib was a pain. It is tight and slides decent. No post assembly fitting like the Y-axis. I'm pretty much done with scraping, so i will take up further modifications in the "CNC In the Home Shop"> "Machine Build Logs" section.