RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] X Y table (was Re: how the heck to peck)

Yes indeed, Bob Nansel, who is currently writing the series of robotics
articles for Nuts and Volts Magazine, did contact me as are both members
of Seattle Robotic Society and he was familiar with my CNC work when he
lived here in Seattle. I gave him many options/suggestions to consider
for his articles. Some of which he choose to use and went off in another
direction in others. But like I told him there are no wrong answers if
the results works. He did like the Enco 6X18 table that I have used for
several applications. The tables do need to be reworked to give them
good accuracy. I have retrofitted some with ballscrews and others with
better quality PIC acme leadscrews with new drive nuts and a
re-machining of the existing thrust block for new needle thrust
bearings. If you consider that it would cost more for the metal castings
than what you pay for the Enco 18X6 table, and that the basic casting
are good enough with some rework then they are a really good deal and
worthy of retrofitting. I would say if the accuracy needed was +/- .002"
then a successful retrofit would be possible. When I was modifying mine,
I placed the XY base on my mill and set up a dial indicator to see how
square it was. The runout over the full X travel of 11" was within .001
and the Y axis was also within .001.
I did some research and the Pallgrem table is the (appears to be the
same) Chinese made table just with their name but the specs are the
same.
Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: drew@... [mailto:drew@...]
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 8:56 AM
To: CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] X Y table (was Re: how the heck to peck)

Dave,

From what I've heard, the table listed for $99.00 isn't very good.

I'm currently working on converting a Chinese knockoff (Phase II)
of the Palmgren table shown on the page referenced below. Picked
up the table on sale from somewhere, maybe HF, for less than $100 US.
I remember that someone else on this list is also doing the same
thing. He's following a series of articles which were published in
"Nuts and Volts" magazine. I'm pretty sure that Dan Mauch has
converted one of these in the past too. In fact if I recall correctly
his work was the inspiration for the articles in the mag.

Drew