Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Pinging Jon Elson

On Tue, 29 Apr 2003 23:36:48 -0500, you wrote:

>
>
>ccq@... wrote:
>
>>>(Kevin: I now have a semi-portable mini-mill hooked up to gecko drivers and
>>>my universal stepper board. It performs great. Anyone who is willing
>>>to drive
>>>the distance to my home (St. Louis-area residents have an advantage there)
>>>is welcome to drop by and see it.)
>>>
>>>Jon
>>>
>>>
>>
>>Yo Jon;
>>
>>What variety of mini-mill is it?
>>
>>
>I got the Wholesale Tool mini-mill, it seems everybody (Harbor Freight,
>Homier,
>etc.) is selling it, too. It has the dovetail vertical slide and a
>swivel to tilt the
>vertical slide left and right. I carved up some XL belt sprockets to
>fit where the
>adjustable dials on the handwheels usually go. It ran great at NAMES, and
>everybody was amazed to see me jogging it around at 90 IPM (48000
>steps/second
>into the Gecko 201A driver, giving 4800 full steps/second on the motor, or
>1440 RPM). At the end of the show, it started bogging down, I will have to
>clean the screws and slides and relube them. Black grit keeps coming out
>of the roughly machined castings. I didn't get a chance to CNC the Z axis,
>so I still have to do that.

One of the basic steps after getting a mini-mill is to take it apart
and to clean out the cast iron machining dust, if any. There wasn't
much on mine, but it can vary substantially. Ditto if you buy a
lathe. This is valid regardless of the seller, they're all made by
the same company unless you manage to find a very early Homier
(shipping company/reseller) lathe. All the other ones are made by the
Seig (Shanghai Import Export Group) factory. It seems to be mostly an
assembly plant as the actual pieces are probably outsourced. It can
explain much of the quality variations between the individual
machines.

For a very good site with lots of references to the mill (but mostly
lathe), I would suggest www.mini-lathe.com where you will find all the
modifications, teardown instructions, and model comparisons you might
want.

BTW: what size were the steppers you put on the x and y axes? The
"recommended" size is 200 to 300 in-oz....

Harvey

>
>Jon
>