Re: newbie to cnc

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "industrialhobbies"
<admin@i...> wrote:

> You might want to think about just converting a mill. 5 Bears has
> some serious time into his setup, and unless you have that kind of
> time the project may just die on the vine.
>
> Thanks
> Aaron Moss
> www.IndustrialHobbies.com
>
>
>

Hi Aaron,

Thanks for the reply. I have thought about just what you suggested.
My goal is to end up with a machine which is capable of working with
steel and most of the bench top units I have seen realistically don't
look like they would fill the bill. I do enjoy the machining aspects
so something along the lines of 5 bears mill, although challenging
and time consuming, would not be out of the question.

My problem at this time is getting a handle on the myriad aspects of
cnc, which I am not familiar with. I have spent a little time
digging around this groups posts and links and am very impressed with
the wealth of information available here and have concluded that this
appears to be where I will be able to gather the knowledge base I
need. I think though that I may start with a router table or
something similar to jump in to this and then from there work on a
functional mill.

I do have an old bridgeport tracer mill, with one jhead, and may look
at converting that to cnc if feasible. I have a nice bport series 1
manual machine, with a 2j head, but don't want to do anything to that
machine at this point as it is my main mill and I don't want to lose
the capabilities it allows me at this point.

The other option would be to look for a cnc bport (or similar) and
getting rid of the tracer mill so as not to "re-invent the wheel" so
to speak. Has anyone successfully retrofitted a bridgeport tracer
mill to cnc that would care to comment on the pros and cons?

Thanks in advance,
Jim