Grizzly G0704 Cnc Conversion

Cool. Good to know. Cast iron tends to have sand in it, or in the first few mils right? Is that why you say to do it outdoors?

I think of routers at something like 25,000 RPM. Would it help to slow it down?

If you are cutting the ground face of the saddle there shouldn't be anything other than cast iron. Slower is better just depends on your router. Using a router is not preferable and hard on the router and cutter but it does work.

Cutting cast at high speed creates really fine metal dust. Not good to breath or get all over everything in your shop.
 
Got my leadscrews from Chai today. I have to compliment him on the turnaround time. Chai knows about the cuts to the X-axis ballnut assembly that Hoss did and includes that.

I think having these things in hand will help sort through all the options that Hoss puts up. I was looking at those folders on the DVD and getting really confused. I think I see which holders to make now.

Left to right, that's X, Y, Z, for anyone who cares.

C7Ballscrews.JPG
 
If I may ask, what was the cost for the screws and ballnuts ready to put in?
 
If I may ask, what was the cost for the screws and ballnuts ready to put in?

With the double ballnuts, $189 delivered. With single nuts, that drops to $159.

The X-axis ballnuts are cut down to the size that Hoss shows on one of his drawings - you can see it on the left. They seem to have "G0704 conversion" as a product. Once I told him what I wanted, he knew immediately.
 
Might have to get a set to see if it will help with the play in the X and Y.
I already did the belt and pulley mod on mine. But not real sure If I want to go the whole CNC route.
Would be nice to have the Z axis with power up and down.
 
I think Hoss said he got backlash down to around .001 with the double ballnut screws.

Not sure what mod you mean. The spindle belt and pulley or the Z-axis belt and pulley?

I'm still rather confused on exactly what I need to do switch from phase 1 to phase 3. It's presented as a sequential set of upgrades and then with options for each way of doing it. I'd do better with a "do this, then that, then this" kind of approach.
 
I did the Spindle Belt and Pulley mod. Now I get around 3600 RPM. Works great for Aluminum milling.
I have a couple of Gear reduction DC motors and might try to work something with one of them for a Powered Z Axis with a remote switch on the front.
 
Even after buying those double nut ballscrews you still have to mill the parts to connect the nuts to the table.. plus the cutting of the table to make the nuts fit. It's not very simple.. not "ready to put in" at all really. You need the phase2 or 3 motor mounts and whatnot too.
 
Even after buying those double nut ballscrews you still have to mill the parts to connect the nuts to the table.. plus the cutting of the table to make the nuts fit. It's not very simple.. not "ready to put in" at all really. You need the phase2 or 3 motor mounts and whatnot too.

I'm seeing that there appears to be two versions of every ballnut mount, X, Y and Z. The two versions of Y in that folder don't look interchangeable. I mean, one has six holes (but says you need four of six), and one has four holes, but they're not part of the six. I mean, I opened both DXF files laid the four hole piece on top of the six hole version and no holes overlap. The six hole version looks more like my ballscrew nuts. The X axis isn't clear either. One version of the X ballnut mount has pins, the other has holes.

The X and Y motor mounts and spacers are different from the phase 1 I started out with, and he goes to using angle aluminum instead of standoffs (pieces of bar). Instead of four standoff mounts, each motor gets three, but the angle piece acts as a shield from chips and coolant splashes. Instead of using the bearings that come with Griz, he goes over to new bearings, spacers and shims. It looks like he replaces both ends of the X-axis table and uses a different spacer for the Y axis. And, like you say, there's cutting away cast iron in the base to get the ballscrews in place.

The Z axis looks like I can use the phase 1 direct drive mount and standoffs.

But other than that it looks perfectly clear. Easy peasy.

Oh, yeah. I don't see the oiling system anywhere.
 
I'm sure if we spent a few days reading hundreds of pages of Hoss' g0704 posts we might understand it all.. I bought all the stock and bearings to do this, I just need to do all the CAM and get it done. Once I'm done with the Y axis bearing block it's on to the ballnut mount pieces and that big X end cap.
 
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