kevinj308

I've drawn the clamps onto the part in cad, either integral or as a separate part made into an assembly. I'm sure there's a better way but it works.

Wow, thankyou. Just got a blue 4moa for $74.

That's just bad ass, thanks man. I'm gonna give that a try when I can set aside a weekend to get into it. ETA found a review of the software on CNCCookbook. Pretty much what Peter said, not so much for cad, but a good way to get into hsm on the cheap. " I would not want to be a CADCAM beginner trying to figure out this beast. It could be done, but there are easier ways. An intermediate user that fancies getting access to HSMWorks level CAM at a bargain price and who is prepared to deal with the foibles, might be well served. " http://blog.cnccookbook.com/2014/11/12/fusion-360-promising-power-uneven-usability/

Sherline has their rotary tables on sale this month, 20% off!!! https://www.sherlinedirect.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=16&CFID=56057212&CFTOKEN=17317346 They have a pretty good reputation for quality, and the size seems right for a hobby mill. Many years ago I had one of their little lathes. The quality was exceptional. I ordered this one: https://www.sherlinedirect.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=127&CFID=56057212&CFTOKEN=17317346 I had always planned on a 4th axis so I already had the driver and a Nema 23 motor ready to go, they were pretty inexpensive to add in during the build. Here's a 3 part series on cool 4th stuff:

Getting more RPM out of a g0759/0704/bf20 is kind of a pita. There's a few options. You should change out the spindle bearings for all of them. The stock bearings are tapered rollers and probably wouldn't hang with 4000 plus rpm. So you gotta start with some angular contact bearings and some shims to get lower bearing in the right place in the housing. The upper one has an adjustment nut to set the preload. Still interested? You can replace the gears in the head to change the ratio and get some more speed, but it's still a gear train and a little noisy. This gets you 4700rpm he says, I haven't tried it http://g0704.com/Projects.html You can make a belt a drive conversion, or buy one. I found this online but haven't seen any reports of it on any forums. Makes me a little suspect but I really have no idea. http://www.benchtopprecision.com/bf20_belt_drive_kit.html Making one is the other option. Make brackets for the motor, buy the pulleys and belts, keep the quill or not?, kind of a pita there too. Hoss at g0704.com sells belt drive plans, You can buy just those plans or they come with his cnc conversion plans.I own his cnc plans and the belt drive part is pretty basic. But he has done all the research for you, part numbers and all. If you spend enough time on CNCzone.com or some of the other forums there's plenty of info to figure it out I think. The cnc plans are definitley worth it though if you'd ever go that route. I've done the bearing swap in the spindle on mine, wasn't that bad. Had to make spanner wrenches for the retaining nuts. I'll send a picture of the wrenches to anyone that's interested. Mine were VERY basic. Planning on doing a belt drive conversion sometime in 2015. Hope this helps anyone thinking of getting one these.

here's the link for anybody http://smile.amazon.com/Toolmall-Engraving-Machine-Auto-check-Instrument/dp/B00M3XHSIE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420996252&sr=8-1&keywords=Toolmall+CNC+Router+Engraving+Machine+Tool+Setting+Auto+Check+Instrument.

Thankyou!!!!!! That's my new way to do that.! Kinda how I learned about g49.

You're welcome and congrats on the tts! If you're not already hip to tool offsets this is the best write up I've found on setting up tool offsets in Linux, and a good website in general for linuxcnc stuff. http://gnipsel.com/linuxcnc/g-code/gen05.html I've been using a 1-2-3 block and my awesome new game pad pendant to set the tools to a fixture.I can slowly bring the z down while I"m sliding the block back and forth until I just feel it drag. I also learned the hard way to add a G49 at the end of every program to clear the offsets. Doesn't clear out your stored tool table, just the active offsets. If I don't do that and forget they're active then the machine goes to strange places lol.

Please report back on how it was! NYCNC's Wednesday Widget's and John Grismo's Knifemaking Tuesday's are my favorite youtube channels. Both incredibly informative and open about their work process.

Saunders Machine Works, NYCNC on youtube is having an open house. If anybody is near Columbus Ohio I'd go to this in a heartbeat. Great youtube channel with all kinds of firearms related projects. Incredibly helpful to cnc newbies like me. Cool arduino stuff too if that's interesting to you.

Dude, that's good looking!

That is super cool, I'm gonna give that a shot. Thanks!!!!!!!

Nice job!

I know you got yours dialed in but if anybody out there ends up with mesa cards I tried the usb joystick set up on pncconf. A Sony wireless ps3 controller will not work when plugged in with a usb cord. I'm wondering if the cord is just for charging and all the signals are bluetooth. This Sabrent brand gamepad from amazon however http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AEWTSWU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 worked great, it's only $10. Here's a shot of the pinouts I'm using. Pretty easy to set up. Ecstatic with having a pendant. Thanks StraightUp for motivating me to get one working. @Toolguy you're absolutely right its great to have one!! So much easier to set things up. Kevin

I've got the same tach, they're awesome!

I found it very interesting, thanks a lot!

Nice vid, thanks

Thank you and Merry Christmas to all!!!!!! Nice video! Appreciate the walk through with the package manger. I've got a usb game controller somewhere, when I find I'll give this a shot. I'm running debian wheezy 2.6. I used pncconfig with mesa cards. There's a menu for setting up a usb joystick in the config program. Does stepconfig have that too and it didn't work so well? I need to find my controller and mess around with it. Thanks again!

Beautiful job!!!!!!!!

I use this pendant with my X2 run by Mach3: http://www.vistacnc.com/b08_pendant_P2/pendant_p2-S.htm It's like a manual mill with a remote control To the guys looking at benchtop mills, if I had it to do over, I would skip the DRO and convert it to CNC from day 1. If you spend money on a DRO, you'll have to rip all that out when you convert to CNC. P2s-v2-s.jpg That won't work with LinuxCNC. Last year I was using a hack for a game controller but the hack was shit and earlier in the thread you will find where I bumped it and it took a chunk out of a slide. This weekend I found a MUCH better way to program the game controller to act as a pendant and I will post a video later. Linux here too, looking forward to hearing about a good way to use a game controller. I've been using a wireless keyboard. I set the jog speed and just use the arrow and page buttons to move things. Works ok, but a joystick would be nice.

same

Not in my experience. I'm not sure if there is a solid column version of the g0704/0759/bf20. They're all pretty much the same machine. The early models of the mill only had one bolt securing the head to the z column rider/car/traveller whatchamacallit. The part that actually travels on the dovetails. Somebody came up with the idea of adding 3 additional bolts to secure the head and now they come that way from the seller, at least from Grizzly. I don't have a ton of hours on my mill, but I do follow all things g0704 on Cnczone.com and I haven't heard of any issues once the extra 3 bolts were added. Also a contributor on cnczone named machinechick came up with these super cool tramming aids. Just a block bolted to the z rider and a set scew and lock not that adjusts the head, I'm sure they help securing it as well. Easy to make and really help getting it trammed in. I think I made mine out of 1/2 inch key stock. Come to think of it she might have come up with the 3 bolt mod too. Kevin ETA to add a pic of the extra 3 bolts. The original bolt is in the center and now they come with the other 3 arount the circumference of the attaching point. Pic off google, not my mill.

+1 on the cost of tooling, for me It was just about the same price as the machine by the time I was done. I went with Shars vise and ebay tool holders, so it wasn't like I bought high end. It still was at least $1k to get started. I think all those costs would be the same though with an X2 or BF20/0704.

Here's the link https://www.grizzly.com/products/Mill-Drill-with-Stand-and-DRO/G0759 I think it's a really good value. Get some R8 collets or go TTS and away you go.

The G0759 that Daniel is looking at is a G0704 with DRO. If no plans to go CNC it seems like a pretty cool setup to me. I've really enjoyed my G0704, perfect size for me. @StraightUp-awesome video!