King Midas mill conversion

[diy-john]

Updates:

1) Placed an order with Zappautomation, via the online-store.
1.1) Replaced pulleys / belts with HTD -type, as suggested by Jonathan
1.2) Plan is, screws would be going to Jonathan for machining.
- not sure if the ballnuts could be detached from the screws. They are preloaded. Will talk to Gary at Zapp(automation).

£300 on ballnuts! Are you sure you can't get the cheap RM1605 ballnuts from china to fit as they're $25 each from eBay. Surely you can at least use the cheaper ones for Z?

Good point Jonathan. Thought about that, this time key criteria came to four (4) facets
- Overseas shipping costs - located in Finland, buying from different places will hike costs up. Shipping costs add zero value to the conversion, so minimize them.
- Need for the smaller dimensions of the FDI -type -ballnuts.(X/Y-axis tight space)
- Quality ... don't know much about ballnuts, but did rollerskating / skateboarding in my youth.. what a difference bearings can make

Perhaps biggest factor I have is "risk aversion". Still must admit, not sure if one will ever complete this thread. It is a big project for me, and if there are many set backs, project gets longer and longer, you never know. Does this thread end up in classifieds -section? Need to stick to safe choices.

a toroidal transformer.

Erm, would love to try that. But my skills..not very confident, have set a soft limit of "no mains" electrical appliance -jobs for me. Think one can manage stepper motor -cabling, and drivers, because they are sort of behind the power supply (not directly mains)

Have you considered in the Z-axis screw mount how to temporarily disengage it from the spindle when changing tools so that the force from hammering on the draw-bolt to release the tool taper isn't transferred to the relatively delicate ballscrew/ballnut?

Have not yet figured out how that could be best done. Some sort of a quick-release system would be cool. But not sure about design, and whether it would introduce slack to the Z-axis
- Something like this maybe, to quick-release?

Really grateful for all comments and advice in this thread. They have been very helpful. Thanks!