Hi Robin, thanks for the nice comments about my machne. Whilst a bit old and scruffy it really is georgeous(bit like me really).

I actually have a second identical, but unconverted machine which I bought for spares, but am finding it difficult to bring myself to break it up!!!

The "spare Z slide is the one pictured in the last couple of pics(you can also see my now completed vacuum table I referred to in my NM introduction).

The 24mm hole i referred to is shown clearly in pic 6 and there is in fact plenty of room to bore this out much bigger(I'm getting braver by the day).

The servo/encoder would be mounted parallel to the spindle almost directly under its existing position(you can see in pic 1 that there is space for it.

The idea of using a very heavy duty leadscrew was to try to virtually eliminate any deflection of the screw as at max Z travel there should never be more than about 60mm of screw poking its head above the slide.


I have bean called to breakfast(3rd time) so have to go now

Regards,Geoff.