Re-Built a used CNC mill machine to the point of 80%

[dudz]

I bought a second hand Machine from a French bloke some time ago. I was correctly advised on this forum that for the amount of money I was about to spend on buying it, I could otherwise build my own instead. But having no previous exp with building these machines, I decided to buy the used machine and change what had to be changed as and when it was needed. (I wish I had listened to your advise in the first place, but my mistake has taught me alot).





Firstly, The router....I tried polystyrene, wood, and Aluminium....The Aluminium was difficult to get any good results with so I ordered a Chinese 2.2kw water cooled spindle and controller. Then I had to get a Z plate made to hold it and had to buy a spindle holder from US ebay. The Chinese holder was rubbish from ebay.
After trying a few jobs with wood, I found the spindle pushed so hard that the cutting bed began to bend like a banana !. It was a vacuum bed with only 4 drilled and tapped mounting holes. So I ordered a piece of aluminium 470mmX300X25 from ebay for a new cutting bed. I used "Emachineshop" and "Cambam" to create the counter-bores , mounting holes and 6mm holes for clamps then tapped them by hand. With my new Chinese spindle and endmills the machine "just about" managed to create the cutting table. Although I did have alot of messing about with large G-clamps to hold this down.


I was quiet pleased with this.
Next was supported rails ( new cutting table already designed to take new bearing blocks ) Again Chinese from ebay.



I have not replaced the Y axis rails with supported ones, as I feel that these are sturdy enough over the short distance that they span.
I measured the squareness from the profiles against the ballscrew on the X axis....It ran 16mm out over 850mm !! , what with this and the bent vacuum bed, I really don't think the previous owner and builder could of produced anything good. I checked the ballnut, and the bearing seal is squashed on one side because of the runout. I may have to replace the ballscrew / nut and mounts soon. It runs but gets a little stiff in places (at each end of the ballscrew).
I decided, that the machine just was not rigid enough, so I ordered 45X45mm and 90X45mm profiles and corner blocks from German Ebay. I clamped it all together today. I think it is a vast improvement. It is all as square as I can get it with simple spirit levels, and metal working squares ( I have no gauges yet ). The table needs a slight skim to make the bed perfectly level, but it is only 2mm out over the whole bed length at the worst. The only thing I cannot check (lack of gauges) is the squareness from the spindle to the bed. I have seen a "Pro tram head square" on ebay ; 01 Pro Tram Bridgeport Head Square Knee Mill Spindle CNC Router milling endmill | eBay , I don't know if there is a cheaper way to check this accurately ??
I have robbed a pump from my fish tank for the coolant for the spindle.
I feel I now have a machine that is capable of milling Aluminium. Alot of wasted money from buying a bodged machine, but I think i am almost there.