Looking into converting my Mill to CNC

[magicniner]

I plan to embark on a conversion this year and have been putting together a shopping list which so far includes;
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1. Breakout board, stepper drivers, stepper motors and mounts.
2. Ballscrews with zero backlash stepper end bearing kits, ballnuts and mountings to allow them to replace the table's standard nuts and couplings to connect steppers to shafts
3. Milling head counterbalance system, still wavering between gas rams or a steel bar weight with steel rope & pulleys to allow the Z stepper to deal primarily with movement & positioning rather than a huge vertical load.
4. Pumped lube system, either automated or hand pumped but a simple quick plumbed in way (no pun intended) to get lube everywhere it's needed so it's not a chore to lube the mill every morning before it starts work.
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Nice to have features include MPG wheels for each axis on the machine to allow manual machining.

ATB,
Nick