Industrial Hobbies Mill - CNC Conversion
	The cross slide drilled and tapped for the Y axis ball nut mounting bracket.
	A 1/8" thick spacer was made to bring the ball nut mount approximately on center for the hole in the base casting.
	The ball nut mount installed on the slide.
	The cross slide installed with the ball screw attached. The slide was slid to the front and rear of the travel and checked for alignment. Once everything was set, all the bolts were tightened with thread locking compound.
	The Y axis servo mount bracket in place. The ball screw had a small burr that I polished down to allow the bearings to slide on properly. The bearing retainer was tightened down carefully.
	The X axis ball nut mount was attached. Note that it is a double ball nut which allows for the nuts to be preloaded to ensure almost no backlash.
	The table was reinstalled and the ball screw installed.
	The X axis bracket was installed.
	X and Y axis brackets.
	Here is the Y axis servo drive with the servo and encoder in place.
	The holes were drilled and tapped for the Z axis servo mount.
	Another tip in the instructions was to give the inside of the column a shot of flat black paint. It seemed like a simple thing so I masked off the dovetails and broke out a rattle can.
	I admit it does look a lot cleaner and it only took about 20 minutes.
	The Z ball screw was assembled and the mount installed. The bearings were installed then the motor, belt, and pulley. Finally the encoder was installed.
	The ball nut mount is attached to the slide by the hex bolt in the center. I gave the center of the slide a quick shot with a sandblaster as there was a lot of sand trapped in the casting and I was concerned it would work loose and foul the ability to easily rotate the head. I made a 3/16" thick spacer to go between the slide and the ball nut mount as recommended by IH. I found there was some binding at the top of the travel so I removed the spacer and checked the clearance. I only found about 0.060" and I was able to carefully adjust the top plate so no spacer was required and the slide operated without binding. I was also careful to verify that the slide wouldn't hit the mounting bracket as it has enough torque to rip the plate clean off.
	Reattaching the head was the reverse of removal and just as easy with the aid of the crane.
	At this point all the basic mechanical conversion was complete. I ran all three axis's with a bench power supply to check the overall operation and to monitor the current draw of the servo motors. All looked good so I moved on to wiring.
	I wired up the mill temporarily to ensure everything was going to run smoothly before sealing all the drive units. Kids, this is probably something your mother would yell at you for doing. If you aren't completely confident in your skills, do not try this at home!
	At this point the mill is running under computer control. I wrote a quick g-code program to run all three axis's from end to end simultaneously to bed in the cast iron gibs and ways. Once all the ways were generously coated in way oil I ran the program for about three hours. The program was cycling at 110 in/min and ran very smoothly.
	CNC Conversion - Page 1  CNC Conversion - Page 3