The small benchtop Wen lathe is doing ruclips.net/user/postUgkxKGVtPhqZBB5AQXXFlU2kdd4mQhO6wlhl just what it was desighed to do, turn small pieces. This product is workig very well in wood and plastics, I wouldn't recommend any metal turning on it though. Overall from an old tool guy, I highly recommend this lathe as long as you realize that this is for small turning only. I bought this a few weeks ago and have noticed the price has gone from $174. to $249. Might want to get one sooner than later.
You have inspired me to get my own CNC'd G0704 back together. It was working great and I got the bright idea to extend the Y travel and never put it back together.
5 minutes in and I knew this video is the best available for this conversion. Thank you for the no nonsense crap, great documentation, and production value.
Nice to see. I have been thru the exact same procedure with my ZX45 mill. It was about 4 years ago and I use it all the time. I have used this CNC-mill to build a CNC-router model hardcore.
For anybody contemplating doing a CNC conversion, beware of the disadvantages of using a stepper motor that is stronger than necessary. This size mill requires a NEMA 23 270 oz-in motor, 76mm long with stock lead screws and a 54mm long motor with ball screws. One might think that bigger is better but not in this case. Having a motor bigger than necessary makes it hard to overpower with your hands in case things go wrong (and they will). It also increases the likelihood of damage if the motors are driven to the end of travel or if something is interfering with travel that you aren't noticing. Ball screws turn so easily that a big motor can generate tremendous force, far more than what is needed to feed a cutter into metal. Good job on this conversion.
i read thi comment and just thought WHAT DA FUCK do you even have any idea what your talking about or any experience with cncs, othe than your crappy drillpress conversion 🤮 sure you might not need all of the power the nema 34 offers, but the limiting factor in cncs is ALWAYS regidity ,not motor power and you NEVER stop a cnc by just holding it 🤦♂️just hit the feed hold or e-stop but if you send me a video of you doing that with a monoblock dmu 75 , vf-4 speed io or something similar, i ll delete this comment 🤣🤣
@@Basement_CNC Of course you lose your position if you hold the motors. That is not the point. Sometimes things happen too fast and you don't have time to reach a switch. With correctly sized motors you can overpower the machine thus giving a level of protection not usually available. I do have a RUclips video showing operation of the mill.
Great video, would love to do this myself. Bit of advice though, watch the program through before you try it on real material. And even better, get a usb pendant with a speed controller. This way you can watch a program through first time to make sure you haven't screwed the code up at all. Saves breaking tools and even worse the machine
I also modified a G0704 for CNC. The only problem I have is with Z axis. It is do to the design of the 704. The problem is do to the ball screw being on the opposite side of the ways from the head. The ball screw is fairly close to the ways, but the head is quite a bit further from the ways. This arrangement causes a see-saw effect do to the play and friction in the Z axis ways. When ball screw lowers the head, the head lags behind a bit, then drops into position (or not) when the cutting starts. I've seen errors as much as +/- 0.010" on the Z axis. This makes fine z axis control almost impossible. The X and Y are dead on, but Z, not so much. I'm not sure what could be done to correct this problem, maybe a heavy pre-load on the head.
Good to have a milling machine, of which I have a Sieg SX2LF, but, I can't find mini T-slot milling and groving tools/bits. For the last 3 weeks I have been searching for T-slot milling bits in the range of 8/10 wide and 3 to 5mm thick cutters without results. EBay has them but not the sizes used for hobby milling and shaping aluminium. I am still searching. Do these micro tools exist? If so, where? Everything is from China these days. Nothing made locally anymore. The US still makes some tools but not for hobby use, e.g. to make model steam engines. ☹ While you have this mill, I want to ask a question. Does the chuck sleeve wobble and is lose when spun without a drill? Mine has too much free play and at a certain revs the machine has a noticeable vibration. Is your chuck the same when it is spun at moderate speed without a drill attached?
Excellent! My 704 is waiting for me to have enough free time to take on this conversion. FYI: I've struggled with the head reattachment much like you. You know what I discovered was a simple solution? A 3d printed bracket that aligned the screws in the exact position needed, and designed so it was able to slide right off when the bolts were aligned. Easy peasy!
Ok I've been looking for a couple days now and have to admit defeat, do you know where I could find this file, or at least a template I could whip something up from? Thanks a bunch!
Having battled with trying to align those 3 head bolts, I found the best way is to cut 3 pieces of thin plastic like a printer transparency, into 2 inch squares, roll them up and shove them through the holes in the head so they stick out the back. They then act as a guide for the bolts as you push the head back onto the carriage plate. Once the bolts are through, you can pull the film back out as the holes are quite oversized.
A hint for those dealing with the 3 bolts in the head... take them out, and wrap just enough tape around each bolt, just below the head of the bolt, to make them stay in position. I've done this several times, and it's a lot easier.
an important and often overlooked part of any cnc conversion with ballscrews is to make sure the bearing blocks that the ball screws are fitted to on each end are of high quality. Considering that these bearings can easily add several magnitudes more error than what the ballscrews have if you buy the cheap ones its important to make sure you're using high quality bearings on the ends of your screws. These bearing blocks can go for anywhere from $8-$150+ depending upon the quality and kind you buy, ideally any with four opposed angular contact bearings of reasonable quality will be good enough for most builds.
I would suggest some stand offs under the breakout board and maybe even the power supplies. You need good air circulation around all the electronic components
Also.... I would also recommend some stepper motors with an encoder for feedback. If one of those motors loses one step, the whole job would be ruined, so, you'll resort to run it way below it's max speed. A Mach3 x11 breakout for a hundred dollars is also a very good purchase.
What we learned. You have to have THOUSANDS worth in tools to be able to convert or plenty of disposable income to order already done or be a really and I mean really crafty person based on the plans purchased. Also, definitely not for someone who's a newb or not educated or has knowledge of operations. Now what I learned from the creator. You sir are effin awesomeness and kudos to YOU! First time power up and it works! Hell yeah! That's music to anyone's ears. That power box though. Definitely would have another fan added for cooling. You stayed on the side and stepped over the lines of caution and overdid and exceeded on everything else. You've probably upgraded since this video, haven't seen others yet. Definitely add more to cool. Great job my guy on every single aspect and level. 👍👍👍👍
Great video! You make a CNC Conversion look a lot easier than other vids I've watched. We'll see if that turns out to be a good thing or a bad thing ;-)
I notice you are not using center drills or spot drills. Look into them. Relying on the drill bit to give you a properly located hole is at best dicey and usually guaranteed to give you double digit error.
Good job , bro; I think the bearings deserve a press fit . It shows when you run your indicator across a piece of work : the needle is trembling. Anyway, if one day that bothers you, you will know where that trembling comes from. Keep up the good work !
I am in the middle of converting my x2 mill to cnc, I'm 3d printing my parts and installing them temporarily to use the machine to cnc my aluminum parts. That way I can check fitment and make sure I like the design first before machining it out of more expensive aluminum
Hi folks. Three PSU's is a good idea. It avoids the three sets of driver electronics interfering with each other or interacting together to trip out one master PSU driving all three. Very sensible bit of kit. BobUK.
Thx for the vid. Was shopping their mills and this didn't "look" big enough for what I wanted. After seeing it in your shop, and you working on it, I think this will be perfect. I love having the option to upgrade it. Glad you went over it still being able to be used manually. I was concerned about that.
I had to fix 13 separate issues with a brand new piece of grizzly equipment I purchased. This was brand new out of the box. Didn't get to use t for 1 month, and not once did they ever call me.
Perhaps I missed it, but it looks like you're using software step generation instead of hardware (like a smoothstepper board). Not a huge deal, but it will let you drive the motors at a much higher frequency without losing steps. In practice, this means you can achieve much higher rapids, saving you alot of time in aggregate.
The probable reason the grease is so expensive might be because it is designed to work under heavy load and never have to be replaced but then again almost every type of grease put on bearings is for those exact reasons.
Any chance you have updated recommendations or resources for updated conversion/parts. Seems the interwebs have scrubbed or links have expired over time on g0704 conversion.
I have a RF-32 round column mill and after a lot of thought I've rejected the idea of converting it to CNC. It just does not make sense for the kinds of work I typically do. Once you do a ball screw conversion you really can't manually use the mill anymore. Not unless you have 3 arms. The stepper motors hold the lead screws when they're not turning them. If you don't hold a ball screw it can walk on you.
The 5 inches of Z axis quill travel should suffice for the vast majority of jobs. Head positioning usually only becomes a factor during tool changes. But a CNC that can't accurately reposition itself after an axis move away from work in order to gain change clearance has problems.
I have the craftex model same thing as yours you'd be wise to machine a tilt nut with a bigger dia for holding as well as more thread engagement preventing stripping the threads like my son did lol.
I am trying to find the plans or drawings to do my G0704 mill just like you did where l can use the machine manually also!!!! I tried looking for the planes from the Australian but no luck and the HAAS ball nuts l could not find or he didn’t offer so could you please help me l have already added a gear reduction motor to lift the head up an down an it’s a variable speed motor because l am disabled and l could not raise the motor and head up or down due to my condition if you have any plans or list of stuff that l only need to get this mill working l would appreciate and l would greatly appreciate your advice and any help you might be willing to share with me help please…!!!!!!!
Hi, good luck with your conversion! When I did this conversion I thought I would use it in manual mode sometimes (like using the handwheels I made to spin the leadscrews from the back of the stepper motor) but to be honest, just using the jogging functions in mach3 is actually more convenient for things I haven't fully programmed. It's also a little safer that way because then you have the stepper motors turned on and they're holding everything steady, when you install the ballscrews it's a LOT easier for everything to move on its own. That's just my experience. The Hoss G0704 conversion plans I got from www.g0704.com Aaron at DCTTeacher has his conversion files (Fusion 360 files) listed in the video description here: ruclips.net/video/Wx8238bGSCY/видео.html and the ball screws made for this machine are from Automation Technologies Inc here: www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/products-page/g0704-bf20-pm25mv-x2-x3-kit/g0704-cnc-update-machineduf-ballscrew-kit (they changed the link on me, I try to keep the description of this video full of all the resources I used) Hope this helps with your project!
You need a milling machine to do a conversion on your milling machine. Shame if the plans were off a little and you had to put it back together to make changes. :)
>>>>"Shame if the plans were off a little and you had to put it back together to make changes" That where OnShape, Alibre, or SolidWorks, comes in... if you measure correctly, plan correctly, machine correctly, you'll get there.
I always used the calculated steps per inch for my mach 3 settings. If you do it by just a test indicator you could be off by a few tenths but then that error will accumulate and could be off by several thousandths or more over several inches.
I don't have a milling machine, but watched the whole video. Great job. I do have a homemade router CNC so I understood alot of what you were doing. Again great job. 👍👍👍👍
Thank you for sharing your project. I’m not sure if a CNC milling machine like your can do what I want but I’d like to have your advices (I have everything to learn about CNC milling). I need to machine tube insert of about 3 inch diameter and 4 inch logn to retube truck axle, I need to surface top outside knuckle steering and build arm steering for better steering configuration with big wheels, I need to surface truck flywheel and other engine parts. I'd love to have one tool to do everything I need.
You probably want to cut some vents (and put some kind of filter over them) plus add in some fans. You really don't want power supplies for motors not getting cooling.
Encoder/Or just change the motors to servos ... try and find some 2nd hand industrial servo motors, their accurate and have a lot of functions and can give your controller the actual feedback on the position of the motor ...
Lol. Tried to blow the shavings off by blowing at my phone. Why am I watching this at breakfast... Time for coffee. Thanks for the useful links. Great vid👍🏻
I have been converting my G0704 from Hoss Machine plans for at least five years. I admire that you got er done. I made the Y axis motor come out the back so it would be out of the way. It is only advisable to do that if you have a Bridgeport on hand as I did. For five years all I have had to do is complete the wiring. What is up with that? Thank you for this inspiration to finish the mill.
I have a similar milling machine (I think it's the same from another brand) and I want to make it CNC to make plastic injection molds for my precious plastic workspace. What precision you can achieve? Since mine is old and used (I have it since 2008) I was wondering to eliminate the original guides and put on linear ball rails to improve precision. You installed 20mm ball screws, right? Did the Z axis struggle to lift the head weight? Thanks a lot! Davide
back in the old days people used ordinary Greece maybe the unburned one's if you wanted to be shore and they worked for a life time, these days if you tell young people that greece is recomended they just use it. I know it is better, but that doesnt mean that the old timers didnt worked just as well :) Oh well what do I know. I just love your video's
My Y-axis ballnut was backwards as well! Mine was also from Automation Technology. I guess someone should let them know... I ended up just taking the whole thing apart and repacking the balls. I was a little terrified I would never get it back together properly, but it turned out to be not that difficult (although a bit tedious).
I ended up looking into that as well, it looks like repacking the ball nuts isn't as impossible as it seems like it would be. Have you noticed any backlash in your Automation Technology ballscrews? I *think* I'm getting about .001 but it's not really consistent...
try doing some preloading between the double nuts, i used bellevilles. that kluber is expensive and a tiny container coz you're meant to use a teeny amount :) did the same thing
I see that control box and can't help to think that something like a tiny g cnc or smothieboard controller is so much easier to setup. Not sure if the stepper driversin those have enough power but with a footprint the size of maybe a large cell phone it would save a lot of time.....anyway awesome video.
Is there a specific reason you removed the original dro for the quill and the manual control? Wouldn't you still have the ability to pilot the mill manually to a specific point and use the mill to drill and tap a hole if necessary had you left them on?
When using the boring head on the manual mode mill, did you use the quill or lower the z axis? I have a Chinese mill and find too much slop in the quill to use it for anything more than drilling. The head even deflects enough that I would be very surprised if I could even bore an accurate hole with a boring head while using the z axis with a locked quill.
Great video Jeff. I'm just catching up now on all my subscriber vids ;-). Thank you so much for the shout out I really appreciate it mate 👍 cheers Aaron
Most people just buy the conversion parts bolt on and ready ( almost ) to go ; You had the machine and material and milled the parts yourself , well done.
Some of the G-code software have a correction to help with this problem. Other solutions include using double nuts on the ball screws. Of course that means changing the original lead screws out. Search eBay for "G0704 cnc conversion kit Grizzly , DOUBLE ball nuts ballscrews". Even better, get precision ball screws from heavymetalcnc-dot-com.
very nice setup. BUT I would strongly recommend buying some FK20 bearing assembly of TWO angular contact bearings. Huuge difference in precission and rigidy of the axis. Also they're very cheap from ali.express.
After seeing your video I was also inspired and now I also have my bf25 (as he is called the Netherlands here) as a cnc machine. Now I want to make my first workpiece from aluminum. Now I was wondering what cutting feedrate and cutting depth you use? Kind regards, Dennis
Hey Dennis, great question, and definitely one that could have a whole book written about it 😂 the feeds and speeds generally depend on which tool I am using, I’ve come to really like the “YG1 AluPower” end mills for cutting aluminum. Since these machines come from the factory topping out at about 2200 rpm, I usually run them at full speed (actually I’ve adjusted my spindle motor driver to go over 3000 rpm but that’s a different story) the feed rate is generally whatever will give me around .001” inch per tooth cut (cam software is good about showing you this calculation) and I usually start my width of cut (stepover) at 10% of the cutter diameter, and the depth of cut at 50% of the cutter diameter. Those are all very conservative settings but a good starting point in my experience until you get comfortable. Sorry for the long winded reply, if it helps, John over at the NYC CNC youtube channel has a tremendous amount of info on this subject that can be applied to machines such as ours. Good luck and have fun, thanks for watching!
Awesome build/project I almost attempted to build my cnc however all the computer components scared me out of if lol thanks for sharing with us well done tc
Excellent video, thank you. You said the G0704 was imported by other manufacturers under other names; is there any list of equivalent machines or a forum I can check out?
Personally, I would look into Precision Matthews if you want this type of machine. Theirs are a bit more expensive but also more refined and with better features. Most include a belt drive upgrade, some machines have a bigger motor than competitors and almost all of them can be ordered with a digital readout. Not trying to advertise or anything, I just like what I've seen from them compared to the other companies.
Got a question for you. I've got a DXF File for a Plate with a lot of holes. Can you turn it into a CNC Drill File? Then use it to CNC Drill an Aluminum Plate? It's probably a little bigger than the Mini Mill you have. I've also been thinking about CNC Punch Machines, they may be better at taking a plate, and making a bunch of regular holes. OK, Thanks, good video...
Hi nice job on the conversion i just finished up a conversion on my Gorton 1-22 master mill, i used timing belts to couple to the ball screws so i could use the original hand-wheels for manual operation, I was wondering if you disconnect your motors from the controller when you move the table manually as there is some power generated in the stepper motors when spinning them by hand would that hurt the drivers ?
You mentioned that you can operate the mill manually if the motors are powered down. I assume not, but can the computer still track location and be used as a DRO when doing this?
good conversion but you need tighter snug on your bearings, they will never get so much speed and heat to expand so tight press is what you are looking for
The small benchtop Wen lathe is doing ruclips.net/user/postUgkxKGVtPhqZBB5AQXXFlU2kdd4mQhO6wlhl just what it was desighed to do, turn small pieces. This product is workig very well in wood and plastics, I wouldn't recommend any metal turning on it though. Overall from an old tool guy, I highly recommend this lathe as long as you realize that this is for small turning only. I bought this a few weeks ago and have noticed the price has gone from $174. to $249. Might want to get one sooner than later.
You have inspired me to get my own CNC'd G0704 back together. It was working great and I got the bright idea to extend the Y travel and never put it back together.
5 minutes in and I knew this video is the best available for this conversion. Thank you for the no nonsense crap, great documentation, and production value.
YOU ARE A GREAT COMMENTATOR!!!!!!
You really don’t need music unless you like it! This was a great video and project
One of the best videographers and instructor I've come across!
That end card with the CNC mill writing “subscribe” is so cool. Great video, thanks!
Nice to see. I have been thru the exact same procedure with my ZX45 mill. It was about 4 years ago and I use it all the time. I have used this CNC-mill to build a CNC-router model hardcore.
For anybody contemplating doing a CNC conversion, beware of the disadvantages of using a stepper motor that is stronger than necessary. This size mill requires a NEMA 23 270 oz-in motor, 76mm long with stock lead screws and a 54mm long motor with ball screws. One might think that bigger is better but not in this case. Having a motor bigger than necessary makes it hard to overpower with your hands in case things go wrong (and they will). It also increases the likelihood of damage if the motors are driven to the end of travel or if something is interfering with travel that you aren't noticing. Ball screws turn so easily that a big motor can generate tremendous force, far more than what is needed to feed a cutter into metal. Good job on this conversion.
i read thi comment and just thought WHAT DA FUCK
do you even have any idea what your talking about or any experience with cncs, othe than your crappy drillpress conversion 🤮
sure you might not need all of the power the nema 34 offers, but the limiting factor in cncs is ALWAYS regidity ,not motor power and you NEVER stop a cnc by just holding it 🤦♂️just hit the feed hold or e-stop
but if you send me a video of you doing that with a monoblock dmu 75 , vf-4 speed io or something similar, i ll delete this comment 🤣🤣
@@Basement_CNC Of course you lose your position if you hold the motors. That is not the point. Sometimes things happen too fast and you don't have time to reach a switch. With correctly sized motors you can overpower the machine thus giving a level of protection not usually available. I do have a RUclips video showing operation of the mill.
Big motor go brrrrrrr
Thank you for this, you are gentlemen and a squire
Great video, would love to do this myself. Bit of advice though, watch the program through before you try it on real material. And even better, get a usb pendant with a speed controller. This way you can watch a program through first time to make sure you haven't screwed the code up at all. Saves breaking tools and even worse the machine
I also modified a G0704 for CNC. The only problem I have is with Z axis. It is do to the design of the 704. The problem is do to the ball screw being on the opposite side of the ways from the head. The ball screw is fairly close to the ways, but the head is quite a bit further from the ways. This arrangement causes a see-saw effect do to the play and friction in the Z axis ways. When ball screw lowers the head, the head lags behind a bit, then drops into position (or not) when the cutting starts. I've seen errors as much as +/- 0.010" on the Z axis. This makes fine z axis control almost impossible. The X and Y are dead on, but Z, not so much. I'm not sure what could be done to correct this problem, maybe a heavy pre-load on the head.
Good to have a milling machine, of which I have a Sieg SX2LF, but, I can't find mini T-slot milling and groving tools/bits. For the last 3 weeks I have been searching for T-slot milling bits in the range of 8/10 wide and 3 to 5mm thick cutters without results. EBay has them but not the sizes used for hobby milling and shaping aluminium. I am still searching. Do these micro tools exist? If so, where? Everything is from China these days. Nothing made locally anymore. The US still makes some tools but not for hobby use, e.g. to make model steam engines. ☹
While you have this mill, I want to ask a question. Does the chuck sleeve wobble and is lose when spun without a drill? Mine has too much free play and at a certain revs the machine has a noticeable vibration. Is your chuck the same when it is spun at moderate speed without a drill attached?
I have a shop vac that’s attached next to the drill head to suck up the metal shavings as you drill. Helps a whole lot!
Excellent! My 704 is waiting for me to have enough free time to take on this conversion. FYI: I've struggled with the head reattachment much like you. You know what I discovered was a simple solution? A 3d printed bracket that aligned the screws in the exact position needed, and designed so it was able to slide right off when the bolts were aligned. Easy peasy!
Oh that's awesome, I'm assuming I can find this on thingiverse? I'm gonna go check right now!
Ok I've been looking for a couple days now and have to admit defeat, do you know where I could find this file, or at least a template I could whip something up from? Thanks a bunch!
Best intro video that I have seen yet for explaining CNC control.
Having battled with trying to align those 3 head bolts, I found the best way is to cut 3 pieces of thin plastic like a printer transparency, into 2 inch squares, roll them up and shove them through the holes in the head so they stick out the back. They then act as a guide for the bolts as you push the head back onto the carriage plate. Once the bolts are through, you can pull the film back out as the holes are quite oversized.
A hint for those dealing with the 3 bolts in the head... take them out, and wrap just enough tape around each bolt, just below the head of the bolt, to make them stay in position. I've done this several times, and it's a lot easier.
Yeah.I had the exact same problem replacing the brake master cylinder in my 73 Corvette...
an important and often overlooked part of any cnc conversion with ballscrews is to make sure the bearing blocks that the ball screws are fitted to on each end are of high quality. Considering that these bearings can easily add several magnitudes more error than what the ballscrews have if you buy the cheap ones its important to make sure you're using high quality bearings on the ends of your screws. These bearing blocks can go for anywhere from $8-$150+ depending upon the quality and kind you buy, ideally any with four opposed angular contact bearings of reasonable quality will be good enough for most builds.
I would suggest some stand offs under the breakout board and maybe even the power supplies. You need good air circulation around all the electronic components
Also.... I would also recommend some stepper motors with an encoder for feedback. If one of those motors loses one step, the whole job would be ruined, so, you'll resort to run it way below it's max speed. A Mach3 x11 breakout for a hundred dollars is also a very good purchase.
Likely the grease your indicating that is super expensive is a high pressure bearing grease. Keeps it from pushing out of the bearing.
What we learned. You have to have THOUSANDS worth in tools to be able to convert or plenty of disposable income to order already done or be a really and I mean really crafty person based on the plans purchased. Also, definitely not for someone who's a newb or not educated or has knowledge of operations. Now what I learned from the creator. You sir are effin awesomeness and kudos to YOU! First time power up and it works! Hell yeah! That's music to anyone's ears. That power box though. Definitely would have another fan added for cooling. You stayed on the side and stepped over the lines of caution and overdid and exceeded on everything else. You've probably upgraded since this video, haven't seen others yet. Definitely add more to cool. Great job my guy on every single aspect and level. 👍👍👍👍
Good job. I finished my own conversion with Hoss's plans a couple months ago. Now I need to figure out what I want to do with a CNC mill.
Ship it to me so I can cut parts to weld lol
Did you use something like this
www.ebay.com/p/15034911940
Great video! You make a CNC Conversion look a lot easier than other vids I've watched. We'll see if that turns out to be a good thing or a bad thing ;-)
I notice you are not using center drills or spot drills. Look into them. Relying on the drill bit to give you a properly located hole is at best dicey and usually guaranteed to give you double digit error.
Good job , bro; I think the bearings deserve a press fit . It shows when you run your indicator across a piece of work : the needle is trembling. Anyway, if one day that bothers you, you will know where that trembling comes from. Keep up the good work !
at 10:43?
I am in the middle of converting my x2 mill to cnc, I'm 3d printing my parts and installing them temporarily to use the machine to cnc my aluminum parts. That way I can check fitment and make sure I like the design first before machining it out of more expensive aluminum
Any issues with the 3d printed mounts? I'd think they wouldnt handle the torque of the motors without ovaling the bolt holes
Hi folks. Three PSU's is a good idea. It avoids the three sets of driver electronics interfering with each other or interacting together to trip out one master PSU driving all three. Very sensible bit of kit. BobUK.
Thx for the vid. Was shopping their mills and this didn't "look" big enough for what I wanted. After seeing it in your shop, and you working on it, I think this will be perfect. I love having the option to upgrade it. Glad you went over it still being able to be used manually. I was concerned about that.
Awesome conclusion of coffee brewing sustainment
I like the way that you explain things, it helps a lot!
I had to fix 13 separate issues with a brand new piece of grizzly equipment I purchased. This was brand new out of the box. Didn't get to use t for 1 month, and not once did they ever call me.
Does this machine have any vertical support to release the pressure on the vertical ballscrew?
I had the same problem getting those head bolts lined up on my Bridgeport.
Perhaps I missed it, but it looks like you're using software step generation instead of hardware (like a smoothstepper board). Not a huge deal, but it will let you drive the motors at a much higher frequency without losing steps. In practice, this means you can achieve much higher rapids, saving you alot of time in aggregate.
The probable reason the grease is so expensive might be because it is designed to work under heavy load and never have to be replaced but then again almost every type of grease put on bearings is for those exact reasons.
I just found your channel today. It is very informative, and entertaining. You just got another subscriber.
Any chance you have updated recommendations or resources for updated conversion/parts. Seems the interwebs have scrubbed or links have expired over time on g0704 conversion.
I have a RF-32 round column mill and after a lot of thought I've rejected the idea of converting it to CNC. It just does not make sense for the kinds of work I typically do. Once you do a ball screw conversion you really can't manually use the mill anymore. Not unless you have 3 arms. The stepper motors hold the lead screws when they're not turning them. If you don't hold a ball screw it can walk on you.
The round column mills have a real difficult time being converted, too, as you don't get the accuracy in the Z Axis. Thanks for watching!
The 5 inches of Z axis quill travel should suffice for the vast majority of jobs. Head positioning usually only becomes a factor during tool changes. But a CNC that can't accurately reposition itself after an axis move away from work in order to gain change clearance has problems.
I have the craftex model same thing as yours you'd be wise to machine a tilt nut with a bigger dia for holding as well as more thread engagement preventing stripping the threads like my son did lol.
I am trying to find the plans or drawings to do my G0704 mill just like you did where l can use the machine manually also!!!! I tried looking for the planes from the Australian but no luck and the HAAS ball nuts l could not find or he didn’t offer so could you please help me l have already added a gear reduction motor to lift the head up an down an it’s a variable speed motor because l am disabled and l could not raise the motor and head up or down due to my condition if you have any plans or list of stuff that l only need to get this mill working l would appreciate and l would greatly appreciate your advice and any help you might be willing to share with me help please…!!!!!!!
Hi, good luck with your conversion! When I did this conversion I thought I would use it in manual mode sometimes (like using the handwheels I made to spin the leadscrews from the back of the stepper motor) but to be honest, just using the jogging functions in mach3 is actually more convenient for things I haven't fully programmed. It's also a little safer that way because then you have the stepper motors turned on and they're holding everything steady, when you install the ballscrews it's a LOT easier for everything to move on its own. That's just my experience. The Hoss G0704 conversion plans I got from www.g0704.com Aaron at DCTTeacher has his conversion files (Fusion 360 files) listed in the video description here: ruclips.net/video/Wx8238bGSCY/видео.html and the ball screws made for this machine are from Automation Technologies Inc here: www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/products-page/g0704-bf20-pm25mv-x2-x3-kit/g0704-cnc-update-machineduf-ballscrew-kit (they changed the link on me, I try to keep the description of this video full of all the resources I used) Hope this helps with your project!
@@PracticalRenaissanceit looks like hoss’s plans aren’t available any longer, could you point me in the direction for the plans or share yours? Thanks
You need a milling machine to do a conversion on your milling machine. Shame if the plans were off a little and you had to put it back together to make changes. :)
Also you can pick up some extra y axis travel by clearance the milling base and adding a spacer plate to the head.
>>>>"Shame if the plans were off a little and you had to put it back together to make changes"
That where OnShape, Alibre, or SolidWorks, comes in... if you measure correctly, plan correctly, machine correctly, you'll get there.
Very informative and entertaining video! Thanks for taking the time to make it and post it!
Thanx , I seen a few of these conversions and yours is by far the best explaned and least scarry, I'm ready to go thanx again *o*
Command thing about Machinists and Re-loaders by the looks of most video post on You Tube we all reload and build our own machine. Looks Good.
I always used the calculated steps per inch for my mach 3 settings. If you do it by just a test indicator you could be off by a few tenths but then that error will accumulate and could be off by several thousandths or more over several inches.
I don't have a milling machine, but watched the whole video. Great job. I do have a homemade router CNC so I understood alot of what you were doing. Again great job. 👍👍👍👍
Thank you for sharing your project. I’m not sure if a CNC milling machine like your can do what I want but I’d like to have your advices (I have everything to learn about CNC milling). I need to machine tube insert of about 3 inch diameter and 4 inch logn to retube truck axle, I need to surface top outside knuckle steering and build arm steering for better steering configuration with big wheels, I need to surface truck flywheel and other engine parts. I'd love to have one tool to do everything I need.
I give you props for doing this! But as an electrician I did get a bit of a laugh out of the electrical work but hey you got it done good job.
You might look into KFLOP controller from Dynomotion. A bit harder to setup, but much more reliable. I ditched the USB SS and Mach3 for the KFLOP.
You probably want to cut some vents (and put some kind of filter over them) plus add in some fans. You really don't want power supplies for motors not getting cooling.
Great video. Good precise info without blowing minds.
Encoder/Or just change the motors to servos ...
try and find some 2nd hand industrial servo motors, their accurate and have a lot of functions and can give your controller the actual feedback on the position of the motor ...
Lol. Tried to blow the shavings off by blowing at my phone. Why am I watching this at breakfast...
Time for coffee.
Thanks for the useful links.
Great vid👍🏻
I enjoyed the video, great narrative skills make it fun! Congratulations
I have been converting my G0704 from Hoss Machine plans for at least five years. I admire that you got er done. I made the Y axis motor come out the back so it would be out of the way. It is only advisable to do that if you have a Bridgeport on hand as I did. For five years all I have had to do is complete the wiring. What is up with that? Thank you for this inspiration to finish the mill.
Excellent video, it's inspiring . Thank you Jeff
In your opinion, do you think getting a basic tormach machine would be a better choice for higher tolerances?
Next upgrade is to exchange those gear boxes for 90˚ outputs so they don't get in the way so much. Very nice job!
Take a look at LinuxCNC. Think you would like it better than the Mach3 approach.
I saw a comment referring to “Hoss”. Or is it “Haas” (as in Gene, Haas F1, Stewart-Haas, etc?). Thanks for the vid.
I have a similar milling machine (I think it's the same from another brand) and I want to make it CNC to make plastic injection molds for my precious plastic workspace.
What precision you can achieve? Since mine is old and used (I have it since 2008) I was wondering to eliminate the original guides and put on linear ball rails to improve precision.
You installed 20mm ball screws, right?
Did the Z axis struggle to lift the head weight?
Thanks a lot!
Davide
back in the old days people used ordinary Greece maybe the unburned one's if you wanted to be shore and they worked for a life time, these days if you tell young people that greece is recomended they just use it. I know it is better, but that doesnt mean that the old timers didnt worked just as well :) Oh well what do I know. I just love your video's
My Y-axis ballnut was backwards as well! Mine was also from Automation Technology. I guess someone should let them know...
I ended up just taking the whole thing apart and repacking the balls. I was a little terrified I would never get it back together properly, but it turned out to be not that difficult (although a bit tedious).
I ended up looking into that as well, it looks like repacking the ball nuts isn't as impossible as it seems like it would be. Have you noticed any backlash in your Automation Technology ballscrews? I *think* I'm getting about .001 but it's not really consistent...
try doing some preloading between the double nuts, i used bellevilles. that kluber is expensive and a tiny container coz you're meant to use a teeny amount :) did the same thing
I see that control box and can't help to think that something like a tiny g cnc or smothieboard controller is so much easier to setup. Not sure if the stepper driversin those have enough power but with a footprint the size of maybe a large cell phone it would save a lot of time.....anyway awesome video.
Outstanding video...you are a practical instructor!
Is there a specific reason you removed the original dro for the quill and the manual control? Wouldn't you still have the ability to pilot the mill manually to a specific point and use the mill to drill and tap a hole if necessary had you left them on?
very cool man! I just got a similar milling machine so it's nice to have this tutorial around :D
+Cactus! workshop congrats on getting a milling machine!
Ummm probably the best “voice” on RUclips. Great work btw. 👍🏼
When using the boring head on the manual mode mill, did you use the quill or lower the z axis? I have a Chinese mill and find too much slop in the quill to use it for anything more than drilling. The head even deflects enough that I would be very surprised if I could even bore an accurate hole with a boring head while using the z axis with a locked quill.
Great video Jeff. I'm just catching up now on all my subscriber vids ;-). Thank you so much for the shout out I really appreciate it mate 👍 cheers Aaron
Thanks Aaron!
Most people just buy the conversion parts bolt on and ready ( almost ) to go ; You had the machine and material and milled the parts yourself , well done.
Very impressive to say the least. Congratulations.
Thanks Harold!
Great video - fantastic. Thanks very much!
GREAT STUFF but for the little people is there anyway to get the backlash out of the standard X Y threads .005 thou is too much cheers from OZ.
Some of the G-code software have a correction to help with this problem. Other solutions include using double nuts on the ball screws. Of course that means changing the original lead screws out. Search eBay for "G0704 cnc conversion kit Grizzly , DOUBLE ball nuts ballscrews". Even better, get precision ball screws from heavymetalcnc-dot-com.
very nice setup. BUT I would strongly recommend buying some FK20 bearing assembly of TWO angular contact bearings. Huuge difference in precission and rigidy of the axis. Also they're very cheap from ali.express.
Nice ! I'm thinking about ZX7045 Chinese milling machine conversion . I just got it , fixed ( Sic ) and maybe I will upgrade it to CMC . cheers .
Any update on your rig? Cool video man! You make me think I could do this... 🙃
After seeing your video I was also inspired and now I also have my bf25 (as he is called the Netherlands here) as a cnc machine. Now I want to make my first workpiece from aluminum. Now I was wondering what cutting feedrate and cutting depth you use?
Kind regards, Dennis
Hey Dennis, great question, and definitely one that could have a whole book written about it 😂 the feeds and speeds generally depend on which tool I am using, I’ve come to really like the “YG1 AluPower” end mills for cutting aluminum. Since these machines come from the factory topping out at about 2200 rpm, I usually run them at full speed (actually I’ve adjusted my spindle motor driver to go over 3000 rpm but that’s a different story) the feed rate is generally whatever will give me around .001” inch per tooth cut (cam software is good about showing you this calculation) and I usually start my width of cut (stepover) at 10% of the cutter diameter, and the depth of cut at 50% of the cutter diameter. Those are all very conservative settings but a good starting point in my experience until you get comfortable. Sorry for the long winded reply, if it helps, John over at the NYC CNC youtube channel has a tremendous amount of info on this subject that can be applied to machines such as ours. Good luck and have fun, thanks for watching!
Are you satisfied with the 4x4 blocks and adjustable feet?
Awesome build/project I almost attempted to build my cnc however all the computer components scared me out of if lol thanks for sharing with us well done tc
Nice job. Inspiring me to do something like this
I know this is an old video but, what a fantastic job, just wish I understood cnc to be able to do it
Excellent video, thank you. You said the G0704 was imported by other manufacturers under other names; is there any list of equivalent machines or a forum I can check out?
Personally, I would look into Precision Matthews if you want this type of machine. Theirs are a bit more expensive but also more refined and with better features. Most include a belt drive upgrade, some machines have a bigger motor than competitors and almost all of them can be ordered with a digital readout. Not trying to advertise or anything, I just like what I've seen from them compared to the other companies.
Really excellent project and video.
How Incredibly valuable. Thank you.
Got a question for you. I've got a DXF File for a Plate with a lot of holes. Can you turn it into a CNC Drill File? Then use it to CNC Drill an Aluminum Plate? It's probably a little bigger than the Mini Mill you have. I've also been thinking about CNC Punch Machines, they may be better at taking a plate, and making a bunch of regular holes. OK, Thanks, good video...
Great Video Man! it was so hypnotizing!
Hey Jeff - enjoyed the video - what was the total cost in your case?
Hi nice job on the conversion i just finished up a conversion on my Gorton 1-22 master mill, i used timing belts to couple to the ball screws so i could use the original hand-wheels for manual operation, I was wondering if you disconnect your motors from the controller when you move the table manually as there is some power generated in the stepper motors when spinning them by hand would that hurt the drivers ?
What size ball screws did you use for the axis if you don’t mind me asking
You mentioned that you can operate the mill manually if the motors are powered down. I assume not, but can the computer still track location and be used as a DRO when doing this?
no, you would have to use an independent DRO and linear scales
Are the hoss cnc plans still available?
I would also like to know
good conversion but you need tighter snug on your bearings,
they will never get so much speed and heat to expand so tight press is what you are looking for
"TNT" LOLOLOL.. made me laugh... I see that Hornady poster on hey desk.... 80% milling!!!! Awesome video Jeff.
Does the Hoss plans tell you how to machine the mounts using a manual lathe or milling machines.
Hello! Do you have the electrical diagram to make available?
I had no idea this was possible or even feesable , how precise is this and also how hard is it to program for it ???
Cant Arduino board do all the work ?
Bro. Please consider a longer loop for the music. I really didn't want to finish