Great video. Before watching, I fumbled around for an hour. After I watched it, I was done in 20 min on the first try. Thanks for sharing so many of your tips and tricks!
I really want to get back to the project. I have had a record amount of kit sales early this year, it has slowed down so I hope to get back to the fill soon. I have to do the spindle belt drive for the PM-940 first but I have done them before. Thanks for watching
I bought a couple of 16mm mills for APxx 11 inserts, and a couple boxes of APKT11T308, one for aluminium and one for steel to be used with my DIY CNC (yet to be finished). I'm working as a lathe machinist on a Mori Seiki NL2500 with live tooling, and I decided to try on carbon steel (C45) to see how it goes. And it goes well. I had a couple of parts cut too long to machine, so I tried to remove that material with the less than 20€ mill, and it worked ok. It has a little runout (0.07mm) between the two inserts, as every insert mill isn't a smooth cutting tool, but it works. After milling out something around 1.5kg of C45 the inserts are like new. Not bad at all.
My website is arizonacnckits.com/ I have the 833 listed and it is shipping. The 932 is shipping too but is not listed. I can do direct sales for the 932 if you want that kit. My email is davedaxx1@yahoo.com Thanks Dave
I can't comment on the 728VT as I don't have that one and I don't make a kit for it yet. The 932 is a lot larger about twice the size. I do make a CNC kit for the 932 and it is shipping. I have not run the 932 mill much to see about the cut quality. Much of that is determined by setup and tram. The 932V has a belt drive too so you wont get the vibration like the old gear heads would do.
Isn't there a risk that the drilling and tapping of the base distort the casting ? I'm not a metallurgy expert, but from my understanding, unless the casting was stress relieved, removing metal can cause distortions. I guess the a compromise is needed between maximising added stiffness (lots of of tapped rebar), and minimising metal removal from the casting (less rebar).
I'm sure their is a chance of warpage but you have to make choices. I'm quite worried that when I weld all the plates I will add stress and cause cracking. That would be a total fail. I hope to do the welding soon. I just finished the flood cooling tray for the PM-940 so as soon as the belt drive is done for that mill I will get to the weld and fill for this mill.
I'm impressed all around. With the Chinese insert mill (and suspect quality inserts), the mill, and conversion. Is that the APMT/APKT cutter? Well done.
For the tool holder they are 25mm shanks. That does not fit the largest R-8 collet of 7/8" so you have to cut to length and then turn them down to 7/8". The holders come at 150mm or 200mm most the time for the shortest length. They are slightly hard. The inserts are for aluminum only, They are"ground" APKT1604PDFR-MA3 Or APKT1604 HO1 The holders can be found for under $20 most the time. I search for 1604 holders and then sort by price. The clone inserts are way better than I thought, they last a long time. If you don't have a lathe to turn down the shafts you need to do the 20mm holders but they don't work as well and take the smaller APG1135 HO1 OR G2 Insert. For the 1135 you might have to releave the pockets slightly because of the lip in the ground inserts.
About 20 days right now, I hurt my back a few weeks ago and it really slowed me down. New orders have slowed down so one I get caught up it will be around a week.
I have a pair of SFU1204s and followed your video on repacking. I noticed the bearing in mine keeps binding at the orange bearing recycling cap thing. The bearings keep stumbling over each other in that area. Does that happen to you?
If the balls are tight they pop into the tracks when free spinning. It should be vary light. If it binds much at all then the balls are too large. Other things come into play too. All the balls need to be the same size. You may expect them to be but a loose ball nut you cant tell if a ball is too big. When it's tight the big ball will stick each time around. This should only happen about once per 3/4 of a turn. This is also rare, most the time the balls are close enough to the same size. Do a single row and see how they fit. If one row binds and the others are fine then move the return around and see if the binding follows it. It can be replaced if needed. I have spares but I dont know if the 12mm balls and returns are the same. If only one row is tight then you could put the smaller balls in it. You will loose 1/3 of the strength, its not needed for routers but mills will need it. You could also just lever the balls out of one row.
could you please post the O.D. of your plastic ball bearing retaining tube? My nuts came pre-installed on the ball screw and I need to fab a tube to re-install the ball nut.
Thanks for this. I purchased a kit from heavy metal cnc and the acme nut on my z axis is installed opposite end of standard🤷♂️. Per the z axis assembly diagram. I looked at dr d Flo’s conversion video and his was also opposite mine. Bruce didn’t do anything wrong, that’s china for you….. bad assembly. I had to remove , repack and reinstall mine. Thanks great video!
Built my own. All double ball nuts, 30mm z rails, 25mmX/Y & 25mm X/Y ball screws and a 40mm Z screw, machined my casting on a 4020 down to .0002. 750w X/y axis servos, 2.2kw Z servo with a brake, HAAS 5c 4th axis converted to servo and a bunch of other goodies. 2000IPm rapids bolted to floor and 300ipm cutting is not impossible. It has 14.5 x 28 table travel. Very broad swing and something the stock manual could never achieve. Mine is now the Nicest PM833T in existence. Most likely will always be at this point since you’d need an industrial machine to do the same build. FYI for anyone considering linear rails they will not just drop on a factory casting and anyone converting there’s to linear rails better be machining the castings first. The PM833T manual was a pile of crap put of crate and wore out those ways in under a 18 months. Yes, I oiled it daily. I bought one of the very first machines they sold. They were definitely not hardened. Frankly PM screwed me over and they should’ve replaced my machine free of charge. Terrible customer service. Now that i know how to cast myself and also where to buy solid castings ready for linear rails for only $1500 a complete machine, id never buy another Precision Mathews product again. So many parts needed to be warrantied and a few already had been where I had finally gave up on it. I also got rid of the gearbox it was limited and noisy anyways. Went to a belt drive and never looked back. Made and machined every part on it myself. The Spindle spins at 12000+ rpm now. The motor was custom built and handles 200hz easily sending it to 7700rpm itself. I started machining a bt30 out of 4140. Let it sit to relax and destress before i get to the finish cutting. It is ready now. Journals also need to be hardened. I can do that with my induction heater. Anyone considering one of their machines consider how they left me and others stuck in the mud before you buy. Ive owned many brands and the only advantage they have is travel. Wish you best of luck.
I was following your builds and noticed they kind of ended a couple years ago. I had assumed you gave up on the PM833... sounds like thats the case. Glad to hear you found something that worked for you. Can you elaborate on the rail-ready castings? That sounds amazing.
At this point I would’ve just cast the entire lower in one piece so you could have a larger 16-20” Y axis. The shallow black poly home depot storage bins are perfect for a really nice base. The form adds some external bridging to the cast which looks good. You’d need a second for a stand below it and you could easily epoxy them together into one piece.
I don't really need 20" of Y and it would be hard fitting it in the small shop. The PM-940 has 14" and that is good if I need more. Hopefully I can get back on this project. I have all the epoxy and rocks, just need some time. I would say a few weeks.
I'm going to do a second test fit with the customer's 833 soon. I plan on doing a little video too so I will look at the ways closer. I looked at them before and they looked like they were ground with oil scrapes which is what I expect. The felt really nice even when tight. A good grind job is fine for a hobby mill. I think a common problem is some go too fast and heat up the work and they bow. A little extra care when grinding goes a long way.
Testing the last part today for fitment. Should go well. Will post pictures of the full kit soon after. It looks like the Z can be flipped so that allows for the larger Z ball screws of D=32mm to work.
Just the amount of backlash they have. Most of the China screws come with loose balls. For single nuts anything over .003" should be re packed. If the screw has over 1000 hours it might be more tricky with the high use area being looser.
Yep. I'm going to do a new drive for my second IH which is coming up soon. I also need to do one for my PM-940 so I will do them at the same time. I will make a few extra ones, a number of guys have asked over over years for them. Keep an eye out and I will post them.
The 761 is a RF-45 clone mill. The table might be the same as the PM-932. I have screws that fit and the mounts might fit. If you have a power feed use it with the stock screws. If you want power with a ball screw then add a stepper motor. For the screws I have they can only be driven on one side. The bearing is on the other and has no shaft. You could make a 12mm lock nut with a bolt clamp and have it mount the handle. Not too hard. For power feed you still need to adapt it.
I’m curious, I have a manual PM-932 (non CNC) mill and I was wondering if I too can gain travel by cutting this section of material out to gain Y-axis travel? Is this section of the casting preventing the saddle from moving further towards the operator ?
I have the 932 too. Yes you can cut the slot for more Y. With the 932 it has no cross bracing so the ways will become slightly weaker. I'm sure a inch or so will be fine.
Hi. I have a weiss vm32l that Im looking to convert. Hoping to use closed loop 5nm torque nema 24. Trouble is I live in the UK. I already have the ball screws. Do you sell the dxf / cad files for the plates or only the finished milled product. Trying to keep cost to a minimum atm. Thanks
Have you made progress with this. I'm also considering eitherv the VM32L or the VM25L from Amadeal in UK as I'm in England but I'm trying to see whats available in terms of CNC conversdion kits for both. There appears to be some kits for the 25 but I'm not seeing any for the 32 which I'd prefer as its more powerful/stronger.
Sound about right. I don't have all the parameters, but from what I have the math says you're using about 1.62 horsepower to make that cut. That gives you a material removal rate of about 5.63 cubic inches per minute. That's pretty respectable for that size and type of machine.
@@ArizonaVideo99 if you have the time stop by. You can criticize how nasty disorganized and cluttered my shop is. If you have a little more time and you're into it we can take the boat out on the river for a little while and chase some green slimy fishies. You've got my address. Drop me an email if you have the inkling.
Your video is great but I am having a nightmare. Do you try and fill every groove or you mentioned just 3 rows? Also what are the sections to avoid like? The nut I am trying to sort has tiny 1.48mm balls. Was working fine but wound it out too far. I have got it back together but it is very tight and loads of backlash.
Just 3 rows. If you look closely you can see a space between the returns that have no where to go. Start from the return and fill one at a time until you get back to the return. Do that 3 times.
