CNC - Century Mill

[Shaft]

Hi everybody, I live in UK, have a Century Mill (http://www.chesteruk.net/store/century_vs_mill.htm) and wonder what the possibilities are of converting it to CNC. The Lead screw pitch is 1.5mm on all axiis. I think I would need to replace all the lead screws with ball types.
Any suggestions!!

 

[rcfreak177]

Hello Shaft,

The machine that you have would be an ideal candidate to convert to a cnc machine.
With the advancement in technology these days the possibilities are endless.
I have converted a Sieg super X3 mill to a 4 axis cnc with great success. I would advise to do you'r homework first. The world wide web is an amazing thing and offers a wealth of hints tips and tricks. here is a link to a good place to start, I purchased all my lathe gear and mill gear from Low Cost CNC Retrofits in Queensland Australia. They ship worldwide and offer excellent technical advice. I think if you contacted them and gave the machine specs and a picture they will be able to design an electronics kit to suit.
I do not know of anybody that can do a hardware kit to suit this mill, but a bit of thought and trial and error and you will be well on the way to having a quality CNC mill. Ebay is a good place to start in sourcing ball screws on the cheap. Ball screws are not a necessity but do aide in anti backlash and also repetition of sizing.
I wish you all the best, please keep us posted and do ask if advice is required.

Regards Barry

http://www.lowcostcncretrofits.com/index.html

Also here is the link to my photo album of my machines

http://s897.photobucket.com/albums/ac174/rcfreak177/machine shop pics/