On Tue, 18 Feb 2014 20:59:08 -0500, you wrote: >Hi all; may be off topic, but am wondering about converting my Centec 2B >mill to CNC. X,Y axes are relatively easy; Z is difficult. > >Is there any real need to convert the Z axis, assuming that the weight of >the table will keep the backlash to a minimum, or am I way off base here? > >Thanks for any advice from those who may have gone down this path before >me;
Hi John - I had a Centec 2B with powerfeed and lots of horizontal tooling. The important bits were tatty looking but in very good condition under the grime. The X axis screw/nut design was pretty appalling though. Getting the adjustment just right so it didn't jump out of drive on reverse was a work of art. The table was heavy to raise with lots of backlash in the bevel gears. I had the geared vertical head too - that was very nice and had hardly been used. Some idiot had filled the oil reservoir with grease and I had to strip it to clean. Getting the bearing pre load correct after was difficult and I had to make a few tools to do it. Fortunately the very expensive bearings were undamaged and after fitting a new bottom oil seal it was fine. Guessing, I would say that it leaked oil and to fix that they substituted grease! Although a very usable manual mill, I wouldn't attempt to CNC one. Not an easy conversion. More importantly they are a bit "cult" over here and fetch premium prices. I did renovate mine fully and repaint it before selling it on and I made a hefty profit - you could buy a working second hand Boss Bridgeport for what I got for mine! There are some details here. http://www.pilotltd.net/centec_2b_mill.htm please ignore rest of site - so out of date :) Steve Blackmore -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Managing the Performance of Cloud-Based Applications Take advantage of what the Cloud has to offer - Avoid Common Pitfalls. Read the Whitepaper. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=121054471&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
