After a two year hiatus running a furniture business, it was time for me to finish my 5 axis bench-top hobby mill CNC conversion. The problem is I have little more than one week to scrape the machine saddle before driving down to Melbourne for a two-month working holiday. This proved quite tricky.
This is part 3 of the build project where we’re converting a $3,000 bench-top hobby mill into a 5 axis CNC vertical mill. Last time, we were focused entire on hand scraping the machine table casting, and to continue the journey of fully reconditioning and upgrading the machine chassis we’ll be getting that table finally joining back up with the machine by scraping the saddle.
This episode was largely filmed within the span of a week and a half after a year long delay from being overworked at my furniture business. With that business closed down, I had just over a week before moving down to Melbourne for a two-month working holiday. If filming wasn’t done on time, the episode would be delayed at least two months more.
Frankly, this episode wouldn’t be complete without also getting the saddle casting mounting up properly with the base casting too. So to help round out the episode, we start by getting the Y axis slideways on the base scraped in for flatness and parallelism. With the base done, we moved on to machining clearances into the saddle to accommodate the incoming ballnut for CNC conversion and Turcite for improving X and Y axis performance. With some incredible luck, the Turcite is done on-time, it’s then entirely up to me to get things done with just a week remaining. I end up spending virtually all day every day and late (think 3:00 AM) into the nights; I even slept at Marcus’s workshop, covered in my own scraping filth and sweat, to get back at it ASAP the next morning. This job shouldn’t take as long as it did, but I’ve never done this before, so I nearly screwed it up and nearly didn’t finish on time.
If you’re interested in knowing more info about the process than I could pack into a YouTube video, I post extended cut versions of each episode (wherever appropriate or possible) on the Mach Super Patreon page for members where they can expect their comments to be heard and responded to. Additional perks include getting access to all 3D, CAD and texture files used to make the show.
