3D printers are very useful and have their place, but for serious parts a CNC is a proven necessity. This project is the conversion of a Craftex CX601 mill into a capable CNC mill.

Mechanical conversion complete
Mechanical conversion complete
The mill prior to disassembly
The mill prior to disassembly
Care should be taken with the ballscrews or you might find yourself repacking them
Care should be taken with the ballscrews or you might find yourself repacking them

The mill’s spindle is R8, but most of the work will be small, so for convenience a Tormach Tooling System (TTS) adapter and a number of ER20 collects were purchased. The straight shank and positive interface of the TTS allows for a number of permemnatly setup tools with measured offsets to facilitate toolchanges.

TTS and ER20 was chosen as the tooling ecosystem
TTS and ER20 was chosen as the tooling ecosystem

With the basic conversion complete, it was possible to cut a test piece. This is using machining wax, which is relatively (but not completely) forgiving of programming errors and machines easily. A model wankel engine was chosen as the first test piece

First 'chips'
First 'chips'
Close up view in progress
Close up view in progress
Final demo piece
Final demo piece