I'm a 77 year old retired Journey Machinist. CNC was in it's infancy at that time. Numerical control was coming out at that time. Punch tapes, or manually entering the codes at that time. I like seeing young people getting involved in this type of work. All the machines I operated where manually operated. The big thing in my time was DRO's, where coming out.

RIP Bruce Nelson from Heavy Metal CNC. He got me my start with my first PM conversion kit and after he died I bought his Sharp SV2412 that made all the conversion kits for Heavy Metal CNC. Its in my garage now.

Good job amigo - You've got what we call "the knack" :) You may lack the experience, but you make up for it with your critical thinking and research. Keep your head on a swivel and stay away from corners, you'll do just fine!

High quality content! Realistic, yet ambitious. You do have a beautiful mind! Thank you for this.

Hi, great video. Just a quick note about the (apparently) hand scraped ways. The regular scrape marks you see on these import machine ways have less to do with generating a flat surface than providing shallow pockets for the lubricant. In my youth, as an apprentice (mid 1970s) in the machine tool industry here in the UK I did plenty of scraping. Sometimes the objective was to create a flat surface usually to mount large sub assemblies and sometimes we would deliberately pocket an already very flat machined surface for oil retention. Hand scrapers could be bought or made in all shapes and sizes for different purposes. Flat scrapers were usually made from an old file using an off-hand grinder to get rid of the file teeth and create a gentle bevelled curve on the end. Everyone had at least one scraper in their toolmakers’ chest for general scraping jobs including removing old gasket material. Anyway good luck with your workshop endeavours, all the best from the UK.

A note in case you make more of those chill blocks that will help ensure accuracy of drilled hole and also drastically speed up machine time per block... Spot drill all the holes with a large enough 90° spot drill to a depth that will give you the finished chamfer you want then come though with your drill and drill the holes. Drills (especially jobber length drills) tend to walk to some degree and the spot drill opp will prevent this. Plus if the spot drill opp is done to the right depth, then you will already have your chamfer ahead of time and the run time for each hole will be less since a single Z axis move to spot to proper depth is much faster than a G02 or G03 circular interpolation move. Quick simple math will will tell you how deep you want to set you spot depth that will give you the chamfer that you want. For example, say that you wanted a 1.5mm x 45° chamfer on your 6.5mm hole, then with a 3/8" spot drill, you would spot drill to a depth of 4.09mm. Since Spot drills are 90°, you dont even have to do any trig to figure out your depth, just need to know the finished hole size and the chamfer size along with the subtraction amount since like all drills, spot drills do not come to a perfect point. The math is just Hole diameter / 2 plus the chamfer size minus the truncated amount from the tip. The Truncated value for spot drills is pretty standard and are as follows Ø 3/8" = .026" (.66mm) Ø 1/2" = .035" (.89mm) Ø 3/4" = .045" (1.14mm) Ø 1" = .060" (1.52mm) So for your case with a 6.5mm hole and say for example, the 1.5mm x 45° chamfer mentioned above, math for the depth would be, 6.5/2+1.5-.66= 4.09 As an alternative, if you know the diameter that you want at the top face / surface, then its just simply take that diameter, divide by 2 and subtract the truncated tip amount for the spot drill you are using. Like say for example, you had a hole that you wanted to major diameter of the the chamfer to be 10mm and you were going to use a 1/2" spot drill, then the depth would be 4.11mm (10/2-.89=4.11) The math is the same if you are working in imperial sizes, just use the imperial truncated values instead of the metric value's. Along with that, assuming you want a 45° chamfer around the perimeter of the block,spot drills work great as "chamfer tools" too. It also should be noted that many drill manufactures will tell you that you shouldn't use a spot drill with an included angle of less than the angle of the drill that you intent to use to drill the hole because it can cause heavy wear in one area of the drill where is first contacts the spotted hole. While this is true, in soft materials like aluminum or fairly soft steels, this is not generally a problem or a concern. Harder steels, yes, definitely a problem but soft materials (especially aluminum or plastics and such), I've never had a the problem and have been doing it for year with probably millions of holes at this point. Lastly with facing, running all the way off the part will help eliminate the lines left at the end of the cut. Even with a head that is perfectly trammed, you will still see a line where the cutter stopped. I'm not very familiar with Fusion360 since we use SolidCAM with Solidworks at work but from the little that I do know about Fusion, I know that there is a setting that you can set that will cause Fusion to do just that, "take the cutter totally off the part in X or Y before it stops and / or lifts the Z axis. I'll bet Fusion probably has a setting or something for the Spot depth mentioned above too.

I'm in school to become a machinist, and we do videos a minimum of 25 minutes long, and have to write and answer questions on that video. The hardest part is finding a good video to do is that most videos have no commentary and give very little to ask about. You did an awesome job, and it's very easy to learn from this video. Definitely will be using your videos more.

Why does this not have more views? This is brilliant, kudos to you my dude.

That has to be one the best explanations of a CNC Mill conversion I have ever seen. Awesome video! Keep it up.

This guy just told you how to multiply the value of your mill machine 6 times. Thank you sir !

Wish I had the GREEN STAMPS you had to get you to this point!! I’ve ALWAYS HAVE HAD to settle on harbor freight crap to begin to build and fabricate anything. And you know that crap NEVER HOLDS UP to much of anything! Yea I’m jealous, something like this setup would have served to be relaxing entertaining and somewhat enjoyable Deterrent while I go through my cancer therapy and pain management treatments. We all need something to help relieve the bad situations that happen in our lives, even if the outcomes are terminal like in my situation, this is the perfect mind altering solution to help occupy some of the hard days a cancer patient can have. Good job on your setup I hope it brings many years of enjoyment as you grow with it!

Another thought.... WD-40 is a great lubricant for cutting aluminum. May not be the cheapest obviously but spraying a small amount on the surface of the material works wonders. Also, a poor mans enclosure is to use PVC pipe hung from the ceiling and a shower curtain suspended from that. At least all of the chips from the mill will end up at the bottom of the mill and not all over the place. Third, look into build a fog-less coolant mister. works awesome. the plans are on CNC Zone

This is very inspiring content for someone like me that just started working with manual lathes and mills, I appreciate your channel and you as an individual for the good, smart work that you do. Keep it up!

Hey everyone! I'm back with my second video in 2020. This CNC mill is the largest project that I have ever undertaken, but it was totally worth all the time, energy, and money that my friends and I put into it. I am now able to create parts out of aluminum and steel that would have cost my left leg at the local machine shop, but now cost me next-to-nothing. Let’s just say I have already started working on some exciting projects that you are not going to want to miss out on! Thanks for checking out my newest video.

Dr. D, Great freaking video! While probably not critical for your chill block project, I'd recommend a spot drilling operation on those holes first. With those longer jobber length drills they can wander of center, flex, and potentially break, particularly with smaller diameter drills. Not a seasoned machinist by any stretch, but have definitely broken some tools in my college machine shop skipping this step. Can't wait to see what else is in the works! Thanks for sharing.

The most underrated CNC video on the planet 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 genius

Just a tip: if you use the left upper corner of your workpiece as (0,0) and align the material with the left edge of your vise, you only have to probe once for all parts done in the vise independent of the size. disclaimer: I am an electrical engineer so I am used to do just the bare minimum necessary to make installations safe enough for certification with the minimum amount of costs for my company.

Very nice work. I assume that you will at some point want a DRO for absolute measurement accuracy or switch to servos. Steppers can slip. Also, great job tramming your column, but consider that the shim and the rear of the column are now interfacing ideally along 2 lines rather than a plane. There is special filler material that will again make your column and base intersect in a plane. In machining stiffness is everything - you can never have enough. Outstanding video though. I've always wanted a CNC mill, but am out of room with manual mill and lathe. I would be happy to collaborate on parts in the future, if you are interested. I also have a surface grinder.

I almost remember the missus' giving me that look while doing something inherently dangerous. Wasn't long before the feeling went from worrying about my safety to worrying about blowing a chunk off the house. I take that as a sign of trust that I know what I'm doing. 😁

Seeing kids do that is almost as funny as seeing me doing that. Luckily my dad will guide me so there will be only one person laughing! Excellent class!!!

As a manual and (recently cnc machinist) for over 20 years, I never set my origin (or 0.00 x 0.00 y on the movable side of my vice. The reason for this is, the movable jaw of the vise, can move side to side slightly. The work piece will not always be exactly the same length and width, thus changing your zero.

NEMA23 motors are more than adequate for this mill, especially if you are using ball screws. If you run into something, a whole lot of torque can cause damage. Ball screws do reduce backlash a lot but they do nothing for accuracy over a lead screw. The biggest advantage of ball screws is how fast you can spin them. Very nice build.

owning a CNC machine and a 3D printer, man that widen your building and inventing oppertunity by as much as alot of fuckin percent , good job!

When using an adjustable wrench or pliers etc..MOVEABLE jaw in direction of rotation.

This motor is incredibly quiet, even as it is revving up to its max rpm. No one: CNC mill: sounds like a C17 on takeoff All in fun! Great video

Very glad I'm going to have access to a forklift when I do my conversion

You made a beautiful CNC milling machine. 👍

Nice job man. I can tell you have a gift of great intelligence. Look forward to seeing more videos you're very informative.

Ok, so this is really interesting to me. I have this same exact mill. Purchased it from Matt about 2 years ago, or whenever they first came out. Looking at doing this to mine soon. I see you have a build log too... Awesome!!!!

First time seeing this channel, very impressed with the simplicity of getting major points across. Video quality is also spot on, would be really great if you could throw some acoustical panels on the walls or maybe use a wireless mic...for those of us that use hearing aids, there is a big echo/reverb...could be my crappy speakers though:-)

Absolutely splendid presentation and implementation of high level intelligence all around 👌

You should bolt the vise directly to the table, instead of having it on the swivel base. Also, great job! Fantastic results for a first time. You must have nailed the speeds and feeds to drill all those holes in aluminum without it gumming up on you (if it does, WD-40/kerosene works great to prevent aluminum sticking to tools).

Nice choice on the mesa, I just got mine a few weeks ago and love it!

you are correct about flaking ad what it does, however, that's all that's there. those machines have not been scrape, the telltale is the price point and quantity sold. scaping that many machines would need an army of pro scrapers, It would easily take a pro to do that machine a day. i'm positive about that.

love the dr. d-flow sequence... damn

You should cover up the inductive sensor. Any metal chip could trigger it and cause stoppage

On drilling op, you should peck and crank up your retract speed. That will make it much faster.

You have a new subscriber. I’m utterly impressed with this project you’ve undertaken. You explained the process incredibly well. I really look forward to you upcoming videos. Again, fantastic job.

Very en-lighting to say the least, at 68, I am on a path to converting a RF-30 that we (Bride & I) just purchase used over to CNC. Not a high tech as yours on this video, but it already has power X, DRO to x,y,z and new 3hp Baldor with motor controller, so a plus. Sold our '80 Enco that was a great mill, but out dated. Will be coming back often to your channel. Bears Rod Shop

Wow I just saw your channel after two years. I would really like to see your setup now, the last I saw it was on Setup wars and on your channel two years ago!

you are really professional😁

Awesome content, I wish I had even a portion of the knowledge you have my guy

Suggestion, consider grease lubrication. If you stay with way oil you need a suction filter and line filter. You should hit up lube usa Never use compressed air to blow chips away always brush them away. Number 1 you will blow a chip in someone’s eye. Number 2 you will blow a chip somewhere it gets lodged in the dovetail

Pro tip, put shower wall panels the thin plastic 4x8 cfrom home depot on the walls behind and sides around the mill. You will be using oil and coolants with a air nozzle spraying all over your nice walls and it will destroy them.

try changing the working tips from the facing mill, just rotate the inserts and take care that they are mounted correctly, and add some WD40 to the surface before the finishing cut, and I bet you will get a better surface finish, nice job!

yo this shit aint easy at all. appreciate it. good video. too expensive for me right now but i will certainly do this after i have a house

Looks like you have a keyless chuck on there. Those are really meant for drilling holes and not milling as they can't handle the side forces. They can loosen and you'll lose a bit. Look into an ER collet system or and R8 Collet.

Great video and very helpful. I was hoping you could share more about the NUC you used including specs and has it worked out well for this application.

woow, best cnc conversion video. All in one. Crazy! Subscribed. Bring more content about it! Igf possible also a work through how to set up linux CNC you used will be great. Currently running Mach3 but thinking of switch to Linux CNC.

Awesome video! I have an old leadwell turret mill that i hope to convert in the future😁

Would love to see what projects you are doing with your mill meanwhile...

25:44 Got some real Marty Chang vibes from that delivery.

Making the spindle speed computer controlled is probably quite simple. On my cnc conversion it was as simple as replacing the potentiometer with the pwm speed control of my breakout board (Leadshine MX3660). If your breakout board has the same feature this should be as easy as attaching 3 leads

I read somewhere that Bruce passed away and you can no longer get your hands on these conversion kits.

Wish I had a mill that size mine is a boat at 4500 pounds that one is the perfect size for what I need.

very good.nice guy. i maked CNC machine in Japan.

Just can't across this video. Excellent conversion and explanation. Should consider sure step servo motor (accepts step & dir input) with servo like precision with full loop feedback control. Wouldn't have to worry about losing steps like with a stepper motor

Dude why don't you have more subs? Your videos are great.

This is awesome! Your website has been super impressive as well.

Backlash isn't always a bad thing. IMO far better to close the loop with scales on each axis to have a completely accurate position.

Nice Video very well explained

Since these mills come with tilt it would be nice to see them with some kind of precision motor to control the angle. 4Axis to cnc.

nice work and thanks for a great video!

Thanks for an outstanding conversion. I would like to as a few questions and would like to work out a list of parts that I will need to get. I have a similar mill

The only question I always have after watching such videos is how do you guys afford such costly machines and upgrades

Nice work!

Love the project but how the hell do you own a CNC machine but not own the right size socket and a breaker bar 🤣

real cool cnc router. i search for a workshop today. if i find one i build also a cnc Machine. this times i make with a little Laser Cutter und a Diy 3d printer some projects. but my channel very litte at the beginning. i hope i can make some cool vid. like yours :)

You did not talk about alignment of lead screw thrust bearing center with center of ball screw - axial alignment is critical

My gosh, what a beauty!!! ⚡🤖👌🏻💥

Excellent video and nice job! Keep going!

Could you make the machine into a 5 axis. Like is Z axis high enough to lift up for that?

Congratulations for your job...

Good video Dr. D. Question do you remember the length of the ball screws? I want to source them myself to save $. Thank you.

Extraordinario el Dr. D-Flo :)

Great project and video. I humbly suggest that you invest in a wearable mic. It will hugely improve the sound quality.

What a knowledgeable video. Thanks, keep up the good work!

Great video. You lost me at the electronics in the cabinet, but that's my own fault because I'm an Electrically-Challenged-American. Still, great information, and well presented.

You should support the z axis with a counterweight to relieve the ballscrew can you make a fourth axis from the spindle tilt?

dang, those NEMA1000000000 motors are cool.

hey! Glad to see you're still around! I shot you a DM

Please add encoder with stepper motor for accuracy to prevent a step loss

0,007" out of square in YZ tells me the 'scraping' was superficial flaking to get oil retention, but definately not done for accuracy of the machine tool, otherwise the thing would be square. And talking about squareness, was the XZ tested at all? Wouldn't trust it if already one direction had a lean to it. Regarding the tramming of the spindle relative to your table, at 12:23 you can see the indicator moving many numbers when traveling in Y direction, which would indicate that the tram is maybe good in X direction, but the Y direction was not checked nor trammed for. And as above squareness gave away, I wouldn't be too surprised to see this spindle tram to be out of alignment either.

Well, I really don't know what the Total cost for both: The really cool Milling Machine and The Upgrade accessories ! Probably 20,000$, so we only need to sell 250pcs of that Cooling-Block to break even at 80% Profit margin. Sound like good investment @@ I'm loving it !! =)))

Great work! I do plan on building a Cnc mill just like yours.

Great video. You may want to consider a lapel microphone. Best.

Brilliant work, thanks

You could really benefit from using the Tormach TTS tool holders with this mill.

Love the new LinuxCNC inteface!

You don't need or want the swivel base on your vise. With cnc you will never use it and you lose z height also it adds weight to the vise. If you ever have machining questions or good ways to set up jobs or steps in getting to a good finished part I be happy to help. I ran Bridgeport mill for 20 years doing parts for the big 3 auto companies doing prototypes, fixtures,gages and one off hand tools. Then maybe you can school me in all the electrical stuff :)

Nice project David! The controller board you used can handle 2 more steppers for 5 axis? Tell me you have this conversion in mind for the near future! Great work again =)

Precision Mathews used to offer pre-converted CNC mills fairly recently, I have one, I'd like to buy more, but it seems they have stopped offering the CNC'd ones at least for a while.

Go ahead and crank up that travel speed. Nice job!

This is clutch man 🙏🏽

Im surprised you had to use a shim for the column, unless you took one out. If you were out its because you either have a paint chip caught, or you should try and tighten the front bolts before doing the aft one.

Great work and thanks very much for sharing.

00:45 Ok so why cant you just replace the handles with stepper motors if you replaced the lead screw with ball screws?

Linda ferramenta de trabalho parabéns

The column alignment is not complete . Just adjusting from tilting spindle is not enough, you have to adjust the column vertically in both axis (x,y) .

sounds like Bruce Nelson passed away, and site is down..... Do you know if anyone is carrying the torch?