Milling Machine Motor Upgrade

[DIYer]

Thanks Crusty! We've added your Milling Machine Motor Upgrade to our Electrical category,
as well as to your builder page: Crusty's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Milling Machine Motor Upgrade by Crusty

tags: mill, motor, controller

[wizard69]

Great write up! As for that combo mill what brand / type is it. I'm just trying to place the vertical head and RAM with a manufacture. In any event once you go VFD you will never go back!

About that generator please be careful with handling!!!!! Something like that can hurt you for a lifetime.

[Crusty]

It's name plated as a Grizzly G0727 but it's bones are a Seig U2. It does a surprisingly good job and horizontal planing is beautifully flat, though the milling cutters with a 5/8" bore (which fit) are hard to find. Now that I have more horsepower I'll likely make an arbor to mount the more common 1" bore cutters. Most of it is cast iron but I was surprised to find that motor mount housing was made of cast aluminum, hence the steel stiffeners added to it. The headroom between the quill and the table is on the short side and I sometimes have to be creative to get a part on the table in a position where I can mill it. A drill chuck is pointless unless I'm doing sheet metal but ER collets are a viable alternative and more accurate anyway.


That's two 1" thick blocks of steel pinned together for gang milling. The line between the two is difficult to see.

I've put so much stuff onto it that it's starting to remind me of an old guy's Harley dresser with all the bells and whistles but every mod was made for a reason and has resulted in an improvement to the mill. The DRO was a game changer but mounting the scales and readers was a week long marathon and they made the lock down bolts for the axes difficult to get to now (unavoidable).

The KBMA VFD that I used has performed flawlessly and all that was required to enable standard and double frequency operation was adding a selection switch that shorts the appropriate pins of the circuit board jumpers.

I've got a Michelin Man suit to wear when I work on that generator.

[Crusty]

Out of the pickup and in location. No Hindenbergesque incidents occurred despite the online hyper-safety remonstrations, just a chainfall hoist, a tree limb, a high-lift jack, experience and a sweat towel were required. It will live in this spot for now and I'll build a weather shed around it once I have it operational.