In the fall of 2009 I had this brilliant idea.  I wanted to be able to CNC cut aluminum without damaging my machine.  Since my machine at the time was a MaxNC, making cuts in aluminum or mild steel was simply out of the question.  It could be done, but it couldn’t be done well.  That’s when I got the bright idea to buy an X3 and a conversion kit from CNC Fusion.

When I bought the kit, I had no idea how ballscrews work.  I didn’t even know what a ball nut was, and I certainly had no idea how to repack one of them.  Seven months later I have learned all of these things and a good deal more.

After taking my mill apart and putting it together about a dozen times, everything finally seems to be in good working order.  The machine is completely reassembled, and my workshop is slowly getting organized again.  In the picture below you can see my X3, and a small MaxNC on the other side of it.  The CNC controller for the X3 is wall mounted behind it.

Today I made my first real attempt at cutting aluminum, thanks to a material donation from my nephew.  It’s a simple single pass cut using a 1/8” cutter at a depth of 0.05” and a feed rate of 2”/minute. 

If I had a spindle tachometer and axis encoders, I would probably step up the speed a bit.  The cut turned out really well.  The edges are crisp and the finish is smooth.