Industrial Hobbies Mill - CNC Conversion
	Here is the mill before the conversion. It is a very stout square column mill.
	My order for a conversion kit was down the list a bit but finally the waiting was over and most of my parts arrived just after Christmas! The two big boxes held most of the parts wrapped in bubble wrap. The crate was for the power supply and the long tube help the ball screws.
	The parts were all well packed as seen here. The power supply was built into a small crate to survive shipping.
	Here is an unfair comparison. On the left is the supply for the IH CNC Mill, on the right the power supply and control electronics for my CNC Router. The new supply dwarfs and outweighs the other by about 10:1.
	The parts laid out on my bench. In the foreground are the ball screws and power supply. In the background is some of the wiring and plastic tubing.
	On the right is the Z axis servo and the Gecko servo drives. On the left are two of the belt drive assemblies and drive belts.
	On the left is the Z axis belt drive assembly and misc. parts.
	Time to get to work! The teardown starts by removing the head. After disconnecting the motor and removing three bolts the head is easily dropped with the help of the shop crane. At nearly 300 pounds, it made me appreciate the crane.
	I put the head on a motorcycle jack to make it easy to move around during the conversion. It was the first part off and the last part back on so it was basically underfoot the entire time. Having it on wheels made it much more mobile.
	Here the table is about to be removed. The dial and crank have been removed and the table has been run all the way to the end of the screw.
	The table removed, then the acme screw is removed.
	Removing the cross slide.
	Removing the Z acme screw, bevel gear, and the crank assembly.
	The cross tie between the dovetail ways is removed to increase the Z travel. This allows the Z ball nut to go farther down which means the head can easily reach the table.
	A few minutes work with a sawsall and the tie is gone.
	This is the marked modification for the Y axis to allow the ball nut to come farther forward for maximum travel.
	After drilling and cutting the cast iron. I used an abrasive cutoff disk in an angle grinder and finished with a sawsall. In case you are wondering, cast iron dust is seriously messy, a dust mask is a really good idea.
	The original hole for the Y axis is too small to pass the ball nut so I turned an aluminum plug for a tight fit so I could drill it out to 1 1/2" using a bimetal hole saw. You can assemble the ball nut from under the table but this makes it so much easier.
	The completed hole. I also ground down the Bondo and paint so the servo mounting bracket would sit flat.
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