The Home Machinist!

G'day All
This is my first post to the CNC subforum. I have an old Elliot Jig Borer which I got cheap because it had been dropped and damaged. I have repaired it and I'm considering using it as the basis for a home shop CNC conversion. ( I also have a manual BP clone).
As yet I don't know a lot about CNC. Is there such a thing as a CNC FAQ that I can start my education from?
I've done a quick search on this forum, but haven't found anything yet.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
thanks in advance

bollie7

I'm not sure, but a jig borer may not be a good candidate for a CNC milling machine, depending on how (if?) the table is held down. Maybe someone here with more relevant experience will chime in with a more infoormed opinion.

Aside from that, try www.cnczone.com - there are lots of home brew CNC folks that hang out there.

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Mike, near Chicago

It would only, typically, be a candidate for CNC if you intended to use it as a boring / drilling machine.

You would need glass scales to check table position, since finding ball screws would be a real problematic situation, and most likely cost more than glass scales in the first place.

Good luck.

Gents
Thanks for your replies, to answer the comments, the main reasons I'm considering using the jig borer are
1) It there, and it only owes me about $110AUD
2) If I were to try and sell it I would be lucky to get a couple of hundred $ for it
3) Its had very little use and everything, (apart from the bits that were damaged when it was dropped, now repaired) are in extremely good condition
4) I'm more interested in using it as a learning platform more than using it for really serious CNC work

It should be ok from the table point of view as it has dovetails and gibs on both axes.
I haven't put a dial indicator on it yet but the amount of backlash in the table leadscrew is so small that I can't feel it by hand.
I was wondering about using scales for position referencing. I don't know enough about it (CNC) yet though.
I will start reading at CNCzone.

regards
bollie7