Pulled the trigger !

Cool! Hope you enjoy your new toy. I bought my first laptop recently, still waiting for it, 250G HD, 1.4ghz dual core, XP pro, 3G memory. I'll be able to play in the garage with the lathe and bridgeport and stay connected to the net.

The RF45 is a good candidate for Mach3 conversion. I might end up owning one some day.

Wes

Congrats, Set mine on a welded base, 3x1/4 angle frame with

Lots of upgrades available if desired. Pretty handy milldrill . ED

The possibilities are endless ... CNC is some time in the future , conversion could easily cost as much as the machine . Baby steps first ! If you haven't played with a dual-core yet , you're going to LOVE it ! How did you manage to get XP Pro? I thought everyone had gone to Vista ...

Thanks , Ed , mine is going on a wooden base for now at least . I'm a cabinet maker by trade ... though I do have some 2x2-.110" square tube , and the tools required . Might have to think about that ! How tall is your base ? I plan on a fairly complete disassembly (everything that moves ...) , heard a lot about how nasty they can be . Makes it easier to get it up on the bench too ! Also gives me a chance to fine-tune everything , tram it in and all that . I'm really looking forward to making some chips , this will be a perfect partner to my Wards (Logan) 10 X 30 Lathe .

My base is 36"H 40"W 30"D I've considered beefing up with some more mass, it will vibrate a bit milling a heavy cut. A solid wood base should be fine, my base came out of the scrap pile, the angle is from a 100 yr old bridge, the sheet from a dump box. I did make a castor system that makes it easy to lift and roll around.

The cosmoline was the worst part, I found my mine to be dead square right out of the crate. The ways were filthy dirty but the gear box was clean, I did replace the oil with new hydraulic oil. Yahoo has a milldrill group with some good info.

I spent more for the tooling than the mill. Enjoy ED

XP will not be available after June 2008. Dell had an option to put it on. If it wasn't for June being the dead line I'd probably have waited a bit longer to buy a laptop.

Wes