The Bridgeport Series I conversion upgrade has officially begun.

Started talking about this here - forum.linuxcnc.org/38-general-linuxcnc-q...trol-system-retrofit

Today I got done modeling the new encoder housings in FreeCAD, good enough. The STL export is good. It's o the 3D printer & so far so good.

The computer, RAM, & the Geckos are here. The Mesa 7i95 should be here tomorrow. So time to get the LinuxCNC party started.

Here's an image from the CAD. If anyone want's the file let me know and I can .zip it & upload.

Got a part! Two more of those tomorrow and the lids. Progress.

The housings & lids are done. A little Bondo & paint & they'll be done.

There was about 0.015 +/- shrinkage somwhere so the lids aren't perfectly flush. Noted for next time. Can probably compensate in the slicer software. I put the .STL files up with this reply. If anyone wants the FreeCAD files let me know. Might take me a couple days to get back to you. If I get time to figure out a .DXF export for FreeCAD I can try that too.

Those look nice.
Have to build a 3D printer, started building one in my head about 12 years ago, never found a use for them ... now i find uses daily !

I got a layout I'm happy with. Did it old school. Let's call it CardboardCAD! OBTW, since I posted about the encoder housings I've made them bigger. I think I have all the parts together now. Been slow. The day job has been demanding. 

Hopefully more in a couple days. 

Best,
-j

Progress today ... Installed the mounting plates that I've been working on. They are on slides so I can get at the Mesa 7i95, the Geckos and any other electronics more easily and so the space in the cabinet is used as efficiently as possible. Below is a pano of the cabinet, some shots of the mounting plate assemblies as installed and the 200mm Noctua fan that replaces the very noisy 6" fan I had in there before. The .32 plate will be a heatsink for the Geckos as well. More later. [Oh, the VFD hook up is temporary so I could use the machine manually for now.]