I purchased the cheapest CNC mill I could find on craigslist! Part of the reason it was cheap was because I had to remove it from the garage it was in myself. I thought it would be an easy process until I realized the mill would not fit out the garage door. Unfortunately I was way wrong, the head of the Wells Index 700 CNC Tool Room Knee mill does not cant over like a typical manual mill as I was expecting. Attempt number 2 was removing the head completely from the mill, this is where I ran into the issue of the worm gear holding the head in place. I finally located the set screw holding the worm gear shaft after scraping off years of chips and grime and was able to lower the head with an engine hoist cherry picker. At this point I realized the skid steer I had brought would not fit in the garage either, so I utilized the cherry picker to move the mill to the door. once the mill was at the door it was easy to load on the trailer and get home. Once home i hooked up the original CNC controller and plugged it in, something popped and let the smoke out. I really was curious if any portion of the machine worked so I hooked the original stepper motors to my DIY CNC Router's stepper drivers and power sources, and Linux CNC.

This is an actual Factory Wells Index CNC Mill, I'm guessing from around 1980. It has Chrome Ways and heavy duty ball screws. a Variable speed head with a range from 42-4200 RPM and a Kwik Switch 200 spindle Taper.

#WellsIndex #CNCMilling #cncconversion

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