On Tuesday, December 13, 2016 at 11:49:56 AM UTC-5, Bob La Londe wrote:
"rangerssuck" wrote in message
news:2e01c60a-cf71-40e9-be99-
...

BTW, I'm doing this with a newly acquired Taig cnc mill. Very cool, fits
my needs well. From this engraving test, I see no
reason why it won't work fine for making prototype pc boards. Sp many
toys, so little time.

JPB

I'll leave the colorizing to others. I am curious though as decent
colorizing of aluminum could be very handy for me as well.

However, that last bit got my attention. I started in CNC maching with a
Taig 2019CR-ER about ten years ago. I still have it although its sitting on
a shelf waiting its turn as a weekend project to put it back together and
make it better. My relationship with that Taig was like a marriage.
Carressing to get better performance. Screaming in frustration. And
ultimately an acceptance of what it is and is not. LOL.

So did you get the older design with the 20TPI V-groove leads or the one
that just came out with the factory ballscrews. Either way you should join
the Taig Owners Club forum. Not a huge amount of traffic. Only a couple
posts per day, but all Taig all the time. I can tell you that within its
capabilities its a great machine. Mine paid for Christmas a couple times
with its work during the recession we are starting to recover from, and it
also paid for my KMB1 and its retrofit along with my first CNC Router and
another small CNC mill. At one point I considered buying several Taigs and
lining them up side by side, but to be honest if I pushed them as hard as I
did my first one I'd have spent all my spare time adjusting them to keep
them in spec.

FYI: If your control will run udner Mach 4 it might be worth going that way
because Mach 4 has built in part serialization capabilities. (I am told)

I got the leadscrew model, as the ballscrews are a LOT more money. I haven't spent very much time with the machine yet - it's only been set up for a couple of days - but it seems like it will do almost everything I need. Also, the leadscrews allow the option of manual operation, which doesn't work very well with ballscrews.

From what I have read, the X, Y & Z nuts are adjustable to remove backlash, and I also have had luck (on the clapped out cross slide of my old Logan) adding a thrust bearing behind the collar and adjusting for zero backlash that way.

As it is, there doesn't appear to be much backlash, and what little there is can be compensated in Mach3 (I will look into mach4).

Thanks for the pointer to the forum. I have just signed up (user 1.21gigawatts).