My custom stand was not stable enough for my 440 I recently purchased (could not find anyone who could weld!)… so I’ve decided to give up and purchase the expensive PCNC 440 Stand. My question is can i just purchase the stand or will it only work if I get the chip pan and enclosure too?
AI said I must have the chip pan for the stand to work… seems odd.
Thanks for any help.
(i might also purchase the enclosure at a later date if I find the flying chips too much for my inexpensive polycarbonate screen enclosure I built).
If you add the chip pan later, you duplicate the labor to install the mill to the stand as well as the time you take to shim and level it.
If you think that you will want to use flood coolant, you will need the chip pan.
I don’t use the cabinet area for storage or for the controller any more (if you have the old mini PC style instead of the newer tiny network appliance computer style).
I would modify the drain and coolant flow in terms of chip/coolant management having gone through a couple of iterations on mine.
I am fairly certain the mill will bolt to the stand directly but would need to dig into the solid model to double check. I think you will have to supply your own bolts though.
To follow up on @Davie ‘s comment, the chip pan just has through holes in it so the machine will definitely bolt up to the stand without the pan. BUT, the pan has some significant blocks integrated into it that raise the machine a bit. I can say from recent experience that the bolts will be too long to hold the machine in place if the pan isn’t used. You’ll either need to replicate those blocks, or source shorter bolts.
Thanks @Ian_Vivero . I came here to post this very confirmation.
Here is a section analysis of the machine, the stand, and the chip pan. The two blocks marked with orange are part of the chip pan.
Thank you everyone, lots of help. Looks like it can be done without the chip pan or enclosure. I can get the correct size bolts without a problem I’m confident.
It can be done without the enclosure or pan. When I bought my machine used, the previous owner had it sitting on top of the stand. There are 1 inch thick steel pucks that sit on top of the stand and bolt to the cabinet, then the machine bolts to those pucks. There are some weak support brackets under the top of the stand cabinet, they just bolt on. Open the doors and look up at the bottom of the stand top, you will see them. I welded an additional steel strips to the existing supports and it helps I think. Mine were slightly bowed. Honestly the cabinet is a bit weak and poorly designed, but it will work. For the price, it should be a better built. I run and enclosure & flood coolant so when I bolted the machine down I teflon tapped the threads because they go all the way thru to the cabinet and I didnt want the chance of leaks. They say dont bolt the machine down too tight to prevent bowing of the base. The top of the cabinet is flexible, so i would think the top of the cabinet would flex before bowing the machine base. But IDK. I did try to precision level the base. I found it difficult on such a small machine and with a flexible stand, i dont think it is accurate. So, I got it close enough. It works fine, I hold good tolerances in aluminum. The machine/stand assembly will wiggle a little if I am doing helix ramping at higher feed rates or faster changes of direction. It is especially noticeable looking at the monitor because it sticks off the side so the movement is exaggerated.
