I spent quite a lot of time trying to decide if I should convert the quill or the knee. Quite a few people have converted the knee with very good success and the required bracketry would have been a little simpler. I decided to go with the Quill anyway because I think the quill is designed for continuous, repeated up/down movement, whereas the knee is not. I realize, that for my purposes, the knee ways would still last far beyond whatever use I would put into the machine but it seemed technically incorrect. I may yet convert the knee as well...

Of the three axis, the quill was certainly the most complicated. I designed the assembly around a 5/8" diameter ballscrew with a single ballnut with oversized balls, which should give me around 0.001-2" backlash in the quill. The motor I'm using for the quill is very wimpy - 60oz/in continuous / 300oz/in peak. I may have to replace the motor or add an additional belt reduction.

	Drawn up in CAD, it looks so simple!		I made the main bearing block first. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of making the initial cube. It came out within +/- 0.001" on squareness, size and parellelism.
	I drilled, tapped and counter-bored the font mounting holes.		For making the bearing bores, I needed to make sure that they were square to everything else. So I checked the side and top for flatness with an indicator.
	I drilled out the center hole (non-precision) with a drill and then finished it with an endmill. I then roughed out the bearing bore with 0.040", also with an endmill.		I then turned it over, indicated to center and did the same thing on the other side. I do the final boring after I mill out the inside pocket.
	Because I was very tired when I began to mill out the inside pocket, I started by tracing the outside of the pocket with a center drill at about 2-thou depth. I'm glad I did because I started to make the pocket 90 degrees out of where I wanted it!		After I made the outline, I drilled a 3/16" hole in each corner.
	I then drilled several 5/8" holes to remove most of the material from the inside. The holes only go to 1/2" less than desired depth.		Pretty ugly at this point!
	I roughed it out with a 1/2" end mill - the bottom is now flat and within 1/8" of proper depth.		I cleaned it up with a very long 3/8" end mill - the 3/16" holes in the corner give a tighter corner radius that I could have gotten with the end mill.
	After I made the pocket, I did the final bore on the bearing pockets - unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. I did the bearing bores in two steps just in case the dimensions of the cube changed at all as stresses were relieved in the pocketing.		Final dimensions, except for the inside pocket, which had looser tolerances, are all within 0.001" or less of my original specs.
	I made the two side plates out of steel - I had to mill them to size, from 1.5" stock down to 1.25". Otherwise these were very straightforward - just a few holes in each.
	Next I did the motor mount plates. I actually had to do them twice because the first set I drilled the holes 90 degrees to the direction they were supposed to be.		The sandpaper helps hold the two separate pieces in the vise. Although the Kant-Twist probably helps more!
	Because I don't listen, I milled the slots with an end mill in a drill chuck. The drill chuck came off the taper and I ended up milling a very slanted slot that was about 1/8" deeper than I needed.		Luckily I have a welder! I filled in the too deep pass with filler rod and then re-did the slots.
	Unless you look closely at the edges, you can't even tell it was filled.		Next I did the main mounting plate.
	All of the pieces for the Quill complete. I sent the steel pieces out for plating and the aluminum pieces for anodizing.
	I'm still waiting for the steel parts to come back from the plater but the anodized parts came out really nice.		I'm waiting for the timing belt so I can assemble the bearings, shaft and pulley.