Does anybody knows where can I get this machine???

[MystRacing]

My mill is the HF version of the Sieg X2. I bought the HF version primarily because of the R8 spindle. Just to elaborate a little the X2's have an electronic speed control. With the belt drive conversion I have the spindle will run 0 - 4500rpm. The thing about the X2 is you need to think of it as a Mill kit. If you're willing to put the time in they can be pretty nice machines. I used mine manual for 7 years and just this weekend completed a cnc conversion. I have about $2500 in it total, with software, controller, motors etc. Here's a pic.



This was what I did this afternoon. It isn't super fancy but for $2500 and a lot and I do mean a lot of elbow greease it'll hold .003" which is plenty good for most crawler stuff.

[C*H*U*D]

Originally Posted by MystRacing

I really like your idea of mounting it to a roll-away.

[MystRacing]

Thanks, I saw someone else had done it when I first got mine and liked the idea. It works great. When I did the cnc conversion I mounted the electronics enclosure on the side so all I have to do to use it is plug in the printer cable.

[SMR 510RR]

After more reading I am considering a Sieg sx2...Probably just use it manual for a while, would like to mount a dro though but looks like that is a $350 expense. Ideally I would go CNC with it, after working as a CNC programmer for so long I am having issues using a drill press for stuff I could do so easily on a mill with much better results.

[sloppy]

check out grizzly for the DRO.. you should have no problem putting one together for under $200

http://www.grizzly.com/products/0-6-...e-Scale/T21577
http://www.grizzly.com/products/12-D...raction/T23012
http://www.grizzly.com/products/24-R...raction/T23013

[SMR 510RR]

Originally Posted by sloppy

check out grizzly for the DRO.. you should have no problem putting one together for under $200

http://www.grizzly.com/products/0-6-...e-Scale/T21577
http://www.grizzly.com/products/12-D...raction/T23012
http://www.grizzly.com/products/24-R...raction/T23013

Wow those look like a bargain. Have you used these before? I guess the drawback is that they all have their own display but I can get over that for less than 1/2 price.

[rockn]

Micro Mart Has a Mini Mill on sale under 500 bucks here is a link.

http://www.micromark.com/MicroLux-Mi...hine,9683.html

[MystRacing]

Originally Posted by rockn

Micro Mart Has a Mini Mill on sale under 500 bucks here is a link.

http://www.micromark.com/MicroLux-Mi...hine,9683.html

That's a Sieg X1 I believe, at any rate it's a much smaller machine than the X2 or SX2. The X1 is 52 pounds the SX2 is 164 pounds. If I was looking for a machine in the X1 size I'd probably go with the Taig. It's more expensive but much better made. Not to mention american made.

http://www.taigtools.com/mmill.html

The SX2 is a great machine and what I would have bought if I didn't have the X2 years before the SX2 came out. I've heard the quality control is getting better.

http://www.littlemachineshop.com/pro...ory=1387807683


this forum is a great place for info about benchtop mills and cnc conversions

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/benchtop_machines/

[sloppy]

I would have bought the LMS mill to but damn they want a arm and leg to ship.. For what their mill costs shipped you can get a BF20 shipped from precision mathews and that is allot more mill for the money..

http://precisionmatthews.com/PMmvbenchmills.html

Originally Posted by SMR 510RR

Wow those look like a bargain. Have you used these before? I guess the drawback is that they all have their own display but I can get over that for less than 1/2 price.

No I dont have them yet but I know other people using them and they are pretty happy with them..

[SMR 510RR]

Originally Posted by sloppy

I would have bought the LMS mill to but damn they want a arm and leg to ship.. For what their mill costs shipped you can get a BF20 shipped from precision mathews and that is allot more mill for the money..

http://precisionmatthews.com/PMmvbenchmills.html


No I dont have them yet but I know other people using them and they are pretty happy with them..

Yea their shipping is a rip off. I emailed them last night asking if there is a cheaper way to get it here. I figure since they are in Southern California and I am in Northern California they might be able to give me a better deal. $175 to ship to a residence is just crazy! I could also have it shipped to my office for $135 but even that is expensive. I also told them that their competitors (micro mark) are shipping from farther away (NJ) for less than half of what they want.

I do kinda want the extra table space though, it would make for more fixturing options. I figure I could easily have 2 vises mounted up to run 2 sets of parts at a time once I go CNC, that would cut the tool changes in half. The only downside to their machine is the .0625" screws, I would like to have the .050" screws but I am willing to sacrifice that for the larger table knowing that when I go cnc it isnt going to matter.

[Joat]

I have the LMS mini mill, it cost me $210 to ship and that's to hawaii, I had to find my own shipper as they told me-LMS- " we cant find anyone to ship it for less then the price of the mill", wtf?, spent half a day calling shippers and found alot of them,.
The brushless is sweet, lots of torque, more then enough to snap a 3/8 endmill if you crash it,heh I wanted to see if it had the torque, and no the fault did not trip before the endmill snapped.
Mines mount also on a tool box -stainless from homedepot,should have gotten a craftsman stainless-locking drawers and snapon dont have one .
I added a brace in the back to stiffen the column-must do, I made brackets to do fine adjustment to tram the column-also a must, as the tilting column feature is useless, your better off getting a tilting vise, I also bought a rotary table setup,but you need to add the t nuts seperately,wtf, add it in the total purchase price!!
I bought a tach kit form here- http://macpod.net/misc/sx2_tachomete...ometer_kit.php
I made a housing out of carbon and plexi
I bought the tooling kit from LMS,it gets you started, would I buy again, yes, I also put a air spring kit-had to make my own bracket-, must have as the torsion spring is useless in holding up the head.I bought a few other vises,4"'s,and almost use carbide tooling exclusively
The LMS table being the biggest in the x2 series is really nice, I have both a 4" rotary table and 4" vise mounted at the same time.
I'll post up some pics when I take them

[SMR 510RR]

Ok well LMS finally got back to me with a slightly better rate for shipping and I decided it was worth it just to get the larger table and travel. Ended up pulling the trigger on it last night. Of course I couldnt just get the machine so I ended up buying a bunch of other stuff...Some collets, a cheap set of drills (inch, metric, a-z, and numbered), a small screwless vise (had to cut costs somewhere), those DRO's from grizzly and some other stuff.

I'm like a kit waiting for x-mas to come on break from school all over again. Cant wait to get up and running with it.

[Joat]

Originally Posted by SMR 510RR

Ok well LMS finally got back to me with a slightly better rate for shipping and I decided it was worth it just to get the larger table and travel. Ended up pulling the trigger on it last night. Of course I couldnt just get the machine so I ended up buying a bunch of other stuff...Some collets, a cheap set of drills (inch, metric, a-z, and numbered), a small screwless vise (had to cut costs somewhere), those DRO's from grizzly and some other stuff.

I'm like a kit waiting for x-mas to come on break from school all over again. Cant wait to get up and running with it.

Things you must have,do
Have a soild area to mount the mill,if your gonna use oil or coolant use some thick uhmw sheets or some scrap solid surface material to mount the mill on,also gives you more clearence on the crank handles
Get a large chip tray- I use portable dog kennel trays
Get a dial indicator to tram the mill, they suggest .001, I use .0005,my mill is trammed from left to right to .0001
Air spring kit, otherwise the head will crash into your work
Get a 16oz dead blow hammer, LMS suggest a http://littlemachineshop.com/product...3613&category= , it doesnt work, get a tipped deadblow hammer
http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item....re&dir=catalog
I would suggest you lap the beds and ways as it will make it alot smoother, and easier to use,I am gonna do a diy x axis power feed.

[SMR 510RR]

Yea I have just about everything there, ordered up a dial indicator as well. Also got some parallels and t nuts and stuff. I am going to have to make some clamps to clamp the screwless vise down, couldnt find anything that looked like it would work well for a decent price. Shouldnt be a problem, I have a decent drill press vise I can use while I make the clamps.

I am going to order some lapping compound as well as some stock for dro mounts from mcmaster, I love how they have everything although a lot of the stuff like vises and such are way overpriced.

I think I am going to do like MystRacing did and mount it on a rolling tool box so I can get it out of the way when I am not using it. I will probably put some plywood below it just to have a nice base between the box and the mill, add a little support and then screw through and attach it all together. Also when I go to do my CNC conversion down the road I can use some of the room in the box for electronics and stuff. I may try to work in some sort of chip catcher although at this point I may just keep a small shop vac handy since what I will be working on will be small.

Like I said I used to be a machinist for a number of years working on prototyping medical devices so I have the know how on all the setup stuff I will need to do (traming etc.). I will probably end up stiffening up the base to column mount seems like it could use a bit more rigidity.

Originally Posted by Joat

Things you must have,do
Have a soild area to mount the mill,if your gonna use oil or coolant use some thick uhmw sheets or some scrap solid surface material to mount the mill on,also gives you more clearence on the crank handles
Get a large chip tray- I use portable dog kennel trays
Get a dial indicator to tram the mill, they suggest .001, I use .0005,my mill is trammed from left to right to .0001
Air spring kit, otherwise the head will crash into your work
Get a 16oz dead blow hammer, LMS suggest a http://littlemachineshop.com/product...3613&category= , it doesnt work, get a tipped deadblow hammer
http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item....re&dir=catalog
I would suggest you lap the beds and ways as it will make it alot smoother, and easier to use,I am gonna do a diy x axis power feed.

[Joat]

Originally Posted by SMR 510RR

Yea I have just about everything there, ordered up a dial indicator as well. Also got some parallels and t nuts and stuff. I am going to have to make some clamps to clamp the screwless vise down, couldnt find anything that looked like it would work well for a decent price. Shouldnt be a problem, I have a decent drill press vise I can use while I make the clamps.

I am going to order some lapping compound as well as some stock for dro mounts from mcmaster, I love how they have everything although a lot of the stuff like vises and such are way overpriced.

I think I am going to do like MystRacing did and mount it on a rolling tool box so I can get it out of the way when I am not using it. I will probably put some plywood below it just to have a nice base between the box and the mill, add a little support and then screw through and attach it all together. Also when I go to do my CNC conversion down the road I can use some of the room in the box for electronics and stuff. I may try to work in some sort of chip catcher although at this point I may just keep a small shop vac handy since what I will be working on will be small.

Like I said I used to be a machinist for a number of years working on prototyping medical devices so I have the know how on all the setup stuff I will need to do (traming etc.). I will probably end up stiffening up the base to column mount seems like it could use a bit more rigidity.

Sorry didnt see the part about you having prior experience
I made a 2x4 base for mine, then put the chip tray and added the uhmw sheets = 1 1/2 bolted that all down, you may want to think about leveling casters to keep it from rocking around?

[Crawling Calvin]

I finally got to see the hi-torque mill at little machine shop and it is nice for the size of the machine. They are working on a CNC kit but it's at least 1+ month out sadly that said even I was impressed.

Personally a screwless vice is better. They don't lift like others but that's what a huge hammer I'd say is for I made my own vises for the heck of it. If your low on cash look up "slim milling vice" on YouTube/Google. Its crazy simple but effective

[Joat]

Originally Posted by Crawling Calvin

I finally got to see the hi-torque mill at little machine shop and it is nice for the size of the machine. They are working on a CNC kit but it's at least 1+ month out sadly that said even I was impressed.

Personally a screwless vice is better. They don't lift like others but that's what a huge hammer I'd say is for I made my own vises for the heck of it. If your low on cash look up "slim milling vice" on YouTube/Google. Its crazy simple but effective

Hopefully it will have ground ball screws?

[Crawling Calvin]

Originally Posted by Joat

Hopefully it will have ground ball screws?

I never asked but it "looked" like it may have. The Seig CNC machines they sell (the small one isn't wow on travel at ALL!) is ground screws driven. I am debating them for my Sherline but $500 is a huge penny to drop on them and a new saddle at the moment

Is the Cnc Myst has stock or ball screw?

[SMR 510RR]

Originally Posted by Crawling Calvin

I finally got to see the hi-torque mill at little machine shop and it is nice for the size of the machine. They are working on a CNC kit but it's at least 1+ month out sadly that said even I was impressed.

Personally a screwless vice is better. They don't lift like others but that's what a huge hammer I'd say is for I made my own vises for the heck of it. If your low on cash look up "slim milling vice" on YouTube/Google. Its crazy simple but effective

Any more details on the CNC kit? Come with electronics or just brackets and ballscrews?

Hopefully preloaded ballscrew nuts also! They seem to do a good job with most of their products, wonder what the price will look like.

[Crawling Calvin]

Originally Posted by SMR 510RR

Any more details on the CNC kit? Come with electronics or just brackets and ballscrews?

Hopefully preloaded ballscrew nuts also! They seem to do a good job with most of their products, wonder what the price will look like.

They weren't saying much so don't take my word on it... But it at least had mounts, motors and screws from what memory says. May or may not have electronic stuff on it. If it did that would be amazing. They did say something about $1K for the mill + the conversion.

I have to give preloaded nuts a try. If only my mill wasn't 20 TPI

As for mill vice table clamps shoot me a message and I may have some easy plans for you. They don't need to be crazy accurate to work