Member postings for Bill ADAMSON

Hi All,

Well, my EMG-12 finally arrived all the way out here to Australia. It was very professionally packaged so no possible chance of damage in transit.

There were a couple of jobs required before I could try it, the British 3 pin electrical plug had to be changed it to an Australian 3 pin plug and I had to turn up a nylon adapter so I could connect the vacuum cleaner to the dust extraction port. That done, I was ready to try it out.

It was a bit scary putting the first end mill not knowing if I had all the settings right. It only took 3 or 4 seconds on each face and it was done. The sharpened end mill looked good but the real test was to try it in the mill. I couldn't believe how well it cut with such minimum sharpening. Beautiful chips came off without the slightest indication of burning or edge burr. Although I always tried to keep my end mills sharp using a Quarn but I could never get them to cut as cleanly as this first try on the new machine. I sharpened all my metric 12mm and less end mills and tested them. They all cut like new ones.

I had a box full of old imperial 3 and 4 flute end mills I picked up at a garage sale. I had never used them as they were blunt or chipped so I thought I might as well try to sharpen a few. I had to make up some new sleeves out of 20 mm dia mild steel rod to the same length as the supplied sleeves and with a 5mm grub screw in the side. Using the metric cam size closest to the diameter of the imperial cutter, I was able to quickly sharpen a 3 flute and a 4 flute cutter to the same standard as the metric cutters.

Finally, I had a 1/2" 3 flute cutter that had one face broken off completely. I kept it because it seemed too good to throw away. I ground about 3mm off the end to square up the end and I had to make a 12.7mm sleeve because it would not fit in the 12mm metric sleeve then tried to sharpen it. I thought I would have to reset it in the sleeve a few times but although it took longer than just sharpening blunt cutter, it was fully recut and sharpened in just under 3 minutes and now it is as good as new.

I can see that because the machine takes so little time to just touch up the cutting edge of a blunt cutter, I won't get hours of use out of it but it will certainly be used regularly.

Bill A

Edited By Bill ADAMSON on 24/05/2015 00:15:56

Hi guys,

I couldn't fit this last bit in my previous post.

I am just awaiting delivery of the unit and after testing it out will let you know if it is as good as it sounds.

Bill A

Hi Guys,

Hi Paul

Same here. I have made a long arm to hold the dial indicator in the chuck to tram the head. It doesn't take long but as sure as as I don't do it, the chuck won't be square.

Bill A

Hi All

Well, I finally plucked up enough courage to strip my Sieg mill to fix the tilting problem. Because of all the detailed info you all provided, particularly the exploded drawings Paul included, it was much simpler than I anticipated. I didn't disconnect the electrics so had to strap the main head and the back cover to the mill table so I didn't accidentally knock it off.

Unfortunately I was unable to get the allen pinion out of the body to fix it but was able to remove the locking pin and leave it out when I reassembled the mill. I can now tilt the head but don't have a fixed stop at 0 & 45 degrees. That doesn't bother me as I always tram the head after any movement anyway.

Thanks again to you all for your guidance. I will certainly call for help next time I need some assistance.

Bill A

Hi Andries

i haven't started yet. I am in the middle of remaking the valve cam mechanism on my latest model (so it works the way it should) and I don't want to strip the mill until that is finished. I feel quite confident in rectifying the mill problem now that I know what the workings are but I don't like having too many jobs on the go at any one time. It doesn't take much to confuse me these days.

I will certainly post my results when I get there. Thanks for asking.

Bill A

Hi Andries & Paul

Thanks for all the info. From your detailed description Andries and the very clear diagrams Paul sent, I now feel quite confident to carry out the repair.

It's amazing, I have been searching for this info for weeks, not thinking it was important enough to raise a new thread in the forum. Having seen Metalhackers indirect reference, some years ago, to the problem, I thought it might be worth asking for help and within 2 days, I had exactly the info I was looking for.

Thanks again and in future, I will be more courageous in asking for help! I like to think I should be able to these things without bothering other people.

Bill

Thanks Andries, I don't recall ever forcing the allen key but I assumed it had lost contact with the release mechanism. I will look up the guides you have provided to get an idea of how it works. I have presumed the mechanism is not in the head itself but in the mounting bracket and the whole mounting bracket wii have to be removed from the column to get at it. Is that the case? I will know more about it when I see the diagrams anyway.

i always tram the head after moving or trying to move it just to be sure.

Thanks for the very prompt response to my query.

bill A

The tilting head of my Sieg Super X3 mill won't tilt. The recessed releasing screw on the side of the machine just rotates but releases nothing. The manual that came with the mill tells me nothing and the there is no diagram to show how the releasing mechanism works.

I remember seeing something about this problem in one of the Sieg forums but now can't find it again. I also remember seeing an article with photos showing a complete strip down of the same machine but can't find that again either.

I am prepared to strip the machine down to fix the problem but before doing so I would appreciate any advice from anyone who has fixed this problem before as to whether it is fixable or needs new parts. I don't want to have the mill in pieces for weeks waiting for parts.

Any comments or advice or reference to a detailed manual would be very much appreciated.

I did find an indirect reference to this problem in one of Metalalhacker's posts back in 2011 but couldn't follow it up

Bill A