Member postings for Mike Billmore

Hi Norman,

Have a look at this link if you have not seen it for a cheap alternative to Ballscrews and if you are playing with Arduino processors this link may renew your interest in the mill!

I'll keep you updated with the work I do and take plenty of photos too.

Mike

Mark P,

You might be right about the BF20 and Warco WM16, unfortunately I have no hands on experience with either to give a definitive answer, sorry.

Hi Norman,

No need to apologise it might be because I am a Newbie here and to do with anti-spam permissions. I was hoping for an improvement with the spindle bearings but wasn't quite expecting that much. I spent quite some time working on the spindle when I first bought the machine and decided to live with the runout in the end until time permitted a good strip and rebuild. Marking the high spot on the runout produced an interesting result as each revolution the high spot indexed to a new position! The spindle bearings are easy to replace and adjust, the two SKF 32006X/Q I purchased were about £25 for the pair.

When you replaced the motor gears, did you look at the plastic 2 speed gear inside the head? Mine has only been meshing the teeth around 50% in the low range and started to chew the plastic teeth as the mating gears are steel. Casting flash was partly to blame but with that out of the way the selector fork still does not allow full meshing. I can see a way round the problem with a little machining and modifying the selector detent but a two speed belt drive would overcome this problem as the gears would not be needed.

Mike

Update to my previous post: After a fruitless time trying to obtain parts from the company this milling machine was purchased from I approached Amadeal as their XJ25 mill is pretty much the same machine. What a difference in service, all the parts I needed in stock and arrived a day later! I took the opportunity to order a new plastic gear for the gearbox as a spare and upon inspection the low gear had not been meshing correctly due to casting flash in the housing.

As this meant a complete strip down of the head I decided to replace all the bearings with SKF as the main drive bearings were rough and the spindle runout has been diabolical from new. The best runout I managed was 0.002" with the original Chinese bearings and that was never in the same spot but the SKF bearings are showing a consistent 0.0002", quite a difference.

I think a belt drive conversion will be on the cards as a future project once the machine is back together.

Mike

Hi Norman,

You are not alone with your mill as I am fellow XJ9525 sufferer since December 2010! My motor drive gear stripped yesterday and I found your post this morning while searching for spares/remedies/ideas so decided to sign up and reply. Can I ask where you obtained a replacement gear please?

I too have regretted spending the money and in hindsight should have returned the machine swallowing the losses on shipping and spent my money elsewhere but I do think there is a usable machine in there with some work. I have been repairing and tolerating most of the problems as I use the machine with a view to completely stripping and rebuilding it from the ground up, now the gear has gone now might be that time as I was just about to invest in a cheap DRO system for all three axes.

Have you made any progress with the machine?

Mike