Another new mill

Martin, if you do decide to separate the column from the base then pull the dowel pins out first as they are drilled in at an angle. They are threaded so you can screw something into them to get hold of. You will have to retram afterwards.

Top pully cover is also easily removed and weighs a bit, could even take the motor out a sit is just 4 screws to loosen it complete with mounting plate and two connectors.

Hi Geoff, Replacing the torsion bar assy with a gas strut is a mod I have on my list, not just to improve the feel and balance of the head travel but as I found yesterday the slotted torsion bar can clash with the clamping rods and nuts. If you have a work piece set to the back of the table with clamping in the rear T slot and the head low down you can find the clamping running into the end of the torsion bar as the end of the bar pivots forward over the table when the head is low down. I got around it but its just worth noting.

Sorry Martin, this is your thread, I will shut up.

Ron

Edited By Ron Laden on 08/11/2018 14:43:37

Ron

Whilst I started the thread it isn't "mine" as much as about new milling machines. In that respect both you and Geoff have relevant experience and sharing of thoughts and ideas is always beneficial. I'm still very much a beginner.

Geoff

I was going to do a gas strut mod but lethargy overcame and it's not now relevant. DRO is certainly worth doing, mine is on order for delivery at the end of the month. I was lucky enough to have a go on a Bridgeport so fitted, going back to leadscrews dials is not attractive.

Jason

Thanks for the tips, the only really difficult part pf the journey is the landing floor to attic, my pal and I managed the SX2P upwards complete, I split the column from the base downwards and had no difficulty. The SX2.7 is that much heavier however the head and column sans motor should be manageable. Ketan cautioned me about removing the head from the column so I'm keen to avoid that if at all possible.

Regards

Martin

Since my post last week and Jason's helpful tips I have done some dismantling, principally to remove the top cover and motor, which does save a little bit of weight.The dowels in the column bottom seem strange, the hole in the column is vertical whilst that in the base is at an angle, so when you have extracted them, they are bent, go figure. Having said that they went back in with no problem. I also took off a lot of the bits to aid the cleaning process, I can understand why it's necessary but it really is an awful job. I managed to happily lift the head and column off the base and lay it down but I really wouldn't want to carry it any distance.

Sunday afternoon was spent very productively cleaning it all, and so yesterday my pal Derek came round. Now he is a typical west of Scotland character, shortish in stature, stockily built and with a major can do attitude, I invited him to test the weight, "nae problem pal, it'll be a scoosh", was his assured response. Actually getting it to the foot of the attic steps was easy enought, thereafter a bit of rope with me underneath it, guiding it to avoid damage and rest on alternate treads worked, it was somewhat nerve wracking, failure would cause major damage to me and the machine. Thankfully we got there, and the base was easy peasy. A picture of the machine on it's bench, which needs some additional bracing, I'm very pleased to have got here.

You'll notice I've gone the whole hog and fitted the Sieg X axis power feed, it works although probably not slowly enough for deep DOC in hard material, and to be fair Arc did point this out to me, but even so that's a whole less winding to do. I could I suppose have home brewed something for less money, but ultimately for me the hobby is not about machine tools, they just need to do a job, I can spend the time better.

A couple of thoughts, Sieg haven't improved their painting, the manual is riddled with errors, for example it tells me that the motor is retained by M6 by 14 screws, which in reality are M4 by 12. and that at first impressions it is a fine machine. I hope I have no cause to regret that.

Regards

Martin

Looks good Martin, but it’s too clean😂 well done on getting it up there. 👍

Cheers

Mark

Hi All,

Well after two weeks and a few small jobs I have to say I'm really pleased with the SX2P. It will certainly meet my needs for some years to come. 8.5 out of 10 at least.

Big downside, definitely the torsion arm. I can fully understand why owners are replacing with a gas strut. The strut gives stability through the full range of vertical travel, around 220mm.

As you can see I've replaced it already, the strut arrived yesterday and it was on the machine by 3pm,

I know Ron (Laden) will be interested as may others, The strut was supplied by SGS engineering, 15mm body and 6mm strut. The product code is GS6-15-220-250 and the load is 120 newtons. The end couplings selected were the ones coded T5. I had to shorten these to make the strut fit the space, no real problem.

I chose 120N as the from the reviews I had read the person who used 60N said it was not enough and Howard Winwood in his Arc review suggested his at 150 may possibly have been to much. I'm happy with the 120N

In case anyone is wondering, no, I did not take a chunk out of the vice. I inherited the vice some years ago, already damaged.

Geoff

Thanks Geoff for the details, I will get one on order and get it changed over.

Ron

Allendale have delivered the DRO kit, and it looks pretty good. The scales supplied are 800mm, 500mm, and 400mm, and whilst having to cater for a wide variety of machines, are a bit long for the SX2.7. I am going to use the 500 for the X, the 400 for the Z and the 800 will provide 300 for the Y with enough left over for the X on the lathe, if I fit that machine. That's todays plan but in truth I'm in a quandry with the Y axis fitting, so has anyone any pointers about this please?

Regards

Martin

I would have said down on the left hand side, the scale can fit to the cast base and there are two holes that could be used to mount the head which are what Sieg use for their own magnetic scales

Edited By JasonB on 30/11/2018 12:14:13

Thanks Jason, however my machine doesn't have those two holes, although drilling and tapping isn't really an issue. The sides of the base aren't perpendicular, visually it looks about 10deg inwards and M-DRO's literature states a tolerance of + or - 2 deg, so I guess a mounting block machined with a corresponding angled face is going to be needed.

Regards

Martin

In the month since the last post I have managed to fit the DRO and the X and Y axis scales and heads. The display unit on it's bracket was simple enough on the right hand side of the machine, but both X and Y brought issues to resolve. This is the X,

which required two holes in the saddle with the column immediately behind, not possessing a right angle drill and not really wanting to buy one I acquired a cheap right angle attatchment from Screwfix, pretty horrible thing but at £9.93 by far the cheapest option, it sufficed. The Y was not without a challenge,

the sides of the base are at 2.5 deg from perpendicular as best as I could measure so the mounting block required a similarly inclined face, I admit to three goes to achieve this with various set ups, fortunately the stock was well oversize. I got there in what should have been an unchallenging simple process, but I did struggle a bit in my head. My biggest fear was that through my own cackhandedness snapping off a tap, that would have been a disaster.

One interesting and for me annoying part of the Allendale package are the supplied mounting brackets, ideal for a Bridgeport but way oversize for an SX2.7, also whilst the scales are perfectly fine, if you couldn't utilise the offcuts on another machine then a lot is discarded. Having said all that, given that it is a no contact magnetic system it's forgiving, I reckon optical scales could be a major pain.

Regards

Martin

Edited By Martin Shaw 1 on 01/01/2019 18:59:21

Hi All,

I've been gear cutting on the SX2P this weekend.

This machine continues to surprise me, I thought that the set up in the photo would be overloading the motor and it would labour when cutting the spaces.

Not so, with the spindle running at it's slowest practical speed, around 80 r.p.m. it "chomped" through the cast iron gear blanks. Admittedly easy machining stuff, like meehanite but still impressive for such a small machine. The whole machine steady as a rock.

I had to fit a reversing switch first as it was necessary to run the spindle in reverse. You can see the switch in the photo. for SX2P owners out there fitting the switch is really simple, with all the materials to hand about 15 minutes work. For details of how to fit one go to this web site http://tinyurl.com/hdbk36t

Geoff

Why not just turn the cutter over and run normally?

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Good point, Andrew, normally that would be the answer.

My problem was that with the home made fixture you see in the photo I can only access the gear blank from one side and that meant the spindle had to run in reverse.

Geoff

Fair point, but could you turn the fixture round too? Although the indexing would be at the back it would still be fairly accessible.

Andrew

off topic but I've just noticed on this and previous pictures there is an item clamped across the vertical dovetail some inches below the head. Is this an end stop for some reason or a support for the head that is supposed to be snug up to the head? Just curious.

Its an adjustable end stop or limit stop as Sieg call it.

Going back to Geoff's comments about the reversing switch, I tried the web site but cant find the details. Any help on the wiring please as I would like to fit one.

Thanks Bob.

And yet the result seems to work ok. Funnily enough, a mate stripped his new Chinese mill down for its "pre-use" fettling and cleaning out the casting sand etc and found a similar thing. Holes in the column were reamed and holes in the casting were just drilled. Dowels had a definite ring around them where they had been smashed into the lower holes with some force.

Hi Bob,

For the reversing switch for the sx2p mini mill, google - Electronics- hacking the sx2 mini mill - that will get you the right page,

You will need a small on/on toggle switch, with 3 terminals, and a male plug to fit the spare socket on the circuit board. The plug I used was off an old r/c servo.

Read the article and you will see how simple it is to fit one.

Geoff