Quality issues with a SIEG SX2.7 mini mill

Anna,

Even though there are many of them in the UK part of the problem buying a better new machine is finding a supplier. They are often deliberately low-profile. However, on the web, Chester has a department selling better machines to industry and education. They might be worth a call.

You may already know that this level of purchase is unlikely to be an ordinary consumer transaction. Websites and catalogues don't give prices and negotiations normally begin by calling for a quote or requesting advice. Then you have grown-up conversations with sales and technical staff. Unfortunately for us many of these firms will only deal with organisations. It's because their experience shows most casual callers are time-wasters, not deliberately but private individuals out of their depth financially who are unable to cope with commercial 'Terms and Conditions'. One way to get past that obstacle is to declare your budget immediately, a 5 figure sum proves you're serious and opens most doors! Buck and Hickman are worth a look - they are 'retail' and they stock some better machines and give prices on their website.

Demand for high and mid-range manual machines is very low compared with that for CNC and it may be no-one stocks what you want in the UK. It might be necessary to get an importer like Mid Bucks Machine Tools to source the machine for you, or you could find an exporter in Taiwan. It will cost a bob or two and there will be paperwork!

It's certainly achievable though, quite a few Model Engineers live in countries without a machine tool retailer they can buy from locally. They jump through hoops buying hobby machines, let alone posher ones. More than one of the UK suppliers acts as an exporter in these cases.

Buying a new machine tool that ticks all your boxes will be expensive, £3500 is nowhere near enough to buy a certified milling machine new! Almost all the forum members who own quality kit bought it second-hand, and that may be your best bet too.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 21/02/2019 16:35:24

Dave, thank you for your reply.

The machine I was looking at Precision Mathews (9/35 VS mill) is circa 6200 dollars + additions and I suspect that would translate to circa £6200 sterling as machinery seems to be more expensive here. It is the only small machine I know where the head nods in the X and Y axis, it is a scaled down Bridgeport lookalike. with similar features. Not cheap but a good halfway house compared with the prices of the premium makers. Having written that I do not know that any of the premium brands still make small manual machines. I will investigate your suggestions ,

Thank you.

Anna

Hi Anna,

Not come across Precision Matthews in the USA before, but reading their website reminds me of Optimum in Germany. Optimum machines are typical Far Eastern except they claim German inspection standards have been applied.

Bit more expensive than usual and there have been posts discussing whether or not they are worth the extra money. My feeling is they are much the same machines as usual, but have been selected and mildly fettled upwards within a price. Trouble with fitting machines rather than making them throughout with precision technique in the first place is labour costs are so high you don't get much fettling for your money. If a cheap machine needs fitting, better to do it yourself, but of course not everyone wants to do that or accepts it's anything other than a d****d con-trick.

Precision Matthews warranty makes an interesting read. It includes: 'Warranty covers parts only, service is not covered under the warranty. The customer is responsible to perform their own repair work, or they can choose to hire someone at their expense. Again, warranty does not cover labor or service, any warranty is for parts only. To obtain warranty repair parts, please contact us, and we will instruct you to send the part that you think is defective to us for inspection. If we determine that the part is defective, the defective part will be repaired or replaced at no charge to you.' This is poor stuff compared with the warranty provided by a UK supplier!

If you've not come across Optimum already, may be worth a look. If so order quickly in case "It Who Must Not Be Named" goes pear-shaped, only 906 hours to go...

Dave

Dave although PM do the Weiss machines they also have a better range which is what Anna is looking at. Their "Blue Machining" group is handy for any users of the Weiss (Warco etc) type machines.

Thanks Jason - I missed that completely!

Hello Jason.

Thanks for that, not heard of the "Blue machining" group sounds interesting,

Thank you

Anna

sent this earlier but it didn't appear so might end up as double post

This is the link to it, could risk some "interesting" results if you use Google

Hi,Jason.

Many thanks

Anna

Probably a high point to end this thread.

It's drifted along way from Piotr's issues and the temperature has been rather high at times.

If anyone tries these more 'upscale' machines it will be interesting to see their thoughts in a new thread.

Neil