Chester Conquest mini mill

Hello John,

I had great success with a bracket on my X2, but one day I will probably fit the upgrade.

Give Arc a call and ask if the column will fit a Chester X2?

Neil

Edited By John Murphy 3 on 04/05/2018 10:23:15

I bought an X2 mill a few years back which came with the fixed column in place. It still needed to be removed and shimmed slightly to get it trammed correctly. That may be what they are thinking.

Russell

Hello John M,

You probably spoke with our Ian yesterday. He is on holiday today, so I cant check with him. Anyway, if he talked about machining/filing/scraping, he was referring to the base of the column and/or the base on which the column sits.

If you were put off, then you might need to consider shimming in between the base and the column. All of this depends on your engineering knowledge/ability/experience. Also, it depends on what parentage the machine from Chester is, i.e. is it from SIEG or not. If it is from SIEG, less work may need to be done. If from some other factory, then more work may need to be done. All depends on your skill. Playing with the dovetails 'might be' an issue.

With reference to your point 2 - specifically for the X2 (not the SX2, as it has a belt drive): motor is controlled by the control board, but it would be wrong to say and presume that the gears will not break as a result of this. The nylon gears are sacrificial, designed to break in case of overload, in turn trying to protect the control board. It is not a 'full fail safe?' system, and in certain cases, under certain circumstances, there could still be damage to components on the control board, due to certain overload events, and/or user related issues.

Your point: ' If so are there mods that can be done to get the the full power for the motor.' - straight answer : the motor and control board combination as supplied is correct. Any thought of changes or tweaking of the control board to increase speed will result in loss of torque or vise versa, and should be removed out of ones thought process. Also, there is a firm relationship between 'electrical' and 'mechanical'. Changes in the electrical can adversely effect the mechanical.

Belt conversion: there are good, bad and ugly kits out there. If you have good engineering knowledge - well and good. If you are thinking of DIY without knowledge, results could be good or bad.

Flycutting : one of the biggest causes of breaking gears/control boards,... mainly due to lack of knowledge of limitations, of feed, speed and depth of cuts when using fly cutters on different materials.

Ketan at ARC.

I scraped the bottom of the right angle bracket for the tilting column anyway, which improved rigidity and alignment. The three fixings almost in a straight line design is not the best... even if the new column is dead on the base may not be perfect. The scraping doesn't need to be pretty, just see which way it needs to go for improved accuracy and keep removing material gradually until you get as large a contact patch as possible. I used the end of a bar of HSS, you need to keep resharpening it!

You can see my bracket and spacer arrangement in the pics. The bracket is 5mm thick steel (with a plastic coating - originally the base of a tall loudspeaker), but plenty stiff enough. Files the spacers to be a close fit. Make sure the M10 fixing holes are aligned with the maximum meat in the base casting

I also did a belt drive conversion and angular contact bearing swap at the same time.

This was written up in MEW in full, issue 199/201, before I became ed.

Neil

Edited By John Murphy 3 on 04/05/2018 11:31:13

My DIY belt conversion definitely comes into the 'ugly' category, it did reduce the top speed a bit, but IMHO it greatly improved the machine - I prefer a bit of belt slip top a broken gear

The original X2 as supplied has ample power for its rigidity; possibly a solid column modded machine could use more power, but if forking out for upgrading column, belt drive and motor/speed controller at the same time, why not just buy an SX3, sell the X2 to cover most of the difference and be done with it?

Neil

Ummm, looking at it, there is a 90% chance it is a SIEG. Difficult to be 100% sure.

Is that the specific one you are intending to buy, at that price?.... if so, and if you are considering fixed column and belt drive conversions, then I believe that you should review your total costs in components and labour needed to carry out the work, and see if it is really worth it, for you. Also, only consider to do these modifications if really necessary - in your particular case, after you have got used to the machine and its limitations.

Ketan at ARC

John M,

I think the Chester machine you linked to with 460x120 table is like to be SIEG X2L as in this link, rather than the original X2 base, which is different.

If so, then you will probably need the column which fits on the SX2LF machine Part SX2LF-53.

However, the mounting holes for the column on the base of your machine may or may not be the same, as the mounting holes on your machine are designed for the tilting column casting to fit on it, where as the mounting holes on the fixed column are designed to fit directly to the base of a fixed base design. If this is what you find, then you may have to make an adapter plate to deal with this. We have not come across the SIEG X2L machine, so we are unable to guide on this.

Ketan at ARC.

Edited By John Murphy 3 on 04/05/2018 19:39:27

Edited By John Murphy 3 on 04/05/2018 19:54:30

Also I'm missing the left hand side table cover plate. The previous owner took it off and lost it. Was easier for him to clean chips out of the table. Was this plastic or metal??

Edited By John Murphy 3 on 04/05/2018 19:52:31

Edited By John Murphy 3 on 04/05/2018 20:05:25

John M,

Your comment: 'I noticed all the gib strips where not machined correctly for the gib screws , so I'll sort that before I put the table back on'

My suggestion: make vertical slots where ever the dimples on the gib are. This will allow the grub screw to locate more easily in the slot rather than a dimple which may be higher or lower than the centre of the gib. If this fails, then you can consider re-drilling and tapping new holes in the casting, next to the original holes.. more in line with the centre of the gib.

Your comment: 'But I'd imagine it still would not be as rigid as the solid column'

The tilting column box section is between 4mm to 6mm thick. I designed and commissioned the fixed column, originally as a component to make the SX2P, which I wanted made. The fixed column is approximately 10mm thick box section. It was designed by me, drawn up by a wiz SIEG mechanical engineer-designer on some sophisticated CAD within 30 mins... then it took a further days convincing and negotiating with the GM, to make. So, the answer to your comment is - YES - the fixed column is rigid.

Your comment: 'What can these little mills DOC be in steel and aluminium? With let's say a 4 flute 10mm end mill'

The DOC is dependent on various factors, based on your motor/torque/hi/low gear in your case, feed, speed, cutter grade/quality/coated/un-coated, quality/grade of material being milled, with or without coolant, and finally what your expectations are. It is a process of experimentation

Generally, I would start experimenting with 0.5mm depth for Steel, 1mm depth for Aluminium, checking the feel and finish, and then proceeding to deeper depths between 1 to 2mm for Steel and 2mm to 3mm for Aluminium, and so on, depending on factors mentioned above. For a more qualified idea, you would need to get a response from real users, such as Neil and Russel, who have similar or variants of SIEG mini-mills. Neils machine has the same motor as yours I think.

Regarding the table end cover plate, although I have not come across your table version, if the right hand side plate is metal, then the left hand side will be metal.

Ketan at ARC.

John M,

Looking at the picture of your mill, I am not sure but it looks like you have a milling cutter held in a drill chuck. If this is the case then it is a bad idea holding a milling cutter in a drill chuck. If it is a drill bit which you are holding in a drill chuck, then my observation is retracted, and maybe I need new glasses.

Ketan at ARC.

Hi John M. I have a Chester Conquest mill. It too has the bigger table on it. I have fitted a 2 pulley drive belt system. It works a dream and also gives the option of 2 speed ranges. The table end plate should be metal and contains a bush to hold up the lead screw. As for the column, I have had the machine since new and apart from resetting the vertical tram when I got it I have had no further problems of alignment with it. I might get to make a strengthening bracket one day. I have made a lot of items including 8 BXA tool holders and all the parts for my dividing head without any problems. BUT remember it is a small mill so be conservative with the cuts you take. I have used up to 20mm cutters despite all the comments across the web that this is not possible. It all depends on how you treat the machine as far as I am concerned. I have fitted mine with 3 axis DRO and power table feed & rev counter.

All in all an excellent little machine but I do now have a larger mill for bigger jobs but the Chester is my go too machine for most things that I do.

I agree with Ketan, do not hold cutters in your chuck when you have a collet chuck lying there

regards

Edited By Oldiron on 04/05/2018 22:34:12

Edited By Oldiron on 04/05/2018 22:35:25

Hi John M

It appears from your picture that the ER collet chuck, with a milling cutter in, does not have the collet correctly inserted in the collet nut. If that is the case the collet will not self extract and the cutter may not run true.
Dennis

Edited By Dennis R on 04/05/2018 23:00:50

Fingers crossed on DOC. If you were able to take 0.2mm DOC on your lathe on steel, there could be various reasons, including grade of steel. Some grades of steel will mill better than others, but I would be the wrong person to ask about steel grades.

ARC does not sell the end bracket/plate for your table. Have a chat with Tony at Chester and see if he can help you. Make sure you identify the table dimensions to him. Alternatively, ask Oldiron if he can send you details/pictures, and see if you can make one.

Ketan at ARC.