Search Results for 'arc euro'

[Steve WithnellParticipant @stevewithnell34426]

On the Chester site the micro mill is quoted as having a B10 taper – Arceurotrade’s is quoted as having a JT1 spindle taper. Which model of machine have you got?

 

MT2 and MT3 tooling is exceptionally popular, you should have no difficulty in picking up the right bits – Arceurotrade is a good place to look (satisfied customer…) Drawbars – I’ve used threaded bar from the hardware shp with a nut on the end. Nothing clever here.

 

 

Steve

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Just a heads up, Arceuro are doing an introduction to CNC on Saturday 20th August at their Syston, Leicester depot.

 

Limited to 6 people and I think they have two already , more details on their web site.

 

Link on the right hand side of this notice.

 

John S.

[Alex DU PRE 1Participant @alexdupre1]

Hi, I have an X3 milling machine from Arc Euro Trade. If you are interested, I have a short review of it on my personal model engineering website, http://www.amdcustom.com.

Just follow the link under Equipment Reviews.

I would also add to the review, that even a machine this size (500W motor, or so), REALLY struggles to drive a 10mm cutter through steel at anything like a decent depth of cut. It’s pretty good with aluminium. You either need patience or a bigger machine if you want to do serious metal removal!

 

I hope this is of some interest.

 

Alex.

[EtheAv8rParticipant @etheav8r]

Not that I am any expert, but if I were going to buy a small mill, it would be the Super X2 Plus from Arc Euro, and as a beginner get the preparation service so it is all set up and ready to run on delivery.

 

When I was still deciding what to get, if I had gone for a manual mill, it would have been the Sieg Super X3. However I went mad and got the KX3.

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

Might be worth looking at Arc Euro Trade’s new Sieg Super X2 plus mill at around £515.

 

These use a new 500W motor (350W originally) and the larger table from the X1 series mills Arc supply. Also, they don’t have the two-speed gearbox, using instead electronics for a speed range of 100-2500 rpm. Which suggests that they may not be affected by the gear breaking problem or the electronic failure problem.

 

And if you go for their preparation service at £155 (£670 total) then you should be assured of a reasonably good working machine right from the start.

 

Anyway, good luck in your quest,

 

Peter G. Shaw

[SteambuffParticipant @steambuff]

Remember to look at the Sieg ones. (I seem to remember that some of the Clarkes ones are Siegs in a different colour)

 

Axminster and Arc Euro Trade sell the Sieg models. (Arc Euro Trade also offer an optional preperation service, where the Mill is stripped down and setup correctly)

 

I ordered a X1L from Arc Euro Trade with the optional preperation option. (Not long to wait now for it to be delivered)

 

Dave

 

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

Hi,

 

I have the Warco MiniMill.

 

What follows is an honest description of what I have found on my mill. It has to be said that whilst some of the problems do appear to be common to this series of mills, indeed I do wonder if they may be common to Chinese machines full stop, I have to admit that I could just have a bad one. Somehow I do not think so!

 

I bought this mill because I felt that it was a weight that I could physically handle (clean forgetting that I could dismantle it), because it has the 3MT headstock which matched my lathe, and because it has a square column thus avoiding the loss of registration which can occur with round column mills.

 

Although this is not a Sieg X2, it is of a similar design and has at least one of the X2 known problems: plastic gear breakages. Fortunately Arc Euro Trade do replacement metal gears (look under C3 lathe spares). Alternatively, you could fit a belt drive as some people have. The other known X2 problem, that of electronic board failure may not apply as this mill has an uprated motor as against the original X2, hence I assume it has an uprated electronic board – at least mine hasn’t yet failed. Since buying mine, I have become aware that there are at least two versions of the electronic board.

 

In terms of sliding surface finish and accuracy, my machine leaves a lot to be desired. To be blunt, I think it has been a Chinese confidence trick as all the easily visible sliding surfaces, column, saddle and underneath the table are very nicely finished and smooth. However, the matching surfaces of the moving parts have been finished off with an angle grinder. These surfaces cannot be seen unless the machine is dismantled.

 

The table on my machine is warped. Actually, I think it is not so much warped as been ground wrongly as as far as I can tell both the table and the dovetails underneath are concave. I have not yet been able to check the saddle or column. I have a friend with the same mill and as far as I can tell, he also has warping but nowhere near as bad as mine. Regrinding will cost in the region of £80.

 

Main bearings grease was just about dried out, as were those on a friends MiniMill. Also some people don’t like the factory bearings and replace them with better quality ones.

 

The return spring idea is not very good which is why certain people with the same or similar mills have replaced it with a gas strut. Apparently one from a small Peugeot car is ideal. Also, one advantage of fitting a gas strut is that it allows for a slight increase in operating height, but it does then need the rack extending.

 

Apparently as well, the column is thought to be weak. Some people have stiffened it by adding various bits of metal. A trawl around the internet should reveal some of the ideas.

 

I, and I know other people have also done this, have now embarked on an exercise to improve the mill by correcting all the known deficiencies. In my case this is likely to be a long, long exercise.

Hope this helps.

 

Peter G. Shaw

[michael howarth 1Participant @michaelhowarth1]

I have a Warco WM14 with which I am quite pleased. It seemed to offer good value for money at the time my wife bought it for me, and crucially it fitted into the little space that I have available. I believe that the spec has since improved eg digital speed readout and a decent quill handle . I did have a few peripheral problems in the first couple of weeks but these were sorted out by Warco with little fuss.

 

I have done some quite useful work on the machine but on occasion I could do with a bigger table with more traverse both X and Y. As I build Gauge 1 stuff it generally does the job with room to spare. I think the machine is accurate and is enjoyable to work on. The motor is powerful enough but the drive to the quill is a plastic helical gear. The first one that the machine had failed quickly and badly but was replaced by Warco without problem. The replacement was 3 mm thicker than the original and after 2 years shows no signs of wear…so I put this down to a rogue piece slipping in at the factory. The machine has a tilting head which facility I very rarely use although it is quite easy to reset accurately. The slide protector, a piece of rubber is absolute rubbish and I replaced mine with some concertina stuff from Arc Euro.

 

Whilst the mini mills all seem to be much the same I would advise a careful look at the various specifications to make sure that they will handle work that you forsee and perhaps do not yet forsee.

 

 

 

 

[EtheAv8rParticipant @etheav8r]

Had my new Sieg KX3 and stand and other necessary bits all delivered from Arc Euro two weeks ago (only a week after ordering). I initially removed all the outside casing and installed the stand and built the PC the next weekend weekend, but left the mill sat on its pallet. This Sunday I borrowed an engine hoist and got the mill up onto the stand and bolted down, cleaned up (not a lot of shipping gunge to remove actually), connected up PC and got ready for initial setup.

I was ready to test it out late Sunday night. Had a quick try using the Jog function using the Up/Down, Left/Right and Page Up/Page Down keys on the keyboard and the Z axis goes up and down, and faster with the Shift key held down, Y Axis moved back and forward and faster with the Shift key held down, but the X axis does not move (but there was a change in the ‘hissing’ sound from the controller and the DRO displayed it as moving), but it did move OK at full speed with the Shift key pressed, but the spindle did not spin up at all when started, so there was a bit of setup to go through. It was now 23:20 and time to retire.

Next step was to go through the setup FACs made available by John Stevenson on the smallcncsupport site, and hopefully get it all sorted and ready to run!

I managed to get out to the workshop last night for an hour and went throught the FAQs re machine setup. All the issues now resolved, everything working, table and head all now move in correct direction (all three needed reversing) and all jog slow and fast with the shift key now the motor tuning numbers have been corrected and the step pulse width has been upped to 5 (some were 2). All three stop at limits and jog off after Reset hit (previously had to power off mill and wind the X axis off the switch and then power back on).

A quick distance move check looks OK but was not accurately done, I just wanted to see if it was close or way out, it is close and hopefully bang on!

I need to determine if spindle RPM is correct…. need to find a tach that will help here, but so far all is looking promising.

Thank you John for your FAQs and documented assistence here; without which initial setup would probably be a bit of a nighmare!

So far I think I have made a good decision to go with this set-up.

[EtheAv8rParticipant @etheav8r]

Posted by ady on 26/07/2011 12:02:36:

They still do “new / old” desktop systems on ebay, I suppose because they are still perfectly adequate for business purposes and netsurfing.

 

Seventy quid, including postage here for this one.

 

I’m still running on my old 1.4GHZ stuff from around 2000.

Yes indeed, for my new Sieg KX3 from ARC Euro I got myself a Dell Optiplex 745 with Intel Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz CPU and 2GB RAM for under £60 delivered from ebay. Found a Matrox video card in the bin at work that functions just fine.

 

I am now on the lookout for a touch screen to complete the system, but will use an old 15″ monitor until then.

 

I did consider Syil…. and other options, but the setup around the KX3 from Arc Euro seemed so much better (they seemed – and so far have been – such nice, helpful folks) and as John says above, some savings are just not worth making!

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

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Solid carbide boring bars

 

John S.

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Pailo,

 

£12 is agreat deal for that. I have paid much more in the past, but have since discovered that you can get them very from Arc Euro Trade for a fraction of the price the spares websites charge.

 

I had trouble with one internal bearing that had disintegrated leaving the outer race jammed in place. I used a mini-tool (like a dremel) with a cutting disc to cut an angled slit in the race, it used two or three discs but I got it out.

 

The problem with washing machines is under-spec bearings and dodgy seals in an extreme environment.

 

They could use decent bearings and build them to last, but its not in their interests to do that!

 

Neil

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Another one here of a different style a bit larger so you can make a choice.

 

C6 Milling table

 

Towards the bottom.

 

John S.

Edited By John Stevenson on 20/07/2011 23:14:47

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

Could you run to a C3 mini-lathe from somewhere like Arceurotrade or Chester etc?

The advantage is their popularity and range of accessories. Commonly available tooling is a plus point too.

 

 

Martin.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

CoalBurner says: “Many of the chinese lathes are getting very close to an ideal machine, build quality aside!”

… which nicely sums up the essence of our problem.

As John Ruskin is oft-quoted:

1. ?There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey.?

2. “The bitterness of poor quality Lingers long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”

There are excellent notes on the “preparation” reqiured before use of the Chinese machines, on ArcEuroTrade’s site.
… for proper comparison, we must include the cost of doing this work.

MichaelG.

[Roger WoollettParticipant @rogerwoollett53105]

Why not take the opportunity to actually advance the technology:

Use a brushless DC motor with variable speed control like Arc Euro’s recent offerings.

Scrap the change gears and fit a stepper motor to the leadscrew giving any pitch or feed rate you care to dial in.

Fit DROs to the saddle and cross slide as part of the design rather than as a bolt on extra.

[EtheAv8rParticipant @etheav8r]

Andrew – That is just what I had been thinking/hoping… I will post once I have it running and have a little experience with it.

 

The KX3 was delivered on Saturday morning (great service from Arc Euro) and is sitting on it’s pallet in my workshop at the moment. The Dell PC I got on ebay arrived Saturday as well, and I have reformatted the hard disk and installed XP, optimised services, disabled network and audio in BIOS, cleaned up Resgistey, installed proper defrag tool etc. then installed Mach3 and Sieg KX3 5000 configuration files, and will add Cut2D, but driver test returned the required results. I still need a monitor for the PC in the workshop…. and hope to fine a second-hand touch screen jobbie.

 

I was concerned about the minimum speed of 500RPM, but am informed that with small cutters it will not be an issue?????

[chris stephensParticipant @chrisstephens63393]

Hi John,

Indeed that was true but, now that they have gone, don’t forget that ArcEuro kindly gave us a fully kitted Mini-lathe which we take to shows. At some of those shows we can even let beginners have a bit of hands on experience. Isn’t that right Diane, I hope the kids enjoyed it.?

 

If one of the pre-owned machine dealers, who are going to Sandown this year, want to have one of their lathes demonstrated I am sure we could oblige.

chriStephens

[RobboParticipant @robbo]

These days, for a light infestation of the rust bug, I prefer the de-rusting stuff sold by ArcEuroTrade, it’s thick and sticky rather than liquid, and its applied with a nylon scouring pad, so no danger of scratching the metal underneath.

 

Have found my Arc catalogue, its called “Restore Rust Remover Gel” A bit pricy at £14.50 for 250 ml, but it goes a long way because it can’t drip off.

 

Hope this helps

 

Phil

 

Sorry, forgot this :   http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk 

Edited By Robbo on 15/07/2011 23:37:49

[BogstandardParticipant @bogstandard]

Having used 5C on mill and lathe for many years, I personally wouldn’t bother.

 

With a small V block and an engineers square, you can do the same thing that they do but with round, hex or square bar, just using your mill vice.

 

The most useful 5C item I use on the mill are the pair of collet blocks, one square, one hexagonal. Just grip them in the vice, set horizontal or vertical or even at an angle. Much more versatile.

 

5th item down, 5C collet block set.

 

http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Collets/5C-Fixtures

 

 

John

 

 

[EtheAv8rParticipant @etheav8r]

OK, current state of play is that I am leaning towards getting a CNC mill rather than just a plain manual mill. If I do go for a manual mill it will probably be an Arc Euro prepared Sieg Super X3, though the Amadeal AMA25LV with 3 axis DRA and Powerfeed for similar money does look great value.

On the CNC side I had thought that converting the Sieg Super X3 with a Syil conversion kit from Amadeal might be a possibility, it is certainly the most cost effective route, but on reflection would involve some additional risk, invalidate the warranty on the mill and result in potential support issues with two different supplied involved – plus I would rather have an integrated ready to roll solution.
The Sieg KX3 bundle from ARC Euro is a bit out of my budget, but doable and possibly the best option, but I have been offered a used (but not for long) Optimum BF20 Vario with Syil CNC complete with 4th axis rotary accessory that comes in at a lot less than the KX3.

 

Can anyone comment on the BF20 Vario? It retains full manual control via handles on the stepper motors, but I believe I can affectively achieve manual control via the Mach3 software, so the only advantage is I have true manual control without having to run the PC. Downside is lower top speed (2500 rpm), MT2 tooling taper and possibly less power and a much less tidy installation, upside is backgear giving good low speed (50 rpm) torque, lighter, 4th axis included and a lot less money.

 

I will make my decision based on any comments/advise here plus mt visit to Arc Euro on Saturday….

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Or buy one of these.

 

5C to ER32 so no gaps from 0.5mm up to 20mm and the equivalent in imperial.

 

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[Peter BellParticipant @peterbell11509]

 

Following on with this theme of Euro Arc spindles does anyone have any experience of fiitting one of the ER16 (0.75kw, 1hp) spindles to a KX3, or of know of anything to avoid when doing this?

 

Peter

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

I too have had my eyes on a mill, the one I am looking at is the Wabeco with a longer table.

It is available with motorised feeds but at a cost.

I even have a PC ready for it.

As a first timer you may as well jump straight in at the deep end as cnc has a steep learning curve but as stated the mach 3 software is intuitive and will lead you through the most difficult processes.

Higher spindle speeds are a must as you may sometimes need to engrave legend on parts or even cut house name plates for a fee.

It would seem there is a long delivery time on any mill that you may order so bear that in mind as you make your choice.

Mention has been made of allowing for the cost of accessories for the mill. Clamping sets and rotary tables come to mind.

As an aside, all my working life I have had access to machinery and it is only now when I am retired that I need that access but will now have to buy my own machines.

There is nothing like ‘Hands on’ when making a choice of machine and you have done right by going on the Arc Euro demo day. Ask all the right questions and look carefully at the machine to make sure it covers all your requirements.

Again as an aside, If I could afford it, I would buy a Schaublin 13 or later number mill. but would need to win the Euro Lottery for that.

 

Clive

[EtheAv8rParticipant @etheav8r]

Pete

 

From the model milling aspect it would be more helicopter parts than fixed wing, but to be honest I really don’t know where this will all lead, I am just off on an adventure and following a path that leads to I don’t know where and I just love making stuff and then using it. This is how I ended up bulding and flying my own 2 seat light aircraft….

 

Is there any reason why a CNC mill cannot be used as an occasional CNC router for ply and carbon sheet? Surely they mill has more cabability than the router?

 

All this is leading me down the CNC route and I have booked myself into the Arc Euro CNC demo day next Saturday.

Edited By EtheAv8r on 01/07/2011 09:40:27