Another new mill

[Mark Elen 1Participant @markelen1]

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

Cheers

Mark

[geoff walker 1Participant @geoffwalker1]

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

[Ron LadenParticipant @ronladen17547]

Posted by geoff walker 1 on 22/11/2018 12:36:59:

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

[Martin Shaw 1Participant @martinshaw1]

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

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

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

[Martin Shaw 1Participant @martinshaw1]

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

[Martin Shaw 1Participant @martinshaw1]

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

[geoff walker 1Participant @geoffwalker1]

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

[Anonymous]

Why not just turn the cutter over and run normally?

Andrew

[geoff walker 1Participant @geoffwalker1]

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

[Anonymous]

Posted by geoff walker 1 on 10/03/2019 13:00:24:

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

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

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.

[Ron LadenParticipant @ronladen17547]

Posted by Bazyle on 10/03/2019 15:29:31:

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.

[BOB BLACKSHAW 1Participant @bobblackshaw1]

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.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by Martin Shaw 1 on 15/11/2018 22:20:19:

…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.

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.

[geoff walker 1Participant @geoffwalker1]

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

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