Sieg bevel wedge

[Adam MaraParticipant @adammara]

Getting my head round my new Sieg SX2.7 mill, I noticed that that there are no traditional 'gib' strips and adjusting screws. The maunual lists them in the spare parts as bevel wedge and a wedge locking crown bar, the manual is very sparse and no mention of how future adjustments are carried out. Never come across these before, can anybody enlighten me on how it works and how to adjust them?

[Adam MaraParticipant @adammara]

Advice for a beginner!

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

They work much like a "folding wedge" one surface is tapered and the gib strip has a matching taper. the screws at the end are used to move the strip along and as it moves it applies even pressure along the whole length rather than at points like traditional screws do.

If you look up "tapered gibs" that should give you some more info on how they are adjusted. but basically you loosen the screw at one end and use the other to move the tapered gib to the desired fit and then nib up the first screw again to hold it in place

Edited By JasonB on 05/06/2018 09:41:55

[NigeParticipant @nige81730]

Adam: I'm glad you asked that question as I too have a new Sieg mill and wasn't aware of the gib setup on these. I agree about the manual being very sparse, you have to 'know stuff' to perform basic functions 😊 I bought the mill with an R8 taper and glad I had asked about the differences between that and Morse tapers. ER32 collets are new to me as well but on investigating the set I got with the mill I find they are very similar to the collet setup in my Trend woodworking router. Lots of new stuff to get to grips with made easier by the helpful folk here when you can't find non confusing answers elsewhere 😊

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Tapered gib strips were always used on "better" machines so it's a nice touch

One advantage was less downtime when a tweak was needed

Edited By Ady1 on 05/06/2018 10:48:37

[Adam MaraParticipant @adammara]

Thank you Jason, now I understand how it works!

Nige; mine's also a R8 but had an existing MT3 – ER20 collet chuck with collets, got an adaptor off Ebay and it works fine. Its a very different machine to my SX2, and I have a lot to learn, I was going to sell the SX2, but after consulting management decided to keep it as drilling on the SX2.7 is a bit of a bind. The DRO will have to go on my birthday present list!

[NigeParticipant @nige81730]

Adam: DRO, I'm hoping that somebody will come up with a mod to fit a DRO to the SX2.7 in the not too distant future. The Sieg seems to have clear space in the places you would mount the necessary kit but I'm not experienced enough, or brave enough for that mattter, to experiment with that job yet 😀

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Well if you two keep hinting to Ketan that you need to know how to fit a DRO he may just send me one to go into the series

Adam, what do you find is a bind about drilling? I hardly use the drill press for drilling these days preferring to do it all on the mill.

[Adam MaraParticipant @adammara]

Jason, I am making an aluminium box at present, around a 125mm cube, if I have drilled a piece of flat strip, then want to drill a hole in the box its quite a few turns to reach the required height its a lot easier on the SX2! I have only had it 6 days, and a complete amateur, so its a long slow learning curve. I also have a large garden to maintain, and I don't get as many hours practice as I would like!

This is how amateur I am, the SX2.7 arrived last Wednesday at 9.50am, great all day to sort it out. The driver placed in my garage using his electric pallet truck, that was easy. Great excitement as it was unpacked and inspected and knobs twiddled, son in law was due to come round and help move it pm. With time to spare connected up to try it out, switched on the lights on the panel came on 0000 speed, great. Pressed go, nothing, re read instructions and no joy, quick phone call to ARC and spoke to Ian, who said it could be a loose connection, Unscrewed the panel, pressed all the connectors, still no joy. back panel off, and a wire had come out of the crimp on the push on connector. Crimped it, but it still would not work, so started to check all connections, it was then I alighted on the chuck cover interlock, a light bulb moment, the cover was open! Closed it, and it worked.

My excuse is that there is nothing in the instruction to tell you about the interlock, and my SX2 has no such feature, I felt a right wally! Bet they had a laugh at ARC about it!

[Ketan SwaliParticipant @ketanswali79440]

Posted by Adam Mara on 05/06/2018 13:14:49:

My excuse is that there is nothing in the instruction to tell you about the interlock, and my SX2 has no such feature, I felt a right wally! Bet they had a laugh at ARC about it!

Would we really do that?

I am still in two minds about the DROs. The last time we did a lovely glass scales kit for the X/SX3, only the light industrial buyers bought them, as it was considered to be too costly for the hobby guys.

Having regularly read threads on the subject to fitting 'good – glass scales' , most hobby customers prefer to figure out their own set-up by buying from places like eBay.

However, I am still exploring the kit ideas from SIEG – for magnetic scales. My first concern for their offering of magnetic scales was stability. I believe that most of the gremlins in this particular area have now been ironed out. If a good price solution can be offered by them, I would prefer to consider the dedicated remote display which goes with them, rather than the blue tooth version. The blue tooth version works well, but I am uncertain about the 'learning curve' a customer would have to go through if and when connected to an android tablet/phone. Also, it is not available for Apple

Ketan at ARC.

[Brian GParticipant @briang]

My son's X2.7L has a pair (so far) of remote reading scales (as sold by Arc and Warco). One fitted to the back of the table with a length of aluminium angle sandwiched between the mountings and the bed for protection. The angle fits flush with the top of the table and still allows it to go all the way back under the Z axis bellows, but stops the movement before we crush anything. The other axis was much simpler as there is plenty of room on the left of the base.

We built an Arduino based Touch DRO interface for the scales (Micro USB breakout boards make for easy connections to stripboard) but have had a few issues. My elderly Acer tablet keeps losing the bluetooth connection, whilst my son's Samsung connects but doesn't offer the settings menu, so currently it works with my phone – far less convenient due to the small display, but much more reliable. A Kindle Fire is on the shopping list as this is supposed to work well. As soon as we have a permanent solution it will be time to print a housing rather than just leave the board and phone on the bench alongside the mill.

Brian

[SamsarandaParticipant @samsaranda]

Ketan, I fitted DRO to my Champion V20 mill, I used the glass scales supplied by Machine DRO the only critical point to get right is the length of scales required. Fitting required only basic drilling and tapping skills, whole fit was easy and the finished result gave me the best improvement that I have carried out in my workshop to date, next to tackle is DRO’s on the lathe, probably a bit more required than on the mill. No experience of magnetic scales must research them.

Dave W

[Ketan SwaliParticipant @ketanswali79440]

Indeed, I understand the options available for the hobby market.

One can have a look at this page. This gives one an idea of the kind of kits available for X/SX2.7/L

Average price for such a kit would be currently around the GBP420.00 inc.vat which would include the dedicated display system (not the bluetooth system)

Considering all the options available to the hobby user, how many people would consider paying this?

Ketan at ARC.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Brian G on 05/06/2018 16:15:16:

My son's X2.7L has a pair (so far) of remote reading scales (as sold by Arc and Warco). One fitted to the back of the table with a length of aluminium angle sandwiched between the mountings and the bed for protection. The angle fits flush with the top of the table and still allows it to go all the way back under the Z axis bellows, but stops the movement before we crush anything. The other axis was much simpler as there is plenty of room on the left of the base.

Exactly how I have capacitative scales fitted to my X2.

Neil

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

If you are going to be spending that much you may as well spend a little more and get a fully functioning display from one of the UK suppliers or take your chance with similar direct from overseas.

The Sieg "kits" don't look to be anything specific for their machines with the smaller brackets being fairly universal so end user would still have to do the fitting in much the same way.

Don't really see the point of the Bluetooth as by the time you have got a dedicated tablet which is the more sensible option and a power supply and bracket for it you have not saved a lot. You still have all the wires to the read heads plus their power supply and transciver so actually end up with more wires and transformers than a single unit.

Now when are you going to stock the power drawbar and powered head rise & fall

[SamsarandaParticipant @samsaranda]

Having viewed the SIEG reference in Ketan’s post the scales appear to be much neater and by virtue of their size then easier to fit, would need to check prices in order to compare with glass scales.

Dave W

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Ketan gave the price he would have to retail them at – £420

Having seen other photos of the read heads I would be worried about swarf getting between the scale and head particularly on the x axis, they just have wipers on the end but nothing to stop muck dropping straight down.

[Author]

Posts