The Sieg X2 mini mill is known by many names. Grizzly G8689, Harbor freight 44991, little machine shop 3900, Micro mark 84630 as well as models formerly offered by Central tool, Homier and Cummins. They are all the same mill with a few small variations. The most important of which is whether it comes equiped with a R-8 or MT-3 spindle. The R-8 is the preferred spindle due to the fact that there is more and cheaper tooling available for it.
These are nice little mills for small work, right out of the box, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. The purpose of this thread is to discuss these mods. Searching the net I have found many great threads dedicated to hotrodding these mills. One of the best sites is Tooling, parts, and accessories for bench top machinists - LittleMachineShop.com
This site is all about mini mills and lathes. They offer a ton of reference material as well as stock and upgraded parts.
reference section Reference - LittleMachineShop.com
I have ordered from them several times. great service and same day shipping
The biggest Achilles heel regarding the accuracy of these machines is the column attachment point. The column is designed to tilt 45 degrees both left and right. To accomplish this the attachment is limited to one big bolt in the center of the column, not solid enough for really precision work.
This seems to be the problem that most owners tackle first. About 2/3rds of the way down this page, you will find several different approaches to remedy this. Shop Info
I will be adding an air spring conversion to eliminate the factory torsion bar set up and DROs to all 3 axis as soon as everything shows up. I already have a set of metal gears for the gear box, I will be swapping those out at the same time.
I'll post some pics once I get underway.
I have seen posts where they have added different substances such as that and epoxy granite etc to increase the column rigidity. I may look into that, but I don't know if I will be able to add much once I install the air spring since it attaches inside the column.
Yes, the base was drilled and tapped and has 2 peices of 3/8" allthread. There is a nut on each side of the plate so that I can adjust the column front/rear.
I made my own pulleys for the belt drive and used an old brake caliper piston from my Corvette for the motor pulley.
I may do a belt drive somewhere down the line, but since I am swapping out the gears in the gear box for metal ones, I kinda like the idea of keeping the plastic intermediate gear as sort of a "shear pin"
Here is a set of plans for a belt drive conversion. Projects 6
Don't even bother to turn your new X2 on. Just start taking it apart, all the way down, to remove the Chinese cosmoline, dirt, swarf, cigarette butts, dead animals, etc. that might be lurking in the hidden places.
You *must* "tram" the headstock to the table, or you'll get crooked holes and scalloped cuts. It may be a new thing if you haven't used a mill before, but it's not rocket surgery.
Getting the gibs properly snugged can be a hassle. It pays to use Dykem or felt tip on the gibs and both dovetails, just
to make sure they're making proper contact.
The major limit on the stock X2 is the very short Y axis travel. With a little work you can increase it quite a bit. Search "extended Y travel" on CNCzone.
A plain old Harbor Freight 4" drill press vise is low profile and fits the X2's work envelope nicely. The newer vises are only partially machined now, but squaring one up is an easy job with the X2.
Don't even bother to turn your new X2 on. Just start taking it apart, all the way down, to remove the Chinese cosmoline, dirt, swarf, cigarette butts, dead animals, etc. that might be lurking in the hidden places.
That is exactly what I intend to do. The tracking info says it will be delivered on 3/14. I will tear it down immediately and reassemble it with the upgraded parts that I have been collecting while waiting for the mill to come off back order.
You can do temendous things with an X2 if you are creative and determined enough to do it.
I clamped a Chevy 5.3L aluminum oil pan to the teeny tiny table and used a slitting saw to cut the sump off. Had to reposition it a few times to get it cut all the way around.
Found a pic of my poor man's belt drive. I broke the gears on my mill and had to come up with something simple in order to get back to work.
My plan was to build one of the fancy belt drive platforms once my mill was working again, but that was 2 years ago. It's made of 2 peices of angle iron bolted to the top of the head to form a "tray" that the motor cradle can ride in. The pic's were taken before I added bolts to tighten the cradle to the tray.
A tip on the set-up; the belt doesn't need a lot of tension in order to work. On the first belt I tightened it up just like you would an engine belt. As soon as I turned it on the belt flipped over on it's side and refused to run within the V grooves of the pulleys. After going through 2 belts I left it a little bit loose, and that was over a year ago.
Didn't notice any reduction of Noise by switching to the belt drive.
Had read that the X2 is "extremely noisey" with gears and switching to a belt drive makes it much quieter. Not the case with mine, didn't really think it was noisey to begin with.
I consider a HF 4" grinder "noisey" and very loud, so would give it a 10 on the scale. The X2 is about a #4 on that scale.
I heard the same thing regarding noise level. It made me think twice about changing out the gear box gears to metal ones. But I figured what the hell, my hearing is already shot from years of shooting and driving blown alcohol dragsters, back before we knew any better.
I know what you mean about the 4" grinder, that thing is obnoxiously loud even with my somewhat impaired hearing. lol
I have the LMS belt drive. I don't remember what the gears sounded like, but I don't remember any particular change in noise level. It sounds like a jet engine preparing for take-off.
Most of the noise comes from the motor, best as I can tell. I've had the spindle apart; it's just a shaft in two ball bearings, I can't see where there'd be anything there to make much noise.
7.62x39 what method are you going with for the column support? Did you have to machine supports/mounting brackets to attach the DRO's?
For me, it will become a chicken or egg issue if I need to make mounting brackets. Got my machine on Wednesday also. Trying to decide if I want to mount it to a 4 drawer rolling tool cabinet or a fixed bench.
Now it's time to build a mill. I've received AK kits that were closer to being a rifle than this is to being a mill. LOL And this is after I got the gear box all reassembled.
The biggest knock on these mills is the inability to achieve and maintain a perfect Z axis alignment. The main reason is because of the tilt "feature". In order to be able to tilt the column, the column is secured by just one big nut. This is the weak point. I see no reason for a tilting head/column so I eliminated it.
With this set up I can tweak the column in all four directions and lock it up rock solid. The L brackets on the sides allow me to adjust left to right and the clamping fixture at the base allows me to adjust front to back.
The larger bolts in the middle of the bar just pass right through it. The plate itself is tapped to 7/16-20, tightening of the bolts applies pressure to the base tilting the column forward. The two outer bolts thread into the base, tightening these, moves the column rearward.
Now I can tram it perfectly and lock it up solid.
I got it finished up over the weekend.
I was able to make all the brackets required by reshaping the universal brackets that came with the DROs
All that's left to do is to make a mount for the display units.
Aren't you worried about losing a little Y travel with the X DRO on the back of the table?
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