# X2 Mill Overhaul - Advice welcome



## CrewCab (Jul 25, 2008)

Right Gang 8)

I've had my little X2 Mill for about 3 months now and found it to be a very capable little feller, it's had a belt drive conversion and an air spring added, both of which have been imho well worth doing. 

Having used it a fair bit, OK mainly playing just to get used to it I've now taken the plunge and spent far tooooo much on a DRO ??? ........... Having decided that was the way I wanted to go I had a good look around and eventually followed Mr BogStandard's recommendation and ordered one from these guys (I'm in the UK) *Click Here* ............ thanks John. After a few emails and telephone conversations I placed an order on Thursday and it arrived today (Friday), from my dealings with these guys so far I am very pleased and the kit (still in the box) certainly looks the part.

Anyway ............. waffle over (for now) 

Fitting the DRO seems straightforward, mebbee a couple of bracket to make etc .... 


but, .... I thought I would take the opportunity and strip the Mill, give it a good clean out of the Chinese grease etc and see if owt' needs any attention .......... that's where you guys come in I hope.  


1) After fitting the Belt Drive I filed the instructions .......... obviously they are very safe as I can't find them for love nor' money  ............ does anyone have a copy they can scan and email, I would like to take out the redundant gears whilst it's in bits, just pm me for my email address please.

2) Any suggestions for fine tuning, I can lap and polish the gib strips and mating surfaces etc to a degree, but they are far better than I had imagined to be fair.

2) Most of the play in the feed / leadscrews seems to be due to the slop in the large "phosphor bronze" (I think) nuts, which seem to have been fitted by using the technique of "Large Hammer" plus "Round Peg and Square Hole", then again it works :

enough from me for now, any advice welcome (sensible or otherwise) :big:

CC


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## CrewCab (Jul 25, 2008)

And a second Question :

Has anyone come up with a better / alternative method of stopping the chips falling on the Y axis leadscrew instead of the concertina plastic do dad's, they are terrible to clean the chips off and I just don't think they will have along life span ???

CC


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## ksouers (Jul 25, 2008)

Dave,
Congratulations on the DRO, I just fitted one recently and it's been worth every penny! I've thought about doing the belt-drive mod, but I'm also considering upgrading to an X3, not sure yet which way I'm going to go.

I've had my X2 for about 4 years now, a couple things that helped mine: I went over every dovetail with 800 and 1200 grit silicon carbide as best I could. Then I used Mother's California Polish and repeatedly lapped the dovetails. Mother's is a fine polish for brightening aluminum wheels, I'm sure you can find something similar in the UK. It worked great on the cast iron. Just make sure you polish the entire dovetail and clean up after it very well. I didn't go over it so hard that I removed all the tool marks, just enough to break the rough edges and smooth things up a bit.

I also broke every burr edge I could find with either a file or silicon carbide. I took everything apart that I could and cleaned out as much of the casting sand as I could find. It seems some of it had gotten stuck in the paint and I was finding it for weeks.

I had to shim out the block for the fine downfeed a couple thou with some aluminum foil, that made a huge difference!

One problem I've come across is the dovetail faces are not quite parallel so the table or powerhead will bind at one extreme or the other. Other than completely reworking the doves, the solution I've come up with is to try to use the the table where it binds the most so that gets the most wear on it. It's not great, but it works.

I've also had the thrust bearings on X work loose, pressing them back into place has reduced a lot of the backlash on that axis.

Getting the head trammed left-to-right is easy. Getting trammed front-to-back is a pain. I've slipped shims in the big circle to try to get it right, but it hasn't always worked out well for me. If anyone has any suggestions for this I'd be glad to try it!

The big thing is just get everything adjusted right. It's often hard to do, sometimes it's an invisible line between too much and not enough. As far as I can tell it'll never be perfect, but it can be tolerable.

Keep us posted! I'm real interested in how it turns out!


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## ksouers (Jul 25, 2008)

CrewCab  said:
			
		

> And a second Question :
> 
> Has anyone come up with a better / alternative method of stopping the chips falling on the Y axis leadscrew instead of the concertina plastic do dad's, they are terrible to clean the chips off and I just don't think they will have along life span ???
> 
> CC



No, I haven't. Not yet. Mine are splitting at the folds. And now I have to cover my DRO as well.


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## rake60 (Jul 25, 2008)

The X2 is a very capable little machine for it's price.

It isn't a hyper sensitive, super accurate machine no matter how much
money you throw at it. 

You CAN still get hyper sensitive, super accurate results from it!
That comes from experience in working with the machine.
It will teach you it's strengths and weaknesses.

From there it's "Operator Finesse" to get the right answer to what you
are asking the machine to do.

I've run million dollar industrial machines that had been pressed past their
limits for far too many years. They were considered JUNK by many of the other
operators. I had no problem holding a .0005 tolerance on a bearing fit with them.

You'll never tell a machine what it's going to do.

It will tell you what it will do and you need to accept that and work within
it's parameters.

Rick


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## CrewCab (Jul 25, 2008)

rake60  said:
			
		

> The X2 is a very capable little machine for it's price.



Too true Rick, and that's just from my limited experience, I could have bought a bigger Mill but the X2 fits the bill for me, all I'm trying to do is a little fine tuning, getting rid (hopefully) of the little bit of binding here and there and just making it a little sweeter. I love the little feller, it will be far more capable than me I'm sure, but all I'm after is a little "honing" whilst I've got the chance. After about an hour polishing and adjusting the "Y" travel I can feel a little improvement (and I mean "LITTLE") but that's good ............... anyway.......... it keeps me off the streets  .......... for some obscure reason I find sanding / polishing therapeutic ......... sad I know  ............... do I need therapy 

Cheers 

Dave


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## Brass_Machine (Jul 25, 2008)

CrewCab  said:
			
		

> .......... for some obscure reason I find sanding / polishing therapeutic ......... sad I know  ............... do I need therapy
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Dave



Dave... you do need therapy. In your case more sanding and polishing. My X2 is waiting.... :big:

Eric


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## Hilmar (Jul 25, 2008)

I think he wants the instruction for the belt mod. If so how can I send him these as attachments via E-Mail????
Hilmar

PS I have the drive from littlemachineshop.com/


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## CrewCab (Jul 26, 2008)

Hilmar, PM sent. 

many thanks

Dave


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## Hilmar (Jul 26, 2008)

Dave check Your E_Mail and let me know how it comes out
Hilmar


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## CrewCab (Jul 26, 2008)

Email received Hilmar, all the pages came through just fine ............ Thanks 8)

Dave


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## ksouers (Jul 26, 2008)

Dave,
Some more thoughts on how I tuned up my X2.
I agree the X2 is a very capable machine and I enjoy using it, but it is definitely not ready to run right out of the box. It needs some clean up and adjustment before it is ready to go to work.

The first thing I did (well, after a couple days playing with it) was completely tear it down to basic components. It was a lot easier to work with the individual parts.

For sanding the doves I wrapped some silicon carbide paper around the gibs and pressed that into the doves and moved it along the entire face with just fingertip pressure. I did that for the angled and flat parts. I noticed the angled face was wavy over its length, I think that contributed to some of the binding and difficulty in adjusting the gibs. The sanding didnt remove it but smoothed it out somewhat so there was more flat area to contact with.

When polishing, I mated the two pieces together with a couple dabs of polish then lightly snugged up on the gibs, just enough so I could slide the pieces by hand with some resistance. I worked the pieces their full length. The previous sanding left much of the factory tool marks untouched. As these were broken down by the polishing the gibs would need frequent adjusting to maintain pressure. After about a dozen strokes the old polish was cleaned up with some paper towels and fresh polish applied. The whole thing was repeated until movement was smooth(er) along the entire length of travel with a little extra concentration on the stiffer areas. The whole thing was then cleaned up very well with kerosene (paraffin) and WD40. The final result was that most of the tooling marks were still intact but sharp edges were broken down and contact area was increased by about 200% - 300% (there wasnt really much to start with). Tool marks were completely removed on the highest spots, but there were still plenty of pockets to hold oil.

Early on I tried several different oils to lubricate the ways. I finally settled on Mobil 1 synthetic oil. That really removed a lot of friction in the systems.

Adjusting the gibs can seem like banging your head against a wall. Everything will be too loose and wobbly, then you make that final little tweak and everything is bound up tight. Im afraid I cant help you much there. Youll just have to keep messing with it till it works out right. Ill loosen up all the grub screws then working with the inside ones adjust only one at a time. When one is right I move on to the next, working my way out. And hoping I dont mess it up and have to start over again.

The bronze nuts. Ive noticed that they work best when slightly loose, as the lead screws tend to wobble a bit. The grub screws should just touch the nuts and lightly hold them in place, you should be able to see the nut wobble as you turn the leadscrews. The DRO is your best friend here when dealing with backlash.

The fine downfeed has lots of problems. There is very little that can be done to adjust it and there is lots of play built into the system. Starting at the rack the teeth arent meshed properly. Shimming out the rack may help a little. The worm gear is just terrible. I havent been able to do anything with it yet. The dog clutch easily has .010 slop in it. The wobbly universal joint thingy shaft is just pinned together and looks more like an afterthought to help line up the worm gear and downfeed wheel. Mine was binding and I couldnt figure out what it was. I tried a thin copper washer behind the handwheel to take out some of the back lash. It helped a little. Then I tried shimming out the block the handwheel rides in. That helped out tremendously! It didnt clean up the backlash but it did make it operate much easier with far less effort. The binding is now gone. I can now easily feed .001, .0005 if Im careful. Before it would bind up so bad that I couldnt get it to move, then suddenly it would break loose and jump .005 or .010 or worse.

None of this really makes the machine more accurate, but it does make it easier and smoother to use and allows a closer adjustment on the gibs, improving repeatability. There is less error and noise that will be transferred to the work piece. Essentially you are just hastening the break-in period. Over time the machine will get worn in and become even better, but that takes time and usage. As Rick said, the single best addition that can be made to any machine is the installation of an experienced operator. The more you use the machine the better it will become, more importantly the better you will become at knowing your machine.


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## CrewCab (Jul 26, 2008)

Thanks Kevin, 
The Y axis is the one which was binding the most, mainly at each end; after a couple of hours today doing some light sanding / lapping then adjusting the brass nut and hand wheel mount I've got it down to just being a bit tight for the last 5mm of travel in each direction, I can live with that. The X axis was always better so I've just tried to take the obvious rough edges off, I'll see if there is any noticeable difference once it all goes back together.

As for the Z, to be fair it seems fine so I wasn't going to do much, although if I'm taking the redundant gears out the head needs to come off I'll have a look then (Thanks to Hilmar for the copy of the instructions).

Dave


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## CrewCab (Jul 26, 2008)

CrewCab  said:
			
		

> Fitting the DRO seems straightforward



If I use *the phrase* _ "It seems straightforward"_ *ever again* please feel free to SHOUT at me : :wall:

 CC

 ??? :


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## ksouers (Jul 26, 2008)

RUH ROH

What happened?


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## CrewCab (Jul 27, 2008)

Nothing serious ??? after an hour or so of making brackets to mount the Y axis scale I fitted it in place, then realised I hadn't left enough clearance for the X feed leadscrew :wall:

Oh well, back to the drawing board

Dave


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## tmuir (Jul 27, 2008)

Once you have it all sorted do post pictures as that would be most helpful for me as I have an X2 still sitting on my bench with it's packing grease on it so I have still all the tweaks and improvements to do yet.

Thanks
Tony


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## CrewCab (Jul 27, 2008)

No problem with pictures Tony, but I may be a while ;D

CC


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## Hilmar (Jul 27, 2008)

> Nothing serious Huh? after an hour or so of making brackets to mount the Y axis scale I fitted it in place, then realised I hadn't left enough clearance for the X feed leadscrew wall bash



 Dave, go to Tool& Tips, 
      go to Tools
      go to page 13 
      go to 5th from bottom under DRO look for my Pics on first page to the end.
If you need help let me know
Hilmar


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## CrewCab (Jul 27, 2008)

Cheers Hilmar ;D

Hopefully I'm on the right track now, just going to pt the mill back together and make some brackets, though summer seems to have eventually arrived here today in the UK, really we out to break out the BBQ as we may not get many more sunny days this year :

Dave


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## ksouers (Jul 27, 2008)

Hilmar,
Thanks for pointing out that thread. I wish I'd seen that a couple weeks ago, now you have got me rethinking the mounting of my scales (this'll make round 3). I just used modified calipers as they were cheap.

I'd originally mounted the X axis in the front, as FB did, then got a DRO display and moved the X to the back. It seems to collect more chips back there, however.


Dave,
I like the DRO you bought. I think your kit is better quality and more accurate than the set-up I'm using with the cheap calipers. I don't fully trust the measurements it's displaying.

Keep us posted on the progress.


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## Cedge (Jul 27, 2008)

One thing I do, once in a while, seems to make at least some difference is shooting a small amount of powdered graphite (sold as lock lubricant) into the joints of the dove tails. It's non abrasive and adds a little lubrication which settles nicely into the small friction points. I've never seen it recommended anywhere, but it seems to work just fine here.

Ksouers
Dunno if it's applicable to your install, but most of us tend to think in terms of mounting things snug and tight to the frame. I took this to an extreme on my lathe by actually mounting the scale through the saddle in my first installation. It just seems like a natural way to do things. It also made the darned thing a really great swarf catcher.

When I purchased the new scales for my SX3 mill, I rethought the install a bit. I turned a pair of substantial columns from aluminum hex bar for mounts and moved the X scale away from the table (front) by almost 2 inches. I then made a modification to the reader attachment bracket to compensate for the new location.. This greatly reduced the accumulation of swarf on the scale and the reader, made battery changes easy and nothing interferes adjusting the gibs. I also sheltered the Y reader beneath the table, preventing heavy chip accumulations as well. NOTE... this placement is rather tricky when using a power feeder. 

Steve


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## Brass_Machine (Jul 27, 2008)

I am going to add the air spring conversion to my X2 in the next couple of weeks before I start my CNC conversion on it. I just ordered the CNC plans have begun acquiring parts for the conversion.

I have seen some mods to the X2 done by HossMachine over at CNCzone.com that involve a little grinding to get some more x and y room. Think I am going to do them. I figure since the air spring conversion adds to the Z axis.... why not right?

Eric


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## ksouers (Jul 27, 2008)

Steve, 
Thanks for the suggestions. Everything is mounted quite rigidly, there isn't any wiggle at all. I've reworked the mounting since the picture on my shop thread, the scale is now vertically at the back of the table. And it most definitely is a swarf magnet! I'm working on a cover for it today.

The Y axis is under the table and is not much of a concern though it does get some swarf. It'll be covered as well.

It's the scales themselves I don't trust. I haven't noticed any inaccuracies, per say. But it seems that when I turn the handwheels very slowly a few thou the display doesn't show any movement.

It's probably just my perception.


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## CrewCab (Jul 27, 2008)

Brass_Machine  said:
			
		

> I have seen some mods to the X2 done by HossMachine



I've come accross that name, he does nice work IIRC, Eric have you got a link  

As for me .......... ??? ...............  I've learned a lot this weekend ............ measure 3 times and cut once mainly  ......... thought I already knew that but I need to get used to working to thou's not 1/8" 's :-X

I've grabbed an hour or two when I could and made some progress, followed by 3 steps backwards ...... but I will get there. 

The Z axis scale is mounted, just need to fix the mounting plate for the reading head, originally I thought the Z axis would be the hardest ........... then again, two things I didn't consider originally, ie: which part mounted to what :wall: and the fact that a 170mm scale is actually 300mm long (63/4" x 12"), obviously the other two also longer.

X axis was going to go on the back of the table till I realised that would reduce the Y travel, now it's going on the front, spaced off 20mm (3/4") so I can get to the gib adjusters, once I make a short allen key that is 

as for thy Y axis, the reader head needs to be mounted on the base of the mill, which has a 5o angle, plus it runs out 0.5mm over it's length, not an insurmountable problem, just that all these little snags take "time" unfortunately the time to sorting the problem ratio seems heavily weighted towards spare time 


................... anyway ............. it's interesting   and enjoyable, work will progress when I get a bit more time :

Oh' while I'm here .......... smoothing out the rough edges on the X & Y gibs and dovetails has helped a bit, well worth the few hours it takes imho.

CC


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## Bogstandard (Jul 27, 2008)

Dave,

I see you have found the major drawback to these upmarket scales. They are a lot longer than they need to be, but there is no way they can be shortened. I need to find all my solutions fairly soon.

Didn't you buy the scale covers for them? To keep all the nasties out.

One of the main advantages of a DRO system is that you can forget about leadscrew backlash. It is all taken care of because you are taking the reading directly from the main moving bits. It can make you a bit lazy at times, instead of adjusting the backlash out, you just leave it until it gets too bad.

For your concertina swarf barrier, I would suggest a bit of thick Visqueen attached at both ends, it folds in large curves rather than sharp angles, plus with a couple of ali angle supports it can be made a lot wider.

John


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## CrewCab (Jul 27, 2008)

Thanks John,

Yes I did get the covers and I think I'm about there with the mounting issues, no real problems, just a case of time and effort, plus "measuring"  ........... it's been an enjoyable weekend and I've learnt a lot, which is good. Once I get a little more free time X and Z should be up and running, and once the mill is operational I should be able to sort out Y ........... the little beggar :big:

Good tip about the visqueen, I'd been thinking about all sorts ....... even cling film ??? good to have a different perspective, should work just fine.

Cheers

Dave


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## CrewCab (Jul 28, 2008)

Well, I've progressed a little 

X & Z are now sorted and it seems to work, Y is next in line 


















Then I'll have to battle with the instruction manual ............ I hope it's better than the instructions for the scales, I want to swap the cable position on the Y reader, so had a look in the manual ..... 

....... and I quote (word for word) ..............

_
"(2) M4 hexagram bolt into the adjust screw holt and please do this one by one for flab the cover board which has airproof bar at the top, when noticing the gap. Please pry the cover board along the top by the screwdriver.
(3) Loose two M3 "-" bolt of the moor cable, remove the cable and end. Exchange the favour.
(4) Before covering the cover board, you must clean the old airproof bar and wipe the new one, if you do not have the new one, you can use butter order to instead of that, but the effect is not so good, only in support."_

I could go on but I can't see for the tears of laughter, needless to say I've filed that manual in a safe place ;D  ............. I'll have a look at the cable after I've talked to the suppliers. (Who actually supply their own copy of installation instructions for the scales, and they are quite good, but it don't cover the cable swap) ................ YET 

CC


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## ksouers (Jul 28, 2008)

Gotta love that Chinglish!!


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## Bogstandard (Jul 28, 2008)

In fact Dave it is a rather simple operation.

All they are saying is, take the cover off by undoing all the securing screws, you might have to pry off using small screwdriver, undo the screws that secure the cable, and swap over end to end. Lubricate the seal before refitting cover.

Vellygudstructions, OKallnow.

Take the instructions for the readout gently and you will have no trouble. I powered mine up in the house with one scale fitted and played about for an hour. Had it cracked, dead easy. If I can do it, so can all the other village idiots.
I would also suggest you only go for the four decimal places rather than five (in imperial), otherwise you will be chasing your own a**e thinking things are going wrong, when the scales are moving due to vibration, and figures are jumping up and down on the display.

John


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## CrewCab (Jul 28, 2008)

Bogstandard  said:
			
		

> In fact Dave it is a rather simple operation.
> 
> Vellygudstructions, OKallnow.



I understand it much better now John  :

but ............... the phrase ...............

_"Note: The tools use in taking down in each step is partnership, avoiding the screw head sleeking."_


has me slightly baffled ???

 CC


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## Brass_Machine (Jul 28, 2008)

CrewCab  said:
			
		

> I've come accross that name, he does nice work IIRC, Eric have you got a link
> 
> ....
> CC



HERE ya go. Meet the X2 CNC Freak. He has free plans up the on CNCing your X2 plus a couple of other mods. Namely the x & y axes mods.

Eric


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## ksouers (Jul 28, 2008)

Yeah, I guess he did mod the X and Y axis


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## CrewCab (Jul 31, 2008)

Well, a couple of old adage's spring to mind

Rod ........ and ......... for my own Back

One step forward ............ two back ............


etc, etc  :


But progress has been made, not a lot, but still progress.

1) DRO Fitting ................. X & Z are complete and seem to work well, unfortunately I missed the fact that I cant refit the X axis table lock screw due to the position of the scale :wall: .............. as a temporary fix I've used an allen screw and I can get at it with my modified allen key, It'll do for now. I've come up with loads of complicated ideas for getting over this problem but the simplest which comes to mind is just fit it on the rear (there is room) and use a shaped brass plug between the screw and dovetail.

Y axis was just about complete (LH side) when I realised that if I fit a power drive I will loose a fair bit of travel, so "rethink time", now it's going on the RH side but different brackets are required to lower the scale below the gib's so once I obtain a bit more aluminium plate (good old ebay) .......... we will recommence ;D ....... lowering the scale means the lock for the Y axis will be accessible so one less hiccup there.

2) Binding at each end of the travel (X and Y) ....... having read a very long, but interesting thread on another forum (with a lot of very good advice from Mcgyver :bow: ) ........... I realise lapping is not the way to go, It seems I need to identify the high spots then deal with them accurately, I may be a while sorting this matter but I'll persevere 

CC


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## ksouers (Aug 10, 2008)

Dave,
How did the Y axis work out? And where are the pictures? ???


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## CrewCab (Aug 11, 2008)

ksouers  said:
			
		

> Dave,
> How did the Y axis work out? And where are the pictures? ???



Kev, Y axis turned out fine, finished it at the weekend.

Got to say I'm impressed with the whole kit, it certainly makes using the mill easier and backlash doesn't come into the equation any more. Anyway, briefly; 

After a couple of false starts  ........... all now works well, I decided (on all 3 axes) to make the scales "the moving part" and the reading head fixed. The Z axis was the easiest as the backing plate for the scale was just re drilled and bolted directly to the mill head, the reading head was mounted on an aluminium plate packed off the column (about 8mm). Both X & Y needed a plate to mount the scale on and X was packed out by 20mm to give access to the gib adjusters, Y was packed out about 6mm otherwise the mounting scale plate would have caught the column. The read heads need to be packed out about 8mm more than the scales which is fairly straightforward, apart from on the Y axis the base of the mill slopes about 5o and in addition the machined dovetail isn't quite parallel to the outside edge of the mill base; not a lot only about 1mm, but it needs taking into account.

So each scale / bracket was set up fairly closely with an angle gauge 






Then "fine tuned" to get as little run out as possible 






Brackets for the read heads fitted, these are temporarily held in place with plastic clips so it's a case of getting the head nicely lined up with it's bracket, (each one has 4 x jacking screws to help) then bolting it up and removing the clips.





CC


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## Bogstandard (Aug 11, 2008)

Just been thru that lot yesterday Dave. A real PITA.

John


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## CrewCab (Aug 11, 2008)

I see yours was a bit more complicated John ............. and bigger scales 

I've quite enjoyed mi'self, but in my case it's part of the leaning curve, from your point of view I can see it's just another obstacle to being fully operational, and of course, unlike me, you don't need practice in machining a bit of aluminium plate 

By the way, I've lost count of the number of times the little mill has been put back together during this project, it must be at least a dozen, ??? ............... my muscles were relieved it's the X2 and not the X3.

CC ;D


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## Bogstandard (Aug 11, 2008)

Not just another obstacle Dave, everything is a challenge to do the best you can. I spent more time thinking about it than actually doing any making. I did it by thinking from the finished result backwards. There is in fact only 1/8" clearance between the moving head and the standoffs I made for the kill switch bar and the same at the bottom of the head as it goes past the drip tray, so basically I only had a max of 1/4" to play with. If I had planned that wrong, it would have been a real problem job.

It wasn't machining either, more like hacking. Vice not square, no parallels, just did enough to make a neat job (on the bits you can see).

Over the years you will appreciate the number of times you have stripped it down, because if anything goes wrong, you could fix it in your sleep. There is nothing like knowing how your machine is built.

You will get there in the end, and you will be able to say you did it all yourself.

I must admit, these Sino readouts are a real quality job. There is only one better than these IMHO, and those cost about three times as much.

John


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## ksouers (Aug 11, 2008)

Nice write-up, CC. Thanks.

If those scales are anything near what the documentation says they are, you have a really nice kit there. I like that they are accurate to .0002" (.005mm?), and I think that's what confounds me about mine. The display only shows to the nearest thousandth. I'm used to measuring table movement with dial indicators and now I don't have that frame of reference where even the slightest table movement shows up, tweaking to just a fraction of a needle width. I'm glad that I went to a DRO, I just have to change my way of thinking when using it.

Nice bit of creative problem solving. Congratulations on a job done well.


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## Bogstandard (Aug 11, 2008)

Kevin,

Those scales and display can actually be set to read to 5 decimal places in imperial, 0.00002", but I think you would be just chasing numbers to use it like that, just breathing on them would send them spinning.

John


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## ksouers (Aug 11, 2008)

HOLY [email protected]!!!

I'd think a gnat's fart would prolly send it to the wild blue yonder!


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## CrewCab (Aug 11, 2008)

ksouers  said:
			
		

> I'd think a gnat's fart would prolly send it to the wild blue yonder!



Too true  ....... but it appears we now have the means to measure the "Holy Grail" in accuracy ........... or in other words a "Gnat's Cock Hair" ...............  Chap's; please forgive the wording, I hope no offence is taken but to be fair this almost a British Standard 8) , the only way this could be bettered is by the almost unimaginable achievement of "Half a Gnat's Cock hair" ............. but we will stick with what we have 

OK ................. we have the means to measure it but .............. help required ........

1) We need a Sample :
2) We need a means to be able to focus on it 
3) We then need a means to manipulate said sample to the measuring area ........ 


 ...................  which is next door to the Loch Ness Monster's BBQ area ;D

CC


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## ksouers (Aug 11, 2008)

We have a similar measure here in the colonies, an RCH.
Red
C (fill in the blank)
Hair

Also measured to the half-width.

And nearly as elusive, I might add. True red-head females are hard to find.


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## ksouers (Oct 30, 2008)

CC,
My DRO for the big mill arrived today. It seems I have the same scales you do, Sino. The display is also a Sino but a slightly different layout than yours.

I have a question... You have yellow tabs on the read head, did you remove them? My read head feels a bit rough and I think it's those tabs. I didn't read anywhere that they should be removed, but heck that Chinglish is hard enough to read 

If you removed them, how do they come off? Just undo the screws and pull it out?


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## CrewCab (Oct 31, 2008)

Kevin, 
The yellow tags are to hold the scales in place prior to mounting, when everything is fixed, including the jacking screws they are removed by undoing a tiny screw. 

Dave


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## ksouers (Oct 31, 2008)

Thanks Dave.
I had tried removing one, just so I'd know how it was done. It came loose from the head but wouldn't come out of the scale easily. I guess it'll take a small bit of prying to get it out.


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## CrewCab (Oct 31, 2008)

Take the screw out and it should come off easily Kevin.


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## tel (Nov 2, 2008)

CrewCab  said:
			
		

> ........... or in other words a "Gnat's Cock Hair" ............... Chap's; please forgive the wording, I hope no offence is taken but to be fair this almost a British Standard 8) , the only way this could be bettered is by the almost unimaginable achievement of "Half a Gnat's Cock hair" .............
> 
> CC



I didn't know Gnats kept poultry.


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