miny mill

[krv3000]

HI all if them chines mills are so bad y can i not get one cheep for Idont have a lot of cash os wood of thort if they is that bad i wood be abel to pick one up say for £50 but thers as much chans of that think wining the loto wood be eser

 

[fcheslop]

Maybe they aren't that bad .I have used mine for nearly thirty years and its only needed a little adjustment and a couple of bearings agreed its no Bridgeport but then it didn't cost Bridgeport money.Good hunting
best wishes Frazer

 

[Troutsqueezer]

Cheap is a relative term. Compared to larger mills, they are priced cheap. Like Frazer, I've done a couple of mods to mine and the word "bad" does not apply to the mini mill.

 

[HS93]

I don't know why these mills get a bad press of some people , I have an X1 and it's not because I cannot afford anything better but that's the size of mill I wanted, it does everthing I wanted of it, I have modded it over the years but that is more ease of use and when completely standard it work well for what I wanted to do. some people seem to have the idea that you have a Myford ML7 etc, or you haven't got a decent machine. that has all changed. I can remember when people would not have anything Japanese because it was rubbish, how that has changed.

Peter

 

[don-tucker]

I think you have answed your own question,if they weren't any good you would get plenty for £50,I wouldn't be without mine.
Don

 

[Blogwitch]

A machine is only as good as the user, and how much time and effort he, or she, is willing to put into it to get it to perform well.

The far eastern machines tend to be 'assembled' rather than ready to use, many sloppy fits. Just like a Lego set, put the right bits in the right places and push them together tight, you end up with a good result.
Same same for far eastern machines, set them up as they were designed to be used, and they can then do almost anything you want on them, the only limitations then are in your mind and hands.


Bogs

 

[Tin Falcon]

The only "bad "thing I found with mine is that the x axis gib was pretty bogus as it rode on the edge of the dovetail instead of the flat .The prevented proper adjustment of the gib it was either too tight or too loose depending on position never just right. this was discovered when I upgraded to the cnc control. This was a matter of making a new gib.
The other soon apparent problem with the x-2 is the z axis machining down feed is totally unreliable.
IIRC this can be dealt with in several ways (1)easy cheap ad a dial indicator. (2) convert to cnc. (3) rebuilt the down feed.
another inherent flaw is the spindle is often not parallel with the column this is a fix on my to do list.
Ok maybe a few bad things but like has said before these are considered pre-assembled kits that need to be finished by the user.

And as a bit of perspective even top of the line machines often have some sort of run in procedure to be done on setup.
The catch with the sieg stuff is they do not outline the setup procedure. They just tell you the machine is to be used by a professionally trained machinist.
Do not know about your part of the world but I have seen damaged in shipping damage unknown mini lathes for sale on e bay pay your money take your chances. You may be able tot get a similar mill deal although the mills are crated,not shipped in a cardboard box.
Tin

 

[Anko]

totally agred with you Tin falcon

when I bought my mini-mill i knew very well that these machines need a lot of work to get it working right, that mean a lots of mods

i bought my mini-mill new from a store (mine is not made by sieg, is slightly diferent, but is the same thing after all) and i noticed immediately all the problems that had:

1) incredible backslach in the gear transmition, the thing was so tight that almost suck all the motor power (and ofcourse..i broke a teeth in the inner gear and made all the machine useless)

solution: belt drive (because my mini mill is slightly diferent, all comertial belt drive kits won´t fit in my machine) i done mine using a lathe and a drill press

2) X and Y gibs: the gibs work well, but with a closer look i notice that when tightening the set screws, the faces of the gib came out of parallel with the faces of the dovetail

solution: i made a new gib for the Y axis of brass, but that one shows the same problem, but still work fine, some day i will fix that problem for real.

3) Z feed and backslash: that had been said before, that knob is useless, and had a lots of backslach

solution: almost mine, a cheap dial indicator to measure the down feed (in steps of 12mm), and for the backslash, some day i will put a bigger hand wheel and some bearings.

4) column flex and disaligment: that is what im working on now, for the flex i will made a back plate, and for tram te column true to the table i will use metal shims, then more metal shims for tram the head true to the column

in time more problems and solutions will come, is a "blank machine" that has to be refined by the user, i have lots of fun doing this, and gain experience, because im a beginer.

i bought the mini-mill because I could not buy a bigger machine, too expensibe, I could hardly achieve the mini mill

well, hope that help you

Saludos!