Sieg SX2L!

[lazylathe]

Hi all,

I have just ordered my Sieg SX2L mill! :big:
Going to collect it on Saturday morning!!! ;D

It will most likely stay in the crate for a month or so before i will have a chance to get to it.... :-\

After i get back from my vacation with the family it will be set up and then the tooling up process starts!

Any recommendations on tooling for this size mill would be greatly appreciated!!
It is the R8 spindle version with the brushless motor.

Andrew

 

[Troutsqueezer]

Numero uno - a clamping kit.
Numero two-oh - screwless vise, 3"
Numero three-oh - 123 blocks
Numero four-oh - parallels
Numero five-oh - end mills, miniature and std. sizes.
Numero six-oh - end mill collet

That should get you rolling. There are of course, many more pieces of tooling you will want but you need these things to start the basic milling process.

 

[arnoldb]

Congratulations Andrew ;D

:big: The tooling up... - The list never ends, but just for starters what I'd consider the necessities to start off with:

First off my inexperienced and humble opinion, and at the risk of getting laughed off the board. Not tooling at all. Take some time to get to know the machine; Take it apart, clean it, re-assemble it, adjust it - simply get to know it. Twiddle the dials, put on imaginary cuts, learn to read the handwheels, think about backlash and climb and conventional milling and so on. And practice hitting the E-stop

After that worthless bit the tooling.

A good vise - though I'd recommend you keep it simple; no fancy tilting swivelling whatever stuff; just a good solid Kurt style low-profile that can be mounted without it's swivelling base. I bumped my head when I started off with my mill and got a very cheap and nasty vise, and while it worked, it never really delivered the goods. For the size of your mill, I'd say about a 4" vise should be good, but rather heed advise from other SX2 owners. And I mention mounting without the swivelling base, as in the time I've had my mill, I've only ever needed the vise rotated once, and without the swivel base you get a bit more head room in Z.

I don't know if you have collets yet, but that's a definite need to securely hold milling cutters. You can go with a set of R8 collets - which should give you maximum headroom, or get an ER25 chuck and set of collets - the advantage with the ER set being that it's pretty easy to then make a collet chuck for the Myford as well and share tooling, though the ER chuck will take some space on your Z axis. Pretty much up to you to decide If you do decide to go the ER route, I'd highly recommend a bearing-based closer nut; it's really a lot easier to use than a "normal" one.

Depending on what accessories the SX2L comes with as standard, a good drill chuck - for the SX2L, a 13mm / 1/2" chuck. If it does not come with one and you need to buy one, try and get one that can chuck as small a drill as possible, otherwise you're going to end up like me and have to make a separate "small chuck" to hold small drills. I have found some advantages to having the separate small chuck that then gets chucked in the bigger one though; it is very useful to drill small holes as pilots and then remove it from the big chuck to chuck up a longer thicker drill without having to adjust Z.

If you don't have one yet, a DTI with mountings to chuck it up in your chosen collet chuck. Needed for tramming the vise, really getting the rotary table centered and so on. Pretty much a must-have.

A small selection of cutters to start off with - difficult to say what you would need, but some smallish ones for cutting out slots and so on, and bigger ones for trimming workpieces to size. Being metrically inclined, for me these are 4mm 4-flute, 6mm 2 and 4-flute, then 10mm 4-flute and 16mm 4-flute. My mill have "spoken" to me and like these sizes, and they get the job done. You'll have to experiment though.

As to the rest, well, loads of choice - not essential for a start, but really handy.
* More Cutters - you will never have enough ;D
* I really don't regret spending the time to make my rotary table; it's really useful. So buy or make, that would be a definite IMHO. I'd say about 100 to 125mm diameter for your mill, but then again, rather trust other SX2 owners' judgement.
* On my own wish list still - a set of thin parallels. I find myself needing these more and more. Soon, the budget might allow, otherwise I'll make some.
* Clamping kit - not needed all that much if you have a good vise, but really really useful for setting up odd shaped jobs and bigger things than your vise can take.
* I wish I had a good set of V-blocks, 1-2-3 blocks, angle plates and so on. I've been making-do without, but they would be really handy!
* A fly-cutter; really handy to have and easy to make - or buy.
* A boring head - you'll need it for that V8 engine ;D
And many, many more :big:

I hope you enjoy your trip to SA; the sunshine's a bit restricted here in Namibia at the moment. Barely 2 hours of sunshine a day and raining more than it's done for the last 120 years. I'm not sure what it's like in the Johannesburg area (Gauteng :) - but I'm sure the Klippies & Coke or good beers whill lighten the mood ;D

Kind regards, Arnold

 

[milotrain]

mmmmm longbed, good call!

Some less obvious things:
• I'd get a set of the grizzly DROs. Best $180 I've spent on my mill, you can also do this with dial indicators ala metal butcher's thread. Either way they are a great idea.
• DMT steel stones. D6CX (6" extra coarse -220) D6C (6" coarse -325) D6F (6" fine -600). Better than files for deburing and making nice rounded corners.
• Carbide deburring tool
• A 1/4" and 1/2" carbide 45° chamfer bits. Use the 1/4" as a spotting drill as well.
• A 1/4" and 1/2" ball nose endmill HSS
• A 1/4" and 1/2" corner rounding endmill HSS
• A 2" Dial Indicator (check ebay, I just bought a B&S 1" Dial Indicator for $50 shipped)
• An indicol holder. You can make one almost as good if not better with a little work.
• Replace the fuse with a circuit breaker (might not be as much of an issue with the S version). I hate blowing a fuse when I'm just about to finish a part in the middle of the night with no stores open.
• 10° setup block (make this with a 10 degree angle plate). Just something that sits in the vice and won't fall over and has a 90° at the lower end to catch your work. Makes cutting pockets into stuff easy.

 

[lazylathe]

Thanks for all the replies with recommendations!

I am really liking Arnold's answer of no tooling for now! ;D
As there will be no money for now.... :

As for the taking apart and getting to know the mill, that was already planned for. ;D
A complete strip down to get all the red slime off and clean the ways and make sure everything fits together as good as i can get it. That alone should keep me out of trouble for a while!

Then i think a good 4" vise.
A way of holding the collets, either ER25 or R8 and a drill chuck. Still undecided.
Cutters, the more the merrier!! :big:

And a rotary table so that i can get some nice round corners like you all put on your engines!

Hopefully in the future i will be CNC'ing the mill.
Have seen a lot of kits that look really cool!
I like this one the best:http://www.thompsonmachine.net/img/mm2pics.htm
Looks really neat and tidy, looks like manual control is lost though...
But that is still many moons away!


Arnold, i was talking to my parents on the weekend and they say it was 32 degrees C on Saturday!!! :big: Cannot wait!! Tired of the snow and the cold!

Andrew

 

[dgjessing]

Must be something in the air - look what the FedEx guy brought me this afternoon:

I could probably have picked it up, but didn't feel like risking my back...

It's now clamped onto my welding table and I'm cleaning off the red goo

 

[milotrain]

Then i think a good 4" vise.
A way of holding the collets, either ER25 or R8 and a drill chuck. Still undecided.
Cutters, the more the merrier!! :big:

And a rotary table so that i can get some nice round corners like you all put on your engines!

I still use a 3" screwless vice and have no problems with it. If you use a non-ball end allen key to tighten it you can leverage the lower locking pin into the slot you want and thereby not have to shim the occasional part that seems to sit in a non locking area. Additionally while I wanted a vice with clamping slots at first and was frustrated that I only bought one with clamping holes I haven't really had a problem with clamping holes after getting to know the machines limits. Now there are a few clamping holes I use and that's it. A decent 3" screwless is much much cheaper than a good milling vice and being able to clamp it to the table sideways is useful.

I really wanted ER32 collets initially but ended up getting R8 collets because they were so much cheaper. I like having the extra Z that the R8 collets support but still occasionally pine for an ER32 set.

Check out http://www.glacern.com/ good 4" vice for not much money and good ER sets for not much money.

I also dearly want a rotary table.

 

[John Rudd]

Numero uno - a clamping kit.
Numero two-oh - screwless vise, 3"
Numero three-oh - 123 blocks
Numero four-oh - parallels
Numero five-oh - end mills, miniature and std. sizes.
Numero six-oh - end mill collet

That should get you rolling. There are of course, many more pieces of tooling you will want but you need these things to start the basic milling process.


There's nothing to cut with......Boo hoo......cry.......

 

[Cedge]

John...
Good list. You saved me a lot of typing...LOL
Steve

 

[narrowgauger]

Hi Andrew

congrats for your new machine.

have a question for you; is this a genuine Sieg SX2 with a brushless servo motor?

it seems from the photograph that this is the older DC motor with a belt drive, which is quite different from the brushless servo motor and a far inferior specification. this is very important, since it is the brushless servo motor that has made the SX2 a very good machine compared to the earlier version

I am away from my studio at the moment and cannot send a photo of my own machine. However the attached shot of the LMS machine shows the correct motor which should have an extruded alumnium casing.

suggest you check the specs on your machine.

have fun
Bernard

 

[dgjessing]

No - the photos are of mine, not the OP's.

 

[milotrain]

To be fair I think "far inferior specification" is a bit of a dramatization. Most of the X2 machines that people on this forum have are of the brushed DC motor and while it has less HP and doesn't have quite the range of the brushless servo version, it is a vary capable machine.

 

[lazylathe]

He Bernard,

The photos are of an older version, not the brushless version that i have ordered.
I think they are both very capable machines though.

Attached is a picture of the one i ordered.

I f i am not mistaken this version comes standard with the belt drive!!! SWEET! :big:

Andrew

 

[lazylathe]

Well the SX2L is home!!!! ;D

I was speaking with the guy that imports the Sieg machines.
Apparently the SX2L is exactly the same machine as the one LMS sells!
Only difference is the colour of paint! :big:

They originally did not want to sell them to him because they have an exclusive deal with LMS for the SX2L.
He told them they were destined for Canada and not the States so he should be allowed to bring them in.
They wanted him to sign an agreement that he would only sell them to Canadian customers.

So now the Canadians can have the same machine that LMS offers! ;D

Time to head back and remove some more of the red slime!!!

Andrew

 

[dgjessing]

Time to head back and remove some more of the red slime!!!

Andrew

Have fun! So far, I'm quite impressed with my plain old X2. Got all the slime off, tightened up all the gibs, and played around a little with a 1/4" end mill in the drill chuck, cutting some aluminum. Nice and smooth! Can't wait to get some proper collets & other tooling