A Small Mill: My Sieg X3 Saga

Discussion on all milling machines vertical & horizontal, including but not limited to Bridgeports, Hardinge, South Bend, Clausing, Van Norman, including imports.

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randyc
Posts: 497
Joined: Sun Jun 13, 2010 10:46 pm
Location: Eureka, California

Re: A Small Mill: My Sieg X3 Saga

Post by randyc »

A couple of points inspired by your posts. First, it is well-known that a closed section is considerably more torsionally-resistant than an open section so your thoughts in that area are good ones.

Disadvantages are also evident, first being that most of the column apparently still needs to be a channel (I'm guessing since I don't know anything about these machines) so your improvement, should you implement it, would be an incremental one.

Second is the means of closing the section - which to me would be the most critical. Bolting something down there might be helpful and it's really the only practical option. I can't see stripping the thing, brazing a plate and HOPING that the material is both brazeable and doesn't distort (it will, of course).

So from that aspect, yes you would still be applying makeup to a pig.

BUT the more important part of your post deals with the application of the machine. Fixing things around the house is adequate justification and gets wifely respect which stores up good will for the time when you find "the" mill. There's no reason (other than love of machinery) to load up your garage with three ton monsters when 90% of your work weighs less than two ounces, LOL.

I haven't read your entire thread but I'm inferring that you are doing this largely in the interest of education. Some might dispute that education is bad but I doubt that they'd do it openly -

Cheers,
Randy C
pete
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Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:04 am

Re: A Small Mill: My Sieg X3 Saga

Post by pete »

Bolster,
That's the very first picture I've ever seen of a rear view on the coloum. If it were me? I'd research that granite/epoxy modification and then build up a temporary set of patterns or dams (maybe using plastic pipe?) to prevent the Granite/epoxy mix from setting up in areas around the leadscrew,nut, ect. None of that would be too tough and I'd think you would see a huge difference in rigity and mass for the coloum. I also think furthering your personal education is just one side benefit of this hobby and gaining knowlege is always a good thing. "gilding the lily" Nope, Done properly with a end result in mind it only makes your machine better. The Wright brothers probably? invented the first airplane that worked, We've been gilding that lily for just over 100 years. Look where we are now.

Your rear mounted plate could be bolted to the coloum and base area by drilling and tapping both after your satisfied with the mills tram and I'd also do that along with the E/G mix as that would for sure help rigitity in the X direction but with your head raised for larger work that increase in stiffness from the plate would obviously be reduced and the E/G would help with that.

One other thing that would work instead of the plate, Find yourself a scrap piece of structural steel I beam that is wide enough to span the rear channel on your mills coloum. Machine the center of the I beams face and maybe part of the I beams web out to allow free movement of the head to the full extent of it's travel both up and down. Bolt that to the base and upper and lower portions of your coloum. This would really help the Y directions stiffness and even with the cutout the X axis would still be a lot stiffer than it is now. You'd also have to factor in maybe some small slots or add tubeing for oiling the lead screw. A bridgeport isn't recognized as being a real rigid machine tool so anyone thinking your mill doesn't have any issues in this area hasn't thought very much about it.

Pete
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Bolster
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Location: SoCal (aka Mexifornia)

Re: A Small Mill: My Sieg X3 Saga

Post by Bolster »

For those of you concerned that all I do is tram...I do make stuff on the mill, too. My projects are so humble and novice-like that I frequently don't post them. Here's a flashlight mount I've wanted for some time. I do a lot of presentations and sometimes the client will turn off all the room lights, so you can't see your notes at the podium. I wanted a very flexible, adaptable, stable method of holding an AA light, preferably incorporating my existing travel flashlight/headlamp so I didn't have to carry a duplicate. This humble clamp was the result. Seems most dimensions stayed within .001, particularly the critical I.D.

Image

Image
A Bona Fide Soggy Bottom Boy
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Bolster
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Location: SoCal (aka Mexifornia)

Re: A Small Mill: My Sieg X3 Saga

Post by Bolster »

Found this cool video of an old-world master scraping a Chinese cross slide. Love how subtle he is with his opinion of Chinese workmanship.

Very interesting that he actually corrects geometry with scraping, which is above and beyond just getting mating surfaces flat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1eOQa1g ... r_embedded

Now THIS is what my machine needs...wish I could learn this skill!
A Bona Fide Soggy Bottom Boy
pete
Posts: 2518
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:04 am

Re: A Small Mill: My Sieg X3 Saga

Post by pete »

Bolster,
There are a few scraping courses that can be taken to start learning. Forrest Addy? I think travels around the U.S. and teaches them, He's on various forums and may well be on this one too. From what I've seen your a lot like myself so if you don't yet have a copy of Machine Tool Reconditioning then try and get one. You'll learn a huge ammount. It will be the best $100 that you've spent on books. I've yet to scrape anything but I'm for sure going to learn some of it. A lot of the Chinese tools suck but without them these forums wouldn't have a lot of members. I'd much rather have a brand new M300 Harrison lathe than the Chinese one I could afford.

Pete
Rosco-P
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Re: A Small Mill: My Sieg X3 Saga

Post by Rosco-P »

This guy: http://www.cnccookbook.com/index.htm has spent some time (and seems like a lot of $$ as well) increasing the rigidity of his mill. See: IH Mill CNC Conversion , under the projects tab.
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