[Daniel_compgeom]

I just received my x6-2200L and was wondering what everyone was doing for cooling the spindle? (Not sure if this has been addressed)
- Just using water alone?
- Is anyone adding anything to the water? If so what and how much?

I appreciate any feedback!

Thanks

[dharmic]

This thread is getting a little unwieldy now but it's been discussed before.

I went for plain water in a 25l bin sitting under the machine at the back of the table I made for it at first. No problems running for 5 hours continuous with that. And it was all happy.

Until I had a look at it six months earlier. Kinda surprised it didn't have frogs in it, it was that green and skanky.

Anyway, two things took care of that:
1. Keeping the reservoir covered.
2. Replace the water with car radiator coolant. I used a concentrate and made it up with water to about half car strength. Not using the coolant to prevent it from freezing, just to keep it toxic enough to prevent algal growth.

A year on and it's still smelling and looking pretty clean.

[Daniel_compgeom]

Thanks!! Awesome. Just wanted to make sure using coolant or some other additive would not damage the spindle. I sprayed a tiny amount of corrosion blocker for the mean time. I will be getting coolant tomorrow

Daniel.

[dharmic]

I'm not sure how true or not it is, but I had a mechanic warn me off some types of coolant for my car due to potential corrosion of its aluminium radiator. The stuff I used was the same as the stuff in the car (I figured it would be safe) but do you think I can for the life of me remember what it was or what the corrosive ingredient was? Or even whether it was just fearmongering?

I guess the take away message is do a bit of research on car forums first, just in case...

[VisualConduct]

Hello All,

I am a absolute beginner here, but reading trough this thread gave me some engouragement to dive and maybe order the X6-2200L USB.
Now seems to be a good time because they have a promo with $200 off.
Eventually I would most likely ad a 4th axis but not from them since the reviews of that item where not so pretty ;-)
What would you guys advice me to do; order the machine as is or ask for a controller which is ready for the a 4th axis, if at al possible?

Besides that, thanks for all the great info in this thread, it is very helpfull to me.

Kind regards, Robert Glotzbach

[dharmic]

I wanted to do the same thing when I ordered mine - get the control box fitted for 4th and then organise my own unit. They didn't want to sell me that at the time, so I ended up getting the 4th.

In hindsight I could have just bought an extra driver and fitted it to the controller but I daresay I would have had to make up the cabling for it, drill the case for the connector etc. If you're comfortable doing all of that it'd be the way to go to save yourself a couple hundred bucks but, if your time/hassle is worth anything, it might be worth just getting their fourth and be done with it. It's ok for light work and it'll mean that, should you decide to go for something with a little more grunt, you'll be able to just plug it in.

[RCaffin]

I don't have one, so I don't KNOW.
However, my impression is that the gear comes without any circit daigrams for any of the electronics, and support is ... Chinese. If anything goes wrong, you could be stiff out of luck. I get the impression that it often does.

Cheers
Roger

[zeeflyboy]

I just received my x6-2200L and was wondering what everyone was doing for cooling the spindle? (Not sure if this has been addressed)
- Just using water alone?
- Is anyone adding anything to the water? If so what and how much?

I appreciate any feedback!

Thanks

I've mounted a closed loop system from PC water-cooling to the back of the gantry... I used a combined pump/reservoir/radiator and machined a mounting bracket for it. Works great and is a very compact solution, but certainly not the cheapest!

Coolant wise that's using mayhem's X1 (again a PC water-cooling product) that has a life of around 3 years and has biocides and corrosion inhibitors included.

[Mmpie]

My control box has everything there ready for a fourth axis to be plugged in. There is already a labelled hole in the back of the box with a rubber gromet in it, mounting points are inside for the driver it would literally just be a case of buying a driver and plugging it in.

[VisualConduct]

I wanted to do the same thing when I ordered mine - get the control box fitted for 4th and then organise my own unit. They didn't want to sell me that at the time, so I ended up getting the 4th.

In hindsight I could have just bought an extra driver and fitted it to the controller but I daresay I would have had to make up the cabling for it, drill the case for the connector etc. If you're comfortable doing all of that it'd be the way to go to save yourself a couple hundred bucks but, if your time/hassle is worth anything, it might be worth just getting their fourth and be done with it. It's ok for light work and it'll mean that, should you decide to go for something with a little more grunt, you'll be able to just plug it in.

Thanks a lot Dharmic,

Are you saying that I could plug in any 4th axis unit and that it should be compatible?
I just noticed that they have controllers on their site, these or the ones we are speaking about don't we?
https://www.omiocnc.com/accessories/...ive-board.html

Many thank :-)
Kind regards, Robert

[dharmic]

Yes and no - mmpie's post (thank you) indicates that yes, you could just buy the 4th driver and wire it in. You'd still need to buy connectors, wire etc to wire it in and make up the required cable. You could wire in any 4 wire stepper that ran appropriately at a voltage and current compatible with the driver. But you'd need to stay in the same ball park of stepper size as is already used. The big let downs with the Omio 4th are a lack of frame stiffness if you don't use the tailstock, and the lack of torque - either for driving continuous 4th or just for holding it in position for indexed work. Some of the more expensive (but still sub-$1000) 4th axis stuff available on fleaBay with heavier frames, longer spindles and harmonic drives may help here.

[VisualConduct]

@dharmic, @RCavvin, @Mmpie,

Many thanks gentlemen, very helpful indeed :-)
I wrote an email to omiocnc and received a kind email from Lance saying that I could purchase a driver board (https://www.omiocnc.com/accessories/...ve-yoc556.html) together with the 3Axis machine and they would assemble it into the box. So yes that sounds pretty good to me!

Another question does someone has experience cutting silver or gold with this machine, and what about engraving with small details?


Regards, Robert

PS trying to register at omiocnc.com in order to start the purchase proces but did not receive a confirmation email (checked spam ofcourse), does it take a while for people to receive it?

[dharmic]

That's great, Robert.

My confirmation email came back within minutes, if it goes a day without hearing from them probably worth sending an email.

I've engraved mild steel on mine with lots and lots of very shallow passes, with a fine enough (10º, 0.1mm tip radius) D-bit engraver you can get down to around 0.2mm details if you're shallow enough.

[RCaffin]

Yeah, steel is Hard (forgive the pun). You need to go to German or Swedish carbide for that, and definitely up-market.
Just for example, you could try Kyocera 1620 stub length square end mills - they go down to 4 thou or 0.1 mm and up to HRC55 happily.

Cheers
Roger

[dharmic]

0.1mm endmill?

Sounds expensive because I know I'd have to buy something that titchy in boxes of 50 to allow for every damned time I plinked the end off one

[VisualConduct]

That's great, Robert.

My confirmation email came back within minutes, if it goes a day without hearing from them probably worth sending an email.

Yes I replied to Lance immediately about not receiving the confirmation mail.
The $200 promo ends on the 24th and at the moment its not possible to purchase the machine.
Don't want to miss out on that promo.

Thanks for the info on engraving, sounds promising :-)

Regards, Robert

PS I tried again and now i received to confirmation email.

[VisualConduct]

Just for example, you could try Kyocera 1620 stub length square end mills - they go down to 4 thou or 0.1 mm and up to HRC55 happily.

Cheers
Roger

Thats very small indeed, would I be able to cut trough 1mm thick silver with that, and what would be a good place to buy them?

Many thanks :-) Robert

[Mmpie]

@dharmic, @RCavvin, @Mmpie,

Many thanks gentlemen, very helpful indeed :-)
I wrote an email to omiocnc and received a kind email from Lance saying that I could purchase a driver board (https://www.omiocnc.com/accessories/...ve-yoc556.html) together with the 3Axis machine and they would assemble it into the box. So yes that sounds pretty good to me!

Another question does someone has experience cutting silver or gold with this machine, and what about engraving with small details?


Regards, Robert

PS trying to register at omiocnc.com in order to start the purchase proces but did not receive a confirmation email (checked spam ofcourse), does it take a while for people to receive it?

My confirmation email didn't come through, I ended up having to contact lance from a different email address and ask him to resend it to that one. It appears their email can be a bit funny, I thought it must have been mine at the time.

[RCaffin]

I had better add that few router spindles could handle such an end mill. The runout on the spindle (TIR) could easily be >0.1 mm. It could be a losing battle.

Could the Kyocera 0.1 mm end mill handle silver? With a good enough spindle, certainly. The 1620 units can handle steel. However, I think the best DoC for a 0.1 mm end mill is only about 0.3 mm, and that is for the 1610 series which is not meant for steel.

At that level of machining you are talking about very expensive spindles and very expensive cutters. I would suggest laser machining instead.

Cheers
Roger

[VisualConduct]

Since my ordered machine is on its way, its time to start some preparation.
I vaguely remember reading that Mach3 comes included with the machine.
Is this correct, or do I need to buy it separately?