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You seem very biassed about this; so what's the full story? There are a lot of users reporting problems or very long shipping delays and potential buyers should know about that. I for one have...

Its a public service announcement - Skyfire is obviously falling down on the job and potential buyers need to be warned of the deceptive behaviour on Facebook.

Thanks for the info, I will give it 18" clearance behind the machine. From what I have seen, I will probably replace the pump on day 1 with a higher flow model. Right before using up a tube or 2 of...

Hi SVM2L owners,

Can you recommend how much room to leave behind and to the right of the machine for maintenance? I need to figure out how the SVM2L will fit in the shop and space it tight. I...

LOL, welcome to the Sieg club! I think there is a rule that at least one part on every mill HAS to be badly hand scraped. Mine also had a very rough Z gib and after some light smoothing, it was well...

Wouldn't it be more efficient to buy a replacement from Little Machine Shop? Failing that, you could shim the back of the gib. The Z gib on my SX3 ran out of adjustment range and adding a brass shim...

That's a well made enclosure you have there; perhaps I am over complicating things. If I hinge the front like yours it will be WAY simpler to build and probably just as much access.

After seeing this very cool lathe and the amazing enclosure that Guldberg built, I just had to combine the two into design of my own!

http://www.lovingangels.com/Nick/cnc_lathe.JPG

...

I am moist with precipitation, which is making is quite difficult to dry out all the quartz chips :(. While I wait for finer weather, I am busy making several other parts of the project, stay tuned!

It turns out that all but two of the screws into the SX3 base come flush with the inside surface, so protecting them from the epoxy is just a matter of squirting a little of this urethane over the...

No, the urethane is just to protect the ends of the bolts from the epoxy; I read that the gritty epoxy is very abrasive and will wear off the regular kinds of mould release agents and then lock them...

Plenty of progress on the epoxy-filled mill base; 3 of the 4 sizes of silica have arrived and the 4th size has to be crushed from the largest size. The West Systems 105 epoxy and hardener has also...

I started out on the epoxy stone by buying a 20Kg bag of crushed quartz from a landscaping supplier and ordering the finer grades from an on-line ceramics supply shop. The landscaping quartz is...

Yep, we are all learning here! I never had such a small part go out of tolerance from temperature change - you must have gotten it really smoking or you are keeping very fine dimensions.

How does...

Thanks Bubba, That's an excellent suggestion! I wish I had found that store a week ago; if my integrated flow control doesn't work so well, that is the exact part I will need:cheers:

Making an oiler is an exercise in constructive laziness – put in the work now to avoid more work later on.

http://www.lovingangels.com/Nick/_6170389.JPG

Cost is around $288, with the pump...

Cisco PIX? I'm not even sure I remember what they looked like, were they coal-fired or something? :)

Thanks for the link, Matt. I plan to very much the same thing, except since my mill is all dissasembled, I will put the base on the flat plate- its going to be easier on my arms :). I plan to start...

Time for some machine p0rn :)

I work in IT, so this huge old server case came at no cost, marked down from around $20K when new. It comes with slide-out rails, so the plan is to install it under...

Thanks,

My aim is to build a really good mill for less than the cost of the factory version and I am keeping every last dollar accounted for; I'm pretty much on track.

I located a good...

A gap is completely normal and necessary. If there was no gap, you couldn't insert a wedge to release the chuck from the tool holder. On the unlikely chance you do not get a good fit, a thin coating...

Build progress:
Take it as read that I bought an SX3, carted it home and promptly voided warranty by totally disassembling it.

Interesting stuff:
As posted elsewhere, the X axis ways are...

To-do list
Here are my main action items, roughly in the order they need to happen:

Lap the ways on each axis
Most of the surfaces already look pretty good although one of the ways on...

Suppliers (mostly in Australia)

Promica – X3 conversion kit
An excellent CNC kit; not cheap but good value for money and the owner is extremely helpful.

Homann Designs - electronics
...

Hi,
After many years of manual hobbyist machining I am upgrading to a CNC’ed Sieg SX3 mill. The goal is to give the SX3 as many ‘pro’ features as possible so it produces better parts with less...

Problem solved - two ways!

Hare & Forbes is quite happy to replace all the dodgy parts and even has the parts in stock - 10 out of 10 for offering to send out a fitter to swap the parts at my...

Hi Neil what part of Australia do you hail from?

I also started off by lapping the dodgy side on a flat plate, but then I got to thinking that by the time all the marks were ground out, that side...

Hi,

I started tuning up my SX3 mill and discovered that one of the X axis ways is in very poor condition; it looks like it was badly made and then partly fixed by hand scraping. The photo below...

That's a huge vice for an X2! As I understand it, the rear mounting lug is bumping into the column and you can't get both lugs over the table slots. The best option I can see is to hack off the rear...

Good thinking, I completely forgot about the vice overhang! I am hoping to use some really nice panels I salvaged from computer racks. They are not quite large enough to from a base that size, so I...