[replicapro]

I bought this mill from Bob at www.lathemaster.com for $895.00 plus $175 Shipping. He shipped it out on monday morning 6-14-04 and it arrived in NJ on 6-16-04
I opted to save a few bucks since the trucking company was only down the road, and I picked it up my self.

Here is a view of the 400 lb crate in my truck as I pulled out of the trucking company parking lot


This mill seemed to look at me through the rear view mirror all the way home

Popping the top off I got my first look at the mill



Not having any one to help and me being very impatent, I mounted some 2x4's to my bench with 3 inch screws and "walked the mill up to the bench top.
I would never do this again, it was very heavy.
My bench is actually a solid oak stand I had my 300 gallon fish tank on before I mounted my fish tank in the wall. So if the bench can handle the weight of 300 gallons at 10 lbs per gallon then I knew it would be safe for the mill. But for extra measure I stacked 4 16 inch square concrete blocks inside the bench to prevent an accident





I ran the mill through its 7 min breakin cycle and cleaned the red packing grease off with wd-40 and rags.
The only axis that shows any sign of needing tightening is the X axis. When I get back out there, i'll take some more photos.

If any one wants photos taken or info on the mill, please let me know and I will try and do it for you.
So far im very impressed with the mill, and extremly satisfied with www.lathemaster.com for a top notch transaction and super fast delivery.

[IJ.]

Don't ya just LOVE brand new machine ! Congrats.

[july_favre]

Id like to know the specs on the mill. I doesnt look like the one on thier website they have for $1395.

[replicapro]

www.siegind.com is where you can get the specs on it.
The one on their site is the rong fu clone, not the X3.
Bob does not list the X3 because they are alway sold out. He basically goes by word of mouth.

[Falcon]

Looks nice. I would like to see a pic with someone standing next to it ,for scale. [to see how big it is] Looks good. Let us know how it works.

[starCNC]

How's this mill compare to the one from Homecnc's website? its from enco

[calkai1]

Here you go!!
detailed photos and X-3 review under "Workshop"""
http://tedatum.com/thms/index.html

[calkai1]

Here you go!!
detailed photos and X-3 review under "Workshop"""
http://tedatum.com/thms/index.html

[mineralman]

Congratulations on the X3. I bought mine about 1 yr. ago from Bob (fantastic doing business with him.) The tooling he sells for it is very nice. I have the Lathemaster 1" stub arbor, and the fly cutter. Good stuff. Overall, the X3 is a very solid piece of equipment. Are you planning on CNCing it?

Larry
New Orleans

[replicapro]

Ya Bob was super quick.
I just wish someone would sell me a CNC kit for it. I have requests out to a few known companies but everyone is so busy these days.

Im probably going to put a combination of camtronics electronics kits and industrial hobbies to retro this mill.
Industrial offers more of a complete package, being that he makes the motor mounts, ballscrews and such.

The z axis is going to need a hole drilled in the top of the colum to connect the motor.

The rest of the mill should be a snap to retro. Everything is so easy to take apart.

[MetDetect]

I'm doing an industrial hobbies retro on the larger lathemaster mill right now.

I finished this three inch Y axis spacer tonight. Industrial Hobbies has a 1 inch spacer available to increase Y axis travel an inch. After talking to Aaron I decided to push it out 3 inches. She bolts up to the mill with 3/8 grade 8 bolts.


The metal stands for this mill were too small so I built a stand from wood and purchased a shopfox mobile base rated for 1200 pounds. Those huge leveling feet are an Industrial Hobbies tip, those are 99 cent hockey pucks. This stand has since been outfitted with some 3/8 bolts (just in case) and a 32x48 inch chip/coolant pan.


Here's a pic of the kit, very cool stuff.