[dharmic]

I joined the forum recently, looking for information on a "next step". I've had a SIEG manual lathe and mill for years and use them for the occasional hobby project. A year or so ago I bought a SeeMeCNC Rostock Max 3D printer and have been having fun with that but, particularly for dive equipment, prints just won't hold a seal or pressure without some form of post processing.

Still. In that process I've learned to enjoy going straight from a CAD model to production (obviously with a few steps along the way) and the manual gear has lost its shine.

So time for a mill - eventually I'd love a 5 axis machine plus the software and skill to drive it, to replace the lathe and mill both. But that ain't going to happen for a long time yet. I had a look at a mate's KX3-servo SIEG but it just didn't have the throat depth for a couple of projects I want to try.

Limited by shipping costs and availability in Australia, eventually it boiled down to three choices.
- A larger version of the X3 mill, replacing the leadscrews with ballscrews, steppers/servos etc;
- A bigger knee mill with a similar retrofit;
- A gantry type machine.

Problem with the first two is that I intend doing a lot of small/fine stuff so I want a much smaller tool and high speed spindle - problematic with these guys. Plus I want to get started on using the thing first time around, not spend months trying to get the tool working.

Still, lots of reading and learning about frame types and rigidity and appropriate choice of ways etc has helped here.

Yesterday I dropped the hammer on an OmioCNC (formerly carving-cnc) X6-2200L-USB with the 4th axis. X6-2200L (4-axis) Woodworking / Metalworking CNC Router --OMIOCNC(Carving-CNC) -omiocnc.com

This one caught my attention due to the large motors, the use of 20mm Hiwin rails instead of the more common round unsupported ones, the USB controller which apparently actually works out of the box. I figure that the low Z height can be taken care of with a higher gantry with wider spaced "feet" to account for the extra leverage and I'd only need to replace the rails and leadscrew on the Z to get better travel. But we'll see.

If nothing else it was a cheap way to get me into the game and give me the tools to build something better if I need it. We shall see!

Supposedly be here in a couple of weeks, I shall report on the inevitable DHL wallet rampage and unpacking etc as we go.

Oh, and a pic. Coz everyone likes pics.

[dharmic]

Well, only two weeks but it felt like forever.

I thought I'd use the waiting time to clean the shed up a bit but got dragged interstate for work instead. The idea of leaving it in the boxes until the shed was clean lasted until about ten seconds after I got the boxes on the trolley at home today.

Shipping was relatively painless apart from a couple of days of DHL dicking me around because they couldn't work out whether they did or didn't have my mobile number. I did get hit for GST and another AUD80 in customs handling fees at this end, total of about AUD270 on top which didn't bother me at all.

Unboxed and assembled in about 25 minutes. A few nice things after reading a lot of horror stories on the 3020 etc machines...
- Well packed, one small ding in the bed right at the back that I don't care about.
- The threads were clean, correctly sized etc. Only one bolt was a little tight, everything else just slid home.
- Cable chain didn't seem tight at all.
- Controller box came with an Australian power plug - now I'm impressed!
- All the assembly points had marks on them indicating this thing had already been assembled in the shop before being broken down for shipping. This makes me happy: they've not just thrown a bunch of bits in a box and sent it, they've made a unit then prepped it for shipping.

I haven't fired it up yet, need to go through their config instructions and files on a laptop to get it ready to go. Fortunately it's USB so I don't need to hunt down extra cards and crap, I just dig my old lappy out of the cupboard and get rolling. Weekend job.

Photo looks remarkably similar to their advertising pages which also makes me feel a little warm and fuzzy inside.

[aarggh]

The extra fees are a shame, why didn't they mark the packages as "$40 worth of second-hand farm tools" like they normally do! ;-)

Good looking machine, I was very happy with my 6040, and the spindle is great, you'll love it over using a router.

Happy machining!

cheers, Ian

[dharmic]

They did knock it down but the Aussie Peso is so ****e at the moment that just the shipping nearly took it over the threshold. And I've had that much come through without being hit I don't mind copping this one on the chin.

[dharmic]

Quick update. Couldn't get it going yesterday but tried again today with a new install of Mach3 and hey hey, it's all running.

A little bit of a mismatch between their tool setter documentation and the on-screen settings available in Mach3 but nothing a little mental arithmetic can't sort out.

Only testing with a fibreboard floating floor offcut at the moment but 3000mm/min feedrate seems perfectly fine with a 0.5mm depth of cut.

Still need to see how it goes with aluminium, and plug in the 4th axis for a bit of a play.

But so far, so good. I'm quite impressed with how this is going.

[Mike Fry]

Quick update. Couldn't get it going yesterday but tried again today with a new install of Mach3 and hey hey, it's all running.

A little bit of a mismatch between their tool setter documentation and the on-screen settings available in Mach3 but nothing a little mental arithmetic can't sort out.

Only testing with a fibreboard floating floor offcut at the moment but 3000mm/min feedrate seems perfectly fine with a 0.5mm depth of cut.

Still need to see how it goes with aluminium, and plug in the 4th axis for a bit of a play.

But so far, so good. I'm quite impressed with how this is going.

Quote dharmic;1733548 -Hi,I need some advice and you may be the right person to contact. I have just set up my OMIO machine identical to yours. I followed instructions provided, and I have Mach 3 software working on the laptop, power is through to the motors but when I adjust the X and Y on Mach 3 the motors don't respond and neither does the spindle. I transferred the code as directed but I am thinking I have not configured settings correctly, maybe the ports and pins? Is there something I have missed, can't get past test.

[Streken]

Quick update. Couldn't get it going yesterday but tried again today with a new install of Mach3 and hey hey, it's all running.

A little bit of a mismatch between their tool setter documentation and the on-screen settings available in Mach3 but nothing a little mental arithmetic can't sort out.

Only testing with a fibreboard floating floor offcut at the moment but 3000mm/min feedrate seems perfectly fine with a 0.5mm depth of cut.

Still need to see how it goes with aluminium, and plug in the 4th axis for a bit of a play.

But so far, so good. I'm quite impressed with how this is going.

Hi, sorry to dig up this old post, but can you elaborate on the mental arithmeticyou did to set up the tool setter? No dice for me.

[ProperWood]

Rats.

Oh, I followed the directions for the tool presetter - it worked...once. Still trying to repeat it.

[dharmic]

Happy days. Plenty of tuning required but I'm very happy with how easily this thing munches aluminium!

OmioCNC first cut - YouTube

[swt180]

Hey Mate, I too have the X6-2000L, got it delivered about 2 weeks or so ago. All i can say is that i am so disappointed with it at this moment. It looks like you were lucky with your one...or i was just super unlucky. As there any chance you can measure the runout of your spindle for me? Both with an endmill in a collet and the inside bore of the spindle itself without the nut and collet. I just switched my spindle on and it is vibrating and rattling like crazy and the bottom where the collet goes, nut and shaft is all getting warm to the touch (5 min of running not actually cutting anything) and I have the water cooling connected and running.

[dharmic]

Next time I'm down the shed I'll have a look.

But I haven't checked because I never felt the need to. When mine's up and running I have to look closely to even see that it's running - there's zero discernable wobble and zero vibration unloaded. The spindle/collet hadn't warmed up and water was coming out cold after cutting the part in the video above.

With a sample population of two I don't know whether I got lucky or you got unlucky. Have you sent an email back to Grace? She was very helpful with a couple of minor shipping and build questions I had, very fast response.

[swt180]

No i havent spoken to her about this issue yet, but the others yes. I will email tomorrow and see what they say, if its anything like the other issues i have had, it will be nothing but a challenge to get anything useful from them

[dharmic]

Damn. I'm sorry to hear that. I've been lucky enough that my queries so far have only been looking for info, not for replacements for crap parts. Good luck - don't be afraid to sing out if they drop the ball, warn others etc.

[swt180]

Yep as soon as i get everything sorted ill update with the issues i have had.

[dharmic]

Today's little game was to build a new pressurestat tube bolt for my La Pavoni coffee machine. Basically a hex bolt, 17mm across the flats, 3/8 x 28tpi thread with a hole through the guts into which the copper tube is silver soldered. Yeah, so brass it is.

Well, I managed to play manual G-code driving and happily did the indexing and flat milling on the hex head. Almost.

Anyone looking at the 4th axis option please bear in mind this thing is made of cheese. Brass, 6mm HSS cutter, running about 5000RPM. 3mm stepover. About a 1.5m/min feed rate. 0.25mm depth of cut was ok, a little rough. 0.5mm depth of cut jogged the 4th axis stepper a tooth. Lol.

Dry runs of the thread cut with a 60º V bit looked promising, but muggins here managed to snap the only 60º bit I had jogging the thing around trying to find a zero. Which is ok, because I then put it on the lathe and managed to snap my thread cutter on that, too <grr>. I could have re-ground that one but decided that the universe was telling me something. Like it was time to just buy a new nut, get the coffee machine fixed and have a brew.

[markyparky]

Hi chaps,

this thread is probably best placed for my question. I am half decided to buy either X4L or X6L. Mostly for plastic, plywood, acrylic, FR4 and some Aluminium too (I am aware that this type of chassis has its limits...). Basically hobbyist to serious hobbyist level stuff I have two questions if you don't mind.
1) is it reasonable machine for my needs described above or you'd rather class it as a Chinese crap? (I am currently half way through this thread so I don't have a complete picture yet).
2) is there anybody who bought it (or anything from Omio CNC) recently? What was the paypal nickname you paid to? I will have to go for a custom order and buy just the frame only (as I have my own drivers and all stuff). Long story short I can't simply navigate to their eshop and click add to cart and process payment via paypal. I am only in touch with them via email. We agreed on the deal that I'll provide my details and they'll send me a paypal request. In fact I have no clue if I am talking with real Omio salesman or not.

Many thanks,
Jan

[Dukenukem117]

Do you think the rotary tool would be good enough for wood? Or if there is an after-market part that you can purchase and install?

[dharmic]

Soft wood and plastic with a small cutter running low feed rates and super high spindle speed? It'd be absolutely fine.

There are many aftermarket A axis bolt-ons available of varying quantity and cost. This would be the equivalent of the $250 eBay ones. Small, very light and bendy frame, low power motor.

Still, like everything else on this mill: if I need to make it tougher, I can make a new frame with bearings and a longer shaft and boost up to a NEMA-34 motor but still use the other bits (chuck, stepper driver etc).

[Dukenukem117]

Soft wood and plastic with a small cutter running low feed rates and super high spindle speed? It'd be absolutely fine.

There are many aftermarket A axis bolt-ons available of varying quantity and cost. This would be the equivalent of the $250 eBay ones. Small, very light and bendy frame, low power motor.

Still, like everything else on this mill: if I need to make it tougher, I can make a new frame with bearings and a longer shaft and boost up to a NEMA-34 motor but still use the other bits (chuck, stepper driver etc).

So if I understand this correctly, and I'm looking to crank out a low production run of engraved wooden cylinders, the specs that would let me increase the speed and have good resolution are:

- Router spindle power (higher the better)
- Rotary motor power (higher the better)
- Rotary frame material (stronger the better)
- Rotary gear ratio (higher the better?)

[Dukenukem117]

That's good to know!

On a scale from 1-10 for the level of technical expertise this requires, with 1 being a complete newbie and 10 being a seasoned machinist, where does this machine sit? I've been looking for an affordable home CNC and this one certainly fits my budget, but I don't want something that requires constant calibrations, maintenance, and debugging. I don't necessarily want to learn how to build one from the ground up as I use it for design work and not as a hobby (although I probably will to some degree).

Do you think these inexpensive Chinese CNC's are better for tinkerers who have the time to figure them out, or are they reliable enough to meet deadlines?