[WOTDesigns]

Contests on the new mill purchase! I'm really surprised you went novakon over tormach. I know the travels are larger and I remember you work on larger stuff and were building the x3 to build a larger cnc... so I guess the travels sold you?

Tormach support just blows me away and I plan on going that route soon, but I'm really looking forward to hearing about your experience with your new mill.

[MRM RCModels]

Contests on the new mill purchase! I'm really surprised you went novakon over tormach. I know the travels are larger and I remember you work on larger stuff and were building the x3 to build a larger cnc... so I guess the travels sold you?

Tormach support just blows me away and I plan on going that route soon, but I'm really looking forward to hearing about your experience with your new mill.

You guessed it; the travels sold me. Tormach customer service is great and the machine is very capable. I'd say a know a bit about CNC since building the X3 and router. Support really doesn't matter to me so much. The Novakon series 3 mill has all new electronics that I am familiar with already (Keling Drives, Canadian Steppers, and a VFD) so I can fix it if there is a problem.

Tried to keep the X3 in my shop for small projects, but there is simply no room. You never forget your first...

[Analias]

Hello folks,

I am the proud owner of this mill now. Kelvin has graciously agreed that these threads are about the machine and not so much about the owners, so I'm going to pick up this topic and continue the history of this little X3.

This is my first mill, although I have built a CRP-4848 that has triggered my obsession with CNC and machining.

My wife and I drove to S. Cal. from New Mexico to pick up the mill over the weekend. I can't say I ever want to let an impulse buy drive my life like that again. The trip was very short notice, as were the preparations. Gas prices steadily rose as we drove west. One cool event was seeing Virgin Galactic's White Knight Two flying into Edwards AFB as we were just driving into Rosemond. Very cool.

Once we picked up the rental trailer we loaded the mill, the base, the enclosure, and the rest of the equipment. While going through and collecting parts for the mill, Kelvin pointed me to a 9"x20" lathe that he had stopped working on a CNC conversion for once he got his very cool slant table lathe. Ten minutes later we shook hands on deal to put the lathe and the rest of the CNC conversion parts into the trailer. My wife wasn't thrilled, but had to admit the price was right. It should be a good first project for the X3 to make parts for.

The trip back was nearly uneventful, except my bouncing the tongue of the trailer hard when exiting after a gas stop. We had done a pretty good job of loading and tying down the contents of the trailer, but we hadn't counted on the mill jumping vertically. It broke the furniture trolley it was on and ended up wedged between the wall and the bench. The Y-axis motor wiring got chewed up a bit, but doesn't appear to be broken.

Once we got home, I had some friends come and help me move the mill to my basement shop. Little beast was heavy and everyone bailed out at the last minute just shy of getting it up on the bench.

My son and I built a ramp tonight using an old solid core 8' x 3' door that I have been using as a bench for many years. As the pictures show we dropped the casters to keep the table for rolling and used a wench to pull the mill up the ramp. I double strapped the anchor end of the wench just in case one wasn't enough. There was no problem getting the mill up on the bench and positioned it to be bolted down. Kelvin did a great job on the base. Hard to believe a wood bench could be this stout.

The cleanup revealed that the wiring on the stepper is recoverable, with no broken wires or breaks to close to the motor to fix. I did find a broken housing on the X-axis limit switch, and the wiring to the Y-axis switch got pulled out. Both are minor problems.

Before I can test the mill, I still need to reconnect the controller and PC. To do any real work, I'll need to find an air compressor (to drive the misting system and tool changer), and I need to get some basic tooling (R8 collets, or at least an R8 ER20 collet). Seeing Kelvin's shop in person has convinced me I need to plumb for air as he did, especially since it would be a nice addition to shop for the lathe and my CRP-4848 CNC router table.

Kelvin pretty much did everything I would want done to a mill. Future ideas include TTS tooling, a tool changer, a fourth axis. If I find the mill isn't rigid enough, I may use it as an excuse to learn how to weld and build a bench and enclosure that provides some support making the Z-axis more rigid. I'm thinking a 4"x4" or 6"x6" steel tubular column with bracing on either side.

If your interested, check out my build thread for my CRP-4848 here... http://www.cnczone.com/forums/open_s...t_machine.html

-Freeman (Analias)

[MRM RCModels]

Glad to see everything made it back in one piece. I'll fill you in on the lathe cnc later.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[Fastest1]

Are you referring to the Dyna? More pics please.

Glad to see everything made it back in one piece. I'll fill you in on the lathe cnc later.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[ViperTX]

Kevin, I thought you lived in Houston?

Paul

Congratulations Analias.

[MRM RCModels]

Are you referring to the Dyna? More pics please.

Oh no Fastest. The Dyne stayed with me! I finished that conversion a while back. Didn't update the thread due to the low interest. I'll post some completed pics in that thread later.

[Analias]

It looks like the plastic covers on the Honeywell limit switches are getting brittle. Not sure if it is simply age or if it an be the KoolMist coolant Kelvin used. I saw mention that KoolMist coolant may be hard on some plastics. The switch shown here with the broken cover came from the X-axis. It would have had the most exposure to coolant. The other switch is showing signs of fatigue where the strain relief collar is. There are fine cracks running along the vertical screws that hold the cover on.

A quick google showed that these switches are still available for about $23/ea at Mouser. Shame though, the body of the switches are all aluminum. Only the non-critical plastic bits failed. If I had a way to seal them they would continue to work.

I could seal them in clear polyurethane, latex, or Sugru. I could embed a connector, or do a direct connect. If they fail, I could then replace them.

Anyone know if it is possible to simply buy the covers?

[LeeWay]

That is a shame. I use Koolmist and it does degrade polycarbonate for certain. It makes it brittle and prone to cracking. Just the opposite of what polycarbonate is designed to do.
It could be that the parts are molded out of polycarbonate or that Koolmist also degrades other types of plastic.

This would be a part that you could mill out if you had a cnc mill.

Just get you some decent billet material and have at it. Koolmist does NOT degrade aluminum.

[Fastest1]

The very few of us who own one love your thread. The rest are just jealous LOL. More pics and a video or 2 of it actually making something?

Oh no Fastest. The Dyne stayed with me! I finished that conversion a while back. Didn't update the thread due to the low interest. I'll post some completed pics in that thread later.

[diyengineer]

This thread is about my CNC'd X3 mill and this post is about what I've spent my time building with it. From the beginning the X3 was made to produce a large CNC router. I originally wanted to get it machined out by a local shop. The price was over $11,000 for the few pieces I needed machined :bs: (flame2) = not doing that. I dropped $3,000 into CNC'ing a X3 and the result is what you see here. Funny thing is that I gained a ton of experience and ended up with two CNC machines . Everything on this router minus the 8020 and control console was produced with my CNC'd X3 mill. Now I have two CNC Machines :banana:.

Big ups to Hoss for writing up how he did his console. Gave me the idea to roll my own.

That's a gorgeous control panel!

[MRM RCModels]

That's a gorgeous control panel!

Thx :cheers:
_________________________________________

Analias,

I never could find a supplier of just the switch covers. I just replaced them every year or so. I like the idea of making replacements, but from what material? Will be cool to see what you come up with.

MRM

[rwskinner]

Koolmist eats the heck out of them. I started drawing up some aluminum covers in Alibre to replace them but never finished. I tried everything to get replacement covers from Honeywell but honestly, Honeywell acted like they didn't even know these switches existed. After hours on end waiting on the phone I gave up.

I ended up just making nice aluminum boxes with optical switches.

The covers are very fragile by design to begin with and KM coolant makes them even worst and more brittle.

Richard

It looks like the plastic covers on the Honeywell limit switches are getting brittle. Not sure if it is simply age or if it an be the KoolMist coolant Kelvin used. I saw mention that KoolMist coolant may be hard on some plastics. The switch shown here with the broken cover came from the X-axis. It would have had the most exposure to coolant. The other switch is showing signs of fatigue where the strain relief collar is. There are fine cracks running along the vertical screws that hold the cover on.

A quick google showed that these switches are still available for about $23/ea at Mouser. Shame though, the body of the switches are all aluminum. Only the non-critical plastic bits failed. If I had a way to seal them they would continue to work.

I could seal them in clear polyurethane, latex, or Sugru. I could embed a connector, or do a direct connect. If they fail, I could then replace them.

Anyone know if it is possible to simply buy the covers?

[enyaw]

It looks like the plastic covers on the Honeywell limit switches are getting brittle....

Anyone know if it is possible to simply buy the covers?

Machine some?

[Analias]

Machine some?

That's the plan. Although, since this is my first mill, and spent all my cash reserves on it - I have to wait a bit for cash levels to rise up high enough to afford tooling. All I have is an R8 drill chuck for the mill at the moment - hehe.

Anyone have any recommendations on how to initially tool up? I was thinking of at least getting an R8 ER20 collet holder, since I have some investment in ER20 collets for my CNC router. What's the best path to take?

[Jay C]

Or, you could cast some new ones. Amazing putty plus some Alumilite and you could pour a new one as needed. Requires you have a good cover to start with.

[Analias]

I'm in the market for some R8 tooling at the moment for use on the X3. Is it safe to assume that "all" R8 tooling found on the market and most notably on Ebay has the standard drawbar threading of 7/16-20? Does the X3 have a standard 7/16-20 drawbar?

I'm not sure what is the best solution for tooling just starting out, but I thought I would start with some R8 collets for now until I have learned more. Would my money be better spent starting with a Tormach R8 adapter and a ER20 collet? I already have a full set of ER20 collets for my CNC router.

If anyone has a set of R8 collets they want to part with cheaply or R8 ER20 tool holder , I'm willing to hear offers.

[H500]

The er25 collet chuck from I got from ebay used a metric drawbar that I had to make. The chuck wasn't accurate. I had to shim it to get the runout below .001.

[cornbinder23]

Go TTS if you can swing it, all the options you could think of, works for manual or cnc/toolchanger options
It is what I use on my SX3 and my RF-31, heck I even use them in my toolpost on the lathe for boring.

JTCUSTOMS

[Analias]

With the Holidays comes our end of year profit sharing bonus. I was finally able to tool up the X3 with orders from Little Machine Shop, Tormach, Shars, and a couple items from EBay (one being TTS ER-20 collet tool holders).

Along with tooling I also took a chance on a HF 2.5 HP 21 gal 125 PSI air compressor. It was on sale, we'll see if I will regret it. I can run the power draw bar, an air nozzle, and hopefully the Fogbuster. Before I hook the Fogbuster up, I want to make sure that there is no problem with setting the regulator on the air compressor for 90 PSI for the power draw bar and air nozzle, and have it feed the Fogbuster? There appears to be a small regulator on the Fogbuster, and my unit also has a solenoid that is controlled from Mach3.

Is it safe to feed it with 90 PSI, or do I need to insert another regulator inline?