[digits]

Does anyone know where I can find out the spindle diameters of the X2 and X3 motors, or at least if they are the same?

Cheers.

[MIKE JEFFERS]

i'd ask ketan at arc
cobbled together a beltdrive for my x1 a wee while ago with some random
pullies i found at work (one's from an electric window motor dunno what the
other's off ) and a toothed belt from the same source.the small pully's about
2" dia and the big ones about 5"dia , after a bit of messing around with the
trimmers in the drive it dose 9600rpm when tach'ed (bit bloody scary at that tho, lot happier at 6000 ish)
think the x3 spindle is 8mm (but dont quote me on that)

[digits]

i'd ask ketan at arc
cobbled together a beltdrive for my x1 a wee while ago with some random
pullies i found at work (one's from an electric window motor dunno what the
other's off ) and a toothed belt from the same source.the small pully's about
2" dia and the big ones about 5"dia , after a bit of messing around with the
trimmers in the drive it dose 9600rpm when tach'ed (bit bloody scary at that tho, lot happier at 6000 ish)
think the x3 spindle is 8mm (but dont quote me on that)

Cheers, that is a good idea - I would probably be buying the motor from him anyway. I suppose it might even be worth asking if they can supply just an X2 spindle box ala littlemachineshop.com...

[philbur]

Is that on their website.

Regards
Phil

How very true!
.....I discovered a few days ago that warco in the UK are doing an X2 with a 550W motor and 300 of X and Y travel for a pretty reasonable price. ..........

[digits]

Is that on their website.

Regards
Phil

Sort of : http://www.warco.co.uk/shop.asp?catid=40&ProdId=286#286

The spec sheet is out of date - but I have now seen two magazine advertisments from them claiming that it has 300mm in X and Y as well as a 550W motor...

[MIKE JEFFERS]

that must be a different beast to a standard x2 or a typo
to get 300 mil in the y needs new castings allround including the head
to get more overhang. will watch with interest.

[digits]

that must be a different beast to a standard x2 or a typo
to get 300 mil in the y needs new castings allround including the head
to get more overhang. will watch with interest.

If you look at the pics, it doesn't look that similar to an X2 - it is identical to one of the pics on that X2 table thread though. I nearly went to their showroom to have a look last Sat - I couldn't trust myself not to buy one though

[MIKE JEFFERS]

not seeing this mate
just looks like a standard x2 albeit a green one
point me at the big x2 specs

[digits]

not seeing this mate
just looks like a standard x2 albeit a green one
point me at the big x2 specs

I think you'll have to pop out to a newsagent - the only specs I've seen and the picture which matches :



are in the last two issues of Model Engineers Workshop...

[MIKE JEFFERS]

dont think thats a seig made machine, but see it now.
its always the way inn'it i bought an x3 last year, few weeks later the super
x3 comes out then some other one i can't remember now this.
nearly as bad as(bloody) computers.
see simply cnc are doing the cnc kits for warco now.
mike

[digits]

dont think thats a seig made machine, but see it now.
its always the way inn'it i bought an x3 last year, few weeks later the super
x3 comes out then some other one i can't remember now this.
nearly as bad as(bloody) computers.
see simply cnc are doing the cnc kits for warco now.
mike

You're probably right - it might not be an X2, but it sure looks like a clone to me. Just a shame no one makes a clone with 500mm of X, 300mm of Y, 300mm of Z, a 1kW 8,000 rpm R8 spindle, THK linear bearings and a price tag of £500

Probably the only things stopping me 'upgrading' to whatever that is are a lack of money, the fact that I couldn't get it up the stairs in one piece (unlike the X1) and the fact that the Z-axis is a rack which would make CNC conversion more pricey. Ho hum...

[MIKE JEFFERS]

that z axis rack could present some problems
jon fettig was a great exponent of the x2 on here dunno if he's still
lurking about.
mike

[MIKE JEFFERS]

digits
pics of my belt conversion counterweight in "x1 counterweight" post
mike

[digits]

digits
pics of my belt conversion counterweight in "x1 counterweight" post
mike

Cheers Mike

[digits]

Well, I still don't know the shaft diameters of the X2 and X3 motors - anyone know what they are?

Also, has anyone mounted a high-speed spindle to the X1 head - I see littlemachineshop has a mount for the X2.

I am half tempted to try fitting an 800W Kress to my X1 for a bit of highspeed roughing - 800W should be good for removing 2 ci in/min of aluminium if the X1 frame can take it!

[digits]

Well, after another disappointing day of slow-mo milling, it looks like I am going to have to upgrade sooner rather than later. At 0.02" per pass at 10IPM on a 1/4" endmill, I have some parts that would take well over 40 hours to make! Even today's small design took over 3 hours to rough out to 1/3 completion

I really want 5-10x more performance, e.g. 0.1" depth @ 20IPM with a 1/4" endmill - can an X2 or X3 motor and spindle handle this, or do I need over 1HP?

I am also half tempted to try an 800W (1.1HP) Kress 800 FME with a 6mm collet for roughing - my hunch is that my X1 has both too little power and too slow a spindle speed to cut aluminium at any greater feed rates and both the X2 and X3 spindles don't really spin fast enough for Al unless you're using huge cutters.

[phantomcow2]

On my X3...
Motor is 8" long, and 3.75" wide. Shaft diameter I believe is 12mm, I have not looked inside the head for a while so I am not positive. It is definitely larger than 8mm.

Digits-
In June of 2006 I made some heavy duty modifications to my X1. First, I mounted a 1.5HP DC motor, yes 1.5HP. Here is the motor:
http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.as...tname=electric

I had a set of pulley's for the spindle and for the motor shaft. I ended up somewhere around 8000 for a top RPM. And there was PLENTY of power. This was one of the best upgrades I made to my X1 when I had it. THat thing really chowed down the aluminum...

Also, make efficient use of what you have - use roughing end mills!

[digits]

On my X3...
Motor is 8" long, and 3.75" wide. Shaft diameter I believe is 12mm, I have not looked inside the head for a while so I am not positive. It is definitely larger than 8mm.

Digits-
In June of 2006 I made some heavy duty modifications to my X1. First, I mounted a 1.5HP DC motor, yes 1.5HP. Here is the motor:
http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.as...tname=electric

I had a set of pulley's for the spindle and for the motor shaft. I ended up somewhere around 8000 for a top RPM. And there was PLENTY of power. This was one of the best upgrades I made to my X1 when I had it. THat thing really chowed down the aluminum...

Also, make efficient use of what you have - use roughing end mills!

:cheers:

If I lived in the US, I would be on those surplus motors like a shot - I might still investigate the shipping cost to the UK, but I'd guess a bit of wise shopping would get me something cheaper locally. I already have a 2HP 110/230v DC speed controller from Canada via eBay - I just need a chunky motor now and perhaps a beefier spindle now.

So how does the X1's frame cope with a 1.5HP motor? My current CAM software toolpaths are doing nasty things to my X1 - I can see the head assembly twisting on the dovetails I am seriously tempted to build a whole new Z and head assembly as stop gap to a much bigger machine.

Have you got any pics of your steriod enhanced X1 - and did you need to change the bearings to get to 8K rpm?

Cheers.

[phantomcow2]

The stock bearings were total crap, they hot very hot quickly. After a month or so of use at high speeds, they were shot. I replaced them with better bearings from vxb.com
I believe the dimensions are 25x42mm and 7 or 9mm thick.

My X1 had the extended table and extended base, it was a formidable machine. Probably the most rugged mill in it's size. If you don't have the extended base, BUY IT. Seriously, that is THE the best upgade you can make it. It literally increases dovetail contact 150%.

With that though, came a problem. There was this thin steel adapter plate that held the column to the base. Applying 40 pounds of force, I could flex the column backward almost .01" I believe. THis was applying force on the very top of the column though. That steel plate was so flexy because it was had counter bored holes, so there was maybe 3mm of steel doing the work!

So I got some 4140 prehard steel, 1.25" thick. I bridgeported it so size at work and surface ground it to parallelism within a couple tenth thousandths. Applying 100 pounds of force at the end, I was not even able to flex this thing .002". Needless to say, life was improved . The frame was fine with the 1.5HP. I never put the mill in a situation where it would use the full 1.5HP though.

Unfortunately, I deleted all of the pictures I had of that mill after I sold it on ebay .

One more thing. Any bolt that holds two things together that need to STAY together needs to be replaced with a bolt worthy of that duty. For example, bolting the column down to the base. I replaced the crappy m8 threads with grade 8 3/8"-16. THis applies a lot more force

[phantomcow2]

Also, at 1.5HP the weak link by far is the limitations that MT2 places on you. That is, small cutters! Rigidity of the machine becomes the factor here, no longer motor.