[ataxy]

Ok after 2-3 weeks of ownership of a syil x4+ i tought id post back in this thread in regarde to the z gibs and my experience with them first anf foremost thx to keith at syil canada for answering my 2000 phone call and i definitly hope syil china will listen as well as he is doing to my opinion and critsism and idea on how to make the product better, now on with the main subject

There is definitly out of the box more then you would wish play and that is on all axis, but this post is about the play on the z axis and i will shift back just after those few line to that famous z axis, now the x and y axis where in desperate need of adjustement when it got here i actualy had about a 5 degree wiggle on both axis but this was pretty straight foward to fix tighten the screw that in fron and on the right side of the saddle until you get the table and saddle tight and running smooth, i highly recommend you tighten those screw in 1 degree increment until you get them right, or if you prefer until the motor of the axis starts to miss step then back up one or two degree also check them you should not lap you gibs to a 100% flat but close and you will gain in stifness and ease of movement for your motor when the gibs are tight, if you dont agree with me well call the nhl and tell them that all hockey player should scratch there blade.

Now the z gibs is a bit harder to adjust and i highly recommend that you get a BFS, more commoly known as a Big Fakin Screwdriver, you know the one with the thick 5/8 wide flat blade you will need it, you will need to first loosen the bottom screw a bit just to relive the pressure of the z gibs and now with you BFS start to unscrew the top screw and take it off, after that gently by taping the BFS with the palm of you hand start taking out the gibs by inserting the flat head in the notch of the gibs ounce you are done take out the gibs and clean it using a good toxic solvent that will eventualy give you some sort of disease, now that you are done here is what you will need to do... lap the bugger, simple hey, just make sure that the side that as the sort of fish scale pattern keps its pattern on atleast 5% to 10% of its surface this will help in keeping the surface lubricated the other three side can be lapped to a flat polished surface make sur while you lap it that you are respecting the angle of the gibs and dont over do it, you dont want to take 0.010 of each face a good 0.001 should be enough to make the gib operate better also the slot on the gib, at least on mine where all crooked file them so they become square and perpendicular to the gib this will help the screw apply its force in a straight down motion instead of applying it slightly sideway, you might belive it wont change much but i belive every little bit count on those machine.now insert back the z gibs and allready you will notice a big difference in the side slack the head has, mine went from ~0.025 down to ~0.01 now the next part will take alot of the rest of the slack the head might still have, by pushing up under the head in the front of it you will notice that the head slightly rock up and down on the dove tail for that part get someone to help you out, as you gently rock the head up and down tighten the screw more this for me brought the slack in the head down to a way more comfy ~0.002 slack when i push with my hand and i did this alone so if you are two you might be able to tight it to 0.0005 wich will be i think the best you will get ou of this machine now just to point out the the 0.025 and 0.01 i was able to make just using my thumb the 0.002 is with my whole hand pushing on the head if you have any other trick you would like to share that might help me or other owner of the x4/x4+ then please do.

I have so far been disapointed with certain aspect of the machine that i think the end user should not have to deal with when you buy a brand new machine, but i must admit that at the same time it been a pretty good thing to have to fuss around and tweak it to make it an even better machine by making you go around it and to figure out where all the screw and adjustment are.