I have been cleaning up a Taig 2019CR-ER that was mistreated. A friend of mine was using it to purposefully trash the spindle bearings for testing a diagnostic system he was working on. He put 300-400 hours of time on it, running it about 15 hours a day six or seven days a week. It was milling down large plates of 1/2" 6061 AL an 1/8" at a time after all the lubrication had been removed from the spindle bearings. He never cleaned it, once every few weeks he would scoop up a few gallons of shavings and keep going. He was using a water soluble cutting fluid applied with a mister and using Vactra to lube the machine.
I was pleasantly surprised at how well the little Taig fared with this type of treatment. The dovetails on the saddle has a small bit of galling, but it really was not too bad. There was no oxidation anywhere either. I gave Taig a call and asked what they thought about lapping the ways similar to how you do on the Taig lathe (very mild abrasive and oil as a lapping compound.) They thought that would work fine.
My conclusion is that if you make half an effort to lubricate the machine with a suitable lube and clean the gunk out of it every once in a while it will serve you very well.
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Jeff Birt |