I've seen some picture of the Syil DIY kits and noticed that everything is predrilled and threaded for fixing to the standard pickup points on the Sieg built machine.

Given the very precise alignment requirements for ballscrews published by many manufacturers just how is the alignment of the ballscrews achieved with this method, is it a case that the Sieg and Syil tolerences are so good (hard to believe!) that the Syil bits just bolt on or is there some adjustment built in to the ballscrew end supports/motors mounts and the ballnut block mounts?

Hi M100,

For the want of a better (some one with a kit and machine) answer I would guess that they make the mounting holes over sized to allow for adjustment. Maybe some one might jump in with the facts.

Just as a side note have you see these http://www.cncfusion.com/minimill1.html ?

John

Where the Syil kit needs to be aligned to existing holes, it is not predrilled. FWIW, the Syil conversion uses very few pre-existing holes (meaning, you end up drilling and tapping a LOT of holes in the mill).

Where the Syil kit needs to be aligned to existing holes, it is not predrilled. FWIW, the Syil conversion uses very few pre-existing holes (meaning, you end up drilling and tapping a LOT of holes in the mill).

That I could believe except ...... the attached image of a Syil conversion kit shows the ballnut blocks with pre-threaded holes. Do they use this as a basis to align the remainder of the ballscrew supports? But if so then slight articulation of the ballscrew would lead to lockup and effective means of alignment such as the use of a ground rod passsing through all three mounting points is not easy without removing the ballnuts from their mounts and replacing with turned concentric bushes none of which seem to be supplied.

While it is not possible to see anything else predrilled on this image elsewhere on this site (message 22 of this thread)

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23517&page=2

there is an picture of the Syil X axis drive end supports are shown predrilled and counterbored, on the wrong side so it would appear.

I've also accumulated many other pics of X2 and X3 conversions that appear "bolt on" Given the convoluted route to alignment explained in the X3 conversion articles here....

http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/projects/X3-CNC/index.html

....it makes me suspicious of anything so described!

To clairify, I should mention that mine was an X2 kit. On the plates where the thrust bearings are housed, there are predrilled holes for dowel pins but no predrilled holes for the cap screws (at least on my kit). There was considerable drilling and tapping involved in this conversion (particularly for the Z axis) and grinding (of the saddle for ballnut clearance and the base for y-axis leadscrew clearance). Obviously in the end it all bolts together but your mill will have a lot more holes in it than when you started. As was mentioned in that other thread, there is NO documentation for this kit (which made it a little ummm 'challenging' to build at times).

This same thread was started elsewhere on the forum at the same time.

Here was my post in answer to the fist post in that thread, (same as the first post in this thread)

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That's a good question M100

I believe many users of these kits just bolt everything up where it goes and because it works think that it is fine.

I fitted one of Syil's first few kits and there was a lot of fine tuning to be done to move holes slightly

and even remachine some surfaces before everything was aligned properly.

None of this was too difficult to do but just takes some time and care to get it all good.

Main thing is just don't assume because you can just bolt it together that it must be OK

If you can be bothered have a read of this thread that I had about the conversion.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23517

Greg

there is an picture of the Syil X axis drive end supports are shown predrilled and counterbored, on the wrong side so it would appear.



Yes they were counterbored from the wrong side despite Syil's reluctance to admit it. They sent me a new one.:)

Syil have since left those holes for the person doing the fitting to drill.

Greg