Jewelers X2 mini mill mods.

[copper3416]

First I need to thank Mxtras whom I met here on the zone. He is helping a great deal to make what you see below possible.We are working to make the x2 mini mill my jewelers mill. He has given his time well above the call of duty as well as his shop.

Mill at the start before breakdown,cleanup,and deburring all edges with a portable belt sander.Breakdown was easy as you just remove all the screws.

After disassembly this pic shows the setup for milling the x2 mill base flat with a roughing mill.

This shows the alum bars we tapped and screwed to the base.They were 3x1.This was done to give more clamping flexability to the Bridgeport t slots. The clamps would not fit on the existing x2 mill base bolt hole tabs correctly.We then flycut them flat so we could indicate the top of the base.

We then cut the 55 degree dovetail to 60 degrees.This was the only dovetail cutter we had so we went with the 60.The reason we did this is because the dovetail was 15 thousandths out of parallel.Not good for a tight fitting cast bearing surface such as moglice.

This shows yellow modelers clay pressed into the dovetail angle recess.This was done by rolling snakes and then pressing them into the angle recess with the but of a drill bit.This will allow for a nice nice radius and ensure a good moglice release.The the top of the base was then sprayed with a parting spray.

The saddle has been roughed and the gib ground on a bench grinder.This was done to increase the surface area for a great moglice bond.The card stock strips were used behind the gib to allow for later gib adjustment room and to help the gib release from the saddle after the moglice was injected and hardened.

This shows the new holes we drilled in the saddle for the moglice to be able to enter.The holes were indicated and are to be redrilled after the moglice hardens to allow for oil to enter to the new moglice bearing surface at a later date.This also shows the cardstock setup that will get trimmed with a razorblade.The gib is tapped at this point and the srews are pulling the gib towards the saddle with the cardstock firmly sandwiched in the middle.

This shows the plate we built to hold the saddle parallel and stable to the mill base using the already existing holes of the machine.This also shows the weeping hole oozing moglice if you look carefully on the right of the alum plate which allowed for air escape and a good moglice fill.This also shows the M1 moglice injector I bought from the local animal hospital.Sorry the millitary got to me.*snicker*.The weep holes and all seams were blocked with modelers clay for the injection.You can also see the weep hole on the other side has been plugged as that side was done first.You can see the clamp but I will explain that in the next picture.

This shows the indicator that was used to tell us how far to to tighten the clamps as the the front aluminum plate wanted to flex and lift the saddle from the base.The top of the saddle is still to be machined but we wanted it flat as possible.

This is a better shot of the clamp going through the mill base that connects to a cross bar layed across the underneath the mill base.The clamp holds this in place with the tension of the saddle.

In the oven curing till the next day.


There will be more to come.

[mxtras]

Nice write-up so far, Copper!

Scott

[Jay C]

Any updates. I'm wondering if this would be a solution to the gibs issues I've read about with the X2. Looking forward to more

Jay

[ZipSnipe]

Yeah very interesting project ya guys are doing, keep up the good work.

[mxtras]

After looking this thread over for the third time, I want to add a few comments to the first post - the one with all the pics that introduces this thread.

Before cutting anything on this base, we checked it carefully. We first blued the ways to check basic fit and then migrated to a precision surface plate to attempt to isolate the problems. We found a lot of issues with the base. Apparently (and this is my speculation) the company finished the casting without allowing it to age and/or performed less than adequate stress relieving - this is the only thing that would explain how it could have been so far out. This is a very lightly used machine, but it is about 3 or 4 years old if recall correctly.

The ways had a warp and a twist and the dovetails were not not parallel - I don't get that! How in the heck? Anyway, the bottom of the base was not flat either so I assumed that they finished the bottom first at the factory and it was not flat, or they induced a twist when they held it which influenced any other operations based off that surface - I don't know. It would be hard to make a machine base any worse. The ways were not close enough to even think about scraping in (unless you were severely intoxicated). This is why you see the base being cut. I began all of this with Copper to show him what was involved with scraping, but it ended up being a lesson on how to produce a flat part from a twisted bannana shaped block of cast "iron".

We clamped the base upside down first because the top of the base was relatively flat, although it wasn't really parallel to anything. I don't have the numbers, but we verified all factory finished surfaces before we determined how to tackle the tricky task of clamping without influencing the base. We shimmed under the clamps as necessary in order to clamp it stress free (as much as reasonably possible) using a test indicator on the casting to guide us to the correct thickness shim. We then kissed the bottom edge of the mill base flat and clean so that future clampings could be done stress free without having to spend the time shimming and checking. After the bottom was flat, we bolted our aluminum plates on and then kissed the bottom of those clean also. We now had a flat surface that was not influenced by clamping - very important. We verified the flatness with the use of bluing and the surface plate.

It was then flipped over and the stress free clamping was checked with a test indicator as we clamped on the feet that we had just added. This was more of an exercise to validate the Bport table than it was to check the flatness as we knew the feet were flat according to the surface plate. It was discovered that we had to slip a .001" shim under both feet on one end in order to achieve a stress free, clamped condition even after running a hone stone over the top of the table to check for minor dings. No biggie - slipping a single shim under the feet is easily done each time we need to clamp the machine down for future machining or checking. At least now we know what we have and what surfaces can be relied upon.

After it was clamped, every used surface was machined in the same set-up and re-checked. I think we will end up with a winner here - time will tell.

...and that's all I have to say about that....for now.

Scott

[Jay C]

Ah ... ignorance is bliss In any event, I'm hoping your discourse on the use (application, planning, execution) of Moglice is as in depth as this post.

Keep the information flowing

Jay

[skmetal7]

any updates on this project? very interesting!!

[Stepper Monkey]

I am impressed with your ingenuity, skill, and attention to detail. You will have a fine machine for bigger jobs when you are done, but if your focus is for jewelry why are you messing with a (relative to jewelry) bulky monstrosity like an X2????

What you are doing seems somewhat analogous to attempting to make an F1 racecar by starting with a Peterbuilt.

The Z-axis mass is particularly critical in jewelry use, as not only do you need very accurate movements, it is the only kind of machining I know of where the Z has to reverse direction as fast as 50 times PER SECOND.
If you want ANY kind of speed at all, the Z is critical, both for the screw pitch and efficiency, the stepper inductance, stepper resolution and rotor mass, and the reciprocating mass of Z. The X2 has the wrong screw, the wrong stepper requirements, and way more Z mass than necessary, and it doesn't spin near fast enough. The massive headstock alone weighs more than the ENTIRE MILL that I use for jewelry does.

You don't need that much of a spindle when an 1/8" mill is the tactical nuke of jewelers bits, and most work is done under .010" You do, however, need it to run much faster than an X2 spindle can handle.