OmioCNC report

[madeinoz67]

Just received my X6-2200EPL (with standalone controller) and happy with the quality, accuracy is good in my initial tests on some PCB isolation routing with copper cam, 0603 smd with 15deg v-bit. have yet to do some real cuts on aluminium. I've yet to tram the machine and PCB was milled without any bed levelling.

Is there a procedure for tramming these machines?

[dharmic]

1. Use really really tiny bits so you don't have to worry about it

More seriously: between the collet size and the minimum realistic spindle speed of about 6000RPM on these machines means 12mm end mills are about as big as you're going to go. At that size, bed and beam flex are going to cause more surface finish issues than the spindle being out of whack by half a degree. Furthermore, anything you do to tram in the spindle is going to have to be re-done every time you loosen the clamp and move the spindle which, given the fairly limited Z travel on these, I've found to be at least once or twice for each new job.

I will probably maybe look at getting mine sorted one day - pulling up the bed, bracing it, re-seating it and getting everything squared up. In the meantime it's been good down to about 0.1mm with light cuts so I haven't bothered and I'm the first to admit that if I need better than that kind of accuracy I'm probably looking at spending my time and money towards a proper mill instead of throwing it at what may be better than most cheap routers, but nevertheless remains exactly that - a cheapo chinese router.

[Mmpie]

You can't tram it as it is. The spindle mount is larger than the spindle and contacts only in a few spots, that leaves play for the spindle to move around inside the mount.

I've tried shimming the inside of the mount by wrapping tin foil around the spindle although I'm yet to do any sort of test to see if it helps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[madeinoz67]

Thanks for that, 12mm is more than I was looking at seeing I've come from a very light model cnc that could only do 3.175mm max so even 6mm is a bonus. For me

How about bed levelling? while I haven't checked mine as yet, can they be levelled reasonably manually before surfacing spoilboard?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[dharmic]

The beds on these aren't great. The extruded t-slot panels are pretty much unsupported down the length and they aren't held together very well on their long edges. At present I have a 0.7mm step between one and its neighbour in the middle of the table, most likely caused by a lack of support plus my getting a little carried away clamping something down on one side at some point. Ignoring that, I get pretty major flex on the dial gauge just leaning on the middle of the table.

Somewhere way way back on what's become quite an unwieldy beast of a thread now, someone has removed the bed and added bracing before returning the bed to the table. On the list of one day things to do for my machine, at which point I'll also do some shimming to get the table level to X and Y and the t-slots accurately parallel with Y (I haven't yet measured to see if they are or not). That'll let me make up a couple of lock-in fences which I know are parallel to X or Y for some of the clamping I want to be able to do etc.

[madeinoz67]

Yes I gathered that most of the aluminium extruded beds on these type of machines would have some flex, however I don't know why they resorted to panels and not a single bed, well I guess I do is all about cost, but even some of the thicker single piece extrusion would her even better than what was supplied. I purchased one of these very cheaply for a smaller CNC I have and is very solid, much thicker than one installed.

[Mmpie]

Sorry, probably me who turned this thread so unwieldy

Anyway, my bed is unparallel also. At the far end I have already drilled out the poorly positioned tapped holes and use low profile head bolts going straight through the extrusion into nyloc nuts below (this also allows me to clamp my spoilboard into a tnut right at the very end of the bed), I don't know what I'll do about the other end as you can't access the underside. I'm planning on doing the steel bracing sooner rather than later and also filling the channels between each piece of the bed with epoxy or cement to make it a more solid single piece.

The thin strip of the extrusion that the bed is bolted to and rests on at the far end strikes me as a big weak point which will give potential for some real flexing. I'm thinking maybe an extra strip of steel running underneath that will help sure it up.

[dharmic]

Don't apologise, there's a wealth of information here now. Just a sad fact of life of forums that it gets hard to find as a thread grows.

Please try (if you remember in the heat of the moment) to grab some photos as you go and share them with us!

[RCaffin]

I know that making machines from extruded aluminium sections is very popular - perhaps because it is so simple to cut the bits up. But the stuff is not all that strong or stable. It is great for building partitions and display screens where accuracy does not matter.

Don't believe me? Find a bit of the stuff and put a straight edge across it. Not along the length, ACROSS it. You will quickly see that the surface is not flat: it is slightly concave. This is deliberate as it guarrantees that sections will mate easily. But at the same time, it means that when you tighten up the connecting bolts, one of two things will happen. If you do the bolts up to a 'reasonable' torque level, the joint will be weak and will flex. If you do the bolts up tightly, to eliminate this flexibility, you will deform the extrusion cross-section.

Needless to say, quite a few mfrs will disagree with me. That is to be expected.

Your choice what materials you use, but You Get What You Pay For.

Cheers
Roger

[A_Camera]

I know that making machines from extruded aluminium sections is very popular - perhaps because it is so simple to cut the bits up. But the stuff is not all that strong or stable. It is great for building partitions and display screens where accuracy does not matter.

Don't believe me? Find a bit of the stuff and put a straight edge across it. Not along the length, ACROSS it. You will quickly see that the surface is not flat: it is slightly concave. This is deliberate as it guarrantees that sections will mate easily. But at the same time, it means that when you tighten up the connecting bolts, one of two things will happen. If you do the bolts up to a 'reasonable' torque level, the joint will be weak and will flex. If you do the bolts up tightly, to eliminate this flexibility, you will deform the extrusion cross-section.

Needless to say, quite a few mfrs will disagree with me. That is to be expected.

Your choice what materials you use, but You Get What You Pay For.

Cheers
Roger

This is true, but it depends on how and what you make out of the extruded material. For frame it is OK because if you are using right angle joints then your angles will be right, i.e. 90 degrees, if you square your machine. If you just drill through and join using T-nuts then you might get problems. Also, the material is not the most optimal as table material, unless it is surfaced, but it may not be as important for everybody, so maybe not everybody is bothered. I think that how the machine is depends not only only on the material, but also on how careful it was put together and which other materials are used. But of course, the better the material is the easier it is to make a better machine. That's obvious. Also, remember that there are many different aluminium extrusion qualities as well, so not all are the same. Never the less, of course, one major reason why aluminium is popular is the fact that it is easy to work with. But... it is not the cheapest material, so probably it is not just about money, but more like money vs. time. vs. tools needed to work with vs. what is the target product vs. a lot of other things. So it is not that simple to answer why aluminium extrusions are used by whom and why they are popular, but sure, my guess is that the simplicity of using it is a major factor.

[Mmpie]

To throw my 2p in to the ring. I think the lower frame could and would be much better made of steel, either welded or bolted together like the current frame. As mentioned in a previous post, at one end the bed is mounted on a thin lip protruding out the side of the main extrusion, this must offer serious potential for vertical movement in the whole bed. The long side arms which the rails sit on are just long t-slot extrusions and the linear rails are bolted in to t-nuts. Surely a steel frame with properly positioned holes for bolting the rails into would offer much better support and stability to the rest of the machine and also be cheaper to manufacture?

These machines don't even have the build quality, upon taking mine to pieces I found several misaligned holes with bolts forced in, some bolts very loose (which could have happened in shipping) but some were over tight.

[VisualConduct]

Did anyone machined copper and/or sterling-silver on this machine, i was thinking of 1mm plate.
What minimum size of bit would you suggest and what quality?
Would love to hear any of you experiences. :-)

Many thanks, Robert

[cincron]

Did anyone machined copper and/or sterling-silver on this machine, i was thinking of 1mm plate.
What minimum size of bit would you suggest and what quality?
Would love to hear any of you experiences. :-)

Many thanks, Robert

145 copper machines nice. So does 6061 and 360 brass.

I've used 1.250" inserted facemill and I've used .02" diameter ball mill (diameter, not radius)

On X and Y I can hold .0015". My Z axis wanders, aprox .005"





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[madeinoz67]

145 copper machines nice. So does 6061 and 360 brass.

I've used 1.250" inserted facemill and I've used .02" diameter ball mill (diameter, not radius)

On X and Y I can hold .0015". My Z axis wanders, aprox .005"





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm interested where you got the facemill from?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[NFC]

So after using my new X8 with a black box for a couple weeks I have to say I'm pretty happy so far.

I've cut a few parts from cast acrylic, MDF, and done a decent amount of carving on pine and everything has gone fairly smoothly. I still have oceans to learn and the goal (what will pay for the machine) is carbon fiber and some very simple 2.5D aluminum parts, but I was really worried this was going to be cheap Chinese junk. So it's not perfect, but I was seriously concerned I would have to replace so much stuff that I would end up basically rebuilding the machine...and thus far, I haven't had to make any changes.

I was pretty worried after my first run as the bed definitely is not level...or something...I haven't bothered to mic it out yet...but after surfacing my spoilboard I'm pretty happy with the 2D stuff I've done.

I only have maybe 10 hours of machine runtime...so nowhere near enough for a review, but I can tell you I was scared to death sending that money via wire transfer and not having a clue what I would be getting. Worst case scenario I have an expensive engraver...which is really what it is marketed as I guess. Best case scenario is it was a surprisingly good buy.

I will be supporting American companies for my next machines (I need a plasma table and a bigger router table) but I wanted to see if this was going to be a viable direction for me and I wanted to find out on something that didn't require a bank note.

I know it works well enough out the box to have confidence to spend a little $$$ in tweaking it if I need be. I don't know how helpful this info is but...there you are. xD

As a side note...the machine is WAY quieter than I thought it would be. I was stressing about how to enclose it to reduce noise levels, but the vacuum system I use is so loud that it drowns out any cutting sounds. That will probably change with aluminum but even still.

[cincron]

I'm interested where you got the facemill from?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

It's an Ingersoll 1.250 w/.375 shank, 6 inserted facemill.

[madeinoz67]

It's an Ingersoll 1.250 w/.375 shank, 6 inserted facemill.

Thanks for that


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[dharmic]

I noticed that the table was actually four separate sections and any sort of leverage on the part being milled in a vise would cause serious deflection in the table. So I reinforced it. The only pieces I need to complete the reinforcement are some countersunk bolts to put into the gantry base to avoid hitting the cross bars.

So now I have my deck up and looking at this mod or other possibilities. I have to keep telling myself "No, don't get a 700 x 500mm MIC6 tooling plate" because it's a whole lotta money that I could put toward a real mill conversion later.

Question, Washuu: is that 3mm x 20 or 25mm steel bar you've used and was it enough to make a reasonable difference?

[RCaffin]

Those thin steel strips look far to thin to be effective imho. Try 25 mm x 3 mm box section instead.
Or buy the tooling plate and be done with all the hassles. (You can always use the plate for something else later on.)

Cheers

[dharmic]

I must admit, when I picked up a bit of 25x3mm strap I had, the bow in it under its own weight gave me pause as to just how useless it would be. The only advantage I could see is it might help hold the deck planks together to prevent one stepping up past the other when I cranked down a clamp or similar.

I'm now looking at getting a 500x700x4mm piece of 5052 from a local boatbuilder and screwing the t-slot planks down to that. Can't do thicker than 4mm else it won't clear the bottom plate of the gantry (that runs between the sides and holds the linear bearings and ballnut).

I just can't justify the cost of a tool plate for such a dicky little router.

Another alternative tickling the back of my mind is to make a new frame out of 50mm SHS mild steel with supports everywhere and move that bottom plate so it runs under the frame instead of on top of it - the feet will give me the clearance and I can move the rails so they mount to the sides of the gantry rather than under it. But, again, it's getting a bit of a big mission for what's only ever going to be a fairly bendy machine.