Unusual noise from my mill

[studysession]

Hi -

I have a Sieg micro mill. The same sold at harbor freight even though I did not buy from them:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=47158

Here is a pic of mine:
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...3&d=1167172464

Anyway - today I was using it then a noise started coming from the spindle/drill motor area. What kind of things should I look for or maintence require for these kinds of machines?

Thanks -

[totally_screwed]

Hi -

I have a Sieg micro mill. The same sold at harbor freight even though I did not buy from them:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=47158

Anyway - today I was using it then a noise started coming from the spindle/drill motor area. What kind of things should I look for or maintenance require for these kinds of machines?

[Thanks -

I have one of these the Sieg X1L micro mill, but I haven't CNCed it yet, btw can you post what the kit / conversion that you used was?

Back to your problem. I have read that these small mills really need a LOT of lubrication if used regularly and regular CNCing would be classified as a lot of use. The machine should actually be sitting in a pool of oil tramp oil. This oil should be dripping from the machine. Basically if it's not, the machine is under-lubricated.

The spindle drive is via a number of plastic gears and these need to be kept well greased, any good quality light grease should work fine. I've greased mine. But with CNCing, you need to schedule-in regular lubrication [depending upon your usage of the machine] - say weekly or fortnightly. The oilers need to be checked daily and topped-up before use.

It's worth adding oilers and grease nipples As necessary. I was considering A couple of oilers on a bracket [mounted on the head] connected via flexible small bore plastic tubing to the pillow blocks, lead screw nuts and slides. The oil flow could be restricted by a grub screw with a small orifice, say 0.75 mm. [It's a long time since I drilled such a small hole, the smallest was around 0.5 mm and you break a lot of these tiny drills!]

No I haven 't done this yet!

PS Don't forget to post the info about your CNC conversion!

Totally_screwed

[studysession]

They do not sell this model anymore. But I bought mine while I lived in England from a company in Scottland. At that time I knew nothing about machining and just bought one with the conversion installed to learn off of.

Bought it from Simply CNC:
http://www.simplycnc.com/

That was few years ago when I bought it. Now I live back in the US and doing my own DIY CNC Build. Mean time still like using the SIEG.

Thanks for the reply.