Battling to choose a mill ...

[zaebis]

Folks,

Have been looking at Syil X4 seriously but have many reservations before committing.

- x,y,z travel reports are different on different syil sites. For example Canadial Siyl site reports X4 X travel as 11 inches. What are the CNC effective x,y,z on X?

- does it have unipolar or bipolar steppers?

- does it come with G-Code interpreter (Mach or any) or it will have to be purchased extra?

- what exactly comes standard with X4 (not plus) version of the mill

- control box works with parallel port? There are no computers with parallel port anymore. Is that a typo? Must be usb.

- has US Canadian support been satisfactory?

- any other quarks

I am also looking at cncmasters JR Mill as an alternative.

Thanx

[syil]

you can call Mr keith from syil canada.
he will very helpful to answer your all questions...
his shipment arrive soonly,so currently x4/x4 plus price will be very attractive...
so,call his cell phone at:403-400-7945.
he is a really good guy and help a lot customers......

[sharpshooter90]

Originally Posted by zaebis Folks, Have been looking at Syil X4 seriously but have many reservations before committing. - x,y,z travel reports are different on different syil sites. For example Canadial Siyl site reports X4 X travel as 11 inches. What are the CNC effective x,y,z on X? That seems to vary from dealer and manufacturer- get the straight story from the Canadian dealer. - does it have unipolar or bipolar steppers? - does it come with G-Code interpreter (Mach or any) or it will have to be purchased extra? - what exactly comes standard with X4 (not plus) version of the mill - control box works with parallel port? There are no computers with parallel port anymore. Is that a typo? Must be usb. For all of the above- either get a solid guarranty from the dealer on all the electronics, or buy the bare machine and install a good domestic system. - has US Canadian support been satisfactory? He has been very good- even to the point of making house calls. - any other quarks I am also looking at cncmasters JR Mill as an alternative. Thanx

.

[ataxy]

cnc = x11- y6.75- z12
manual = x15- y7.825 - z12
thats on my machine

support from the canadian dealer is A+ and he is more then ready to help you with any problem

[Crevice Reamer]

Hi zaebis. Welcome to the Zone!

You might also want to consider the Novakon NM-135--Sold in Canada.

http://novakon.net/

CR.

[syil canada]

good day zaebis,

I am the Syil distributor for Canada, we have sold many x4 series mills in canada. we have had very few problems with this line of mills, we pride our selfs in providing great customer service both in mechanical and technical help.
We also own and use a x4+ in my other business, as of current we use this mill 6 to 8hrs per day, and it has produced us over $400,000 worth of jewelry. Our X and Y axis travel is now over 9 million inches of travel and our Z axis is at over 4 million inches. This has been in a 11 month period, so far we have only had about $40.00 in repairs. (motor couplers and gas shock).
we feel that due to the fact we use the syil line in our other business this allow us to provide top quality support, as we know the machines in and out. we are also very experienced in work within mach3 on the syil products.

to answer some of your questions,

The stepper motors are bipolar.

in regards to axis travel, we have personally measured the axis travel and this was our findings
X Travel Distance Maximum 11" in CNC Mode
Y Travel Distance Maximum 7" in CNC mode
Z Travel Distance Maximum 11" in CNC mode
in manual mode you can push a little past the homing switches.

The mill will require mach3 to read the gcode, this software is very inexpensive, $160.00.

yes the mill functions with the parallel port on a PC (not a laptop), mach3 functions best with the parallel port, the port hammers out 5v signals to the cnc it then interprets the pulses in to movement. A regular usb is not capable to reliably handle this type of 2 way consistent 5v communication. There is a company that has been working on a usb controller for mach3, though i here it still has quarks.

the x4 comes standard with coolant tray, chip guard (around table for small work), utility tray (lcd display holder). It also has a few avalible options, 4th axis and tail stock, flood coolant, stand W/ coolant tank built in. We also sell mecsoft visualmill a great cad/cam software package.

the only difference between the x4 and the x4+, is the x4+ has a mpg (handjog wheel), and a digital interface on the front of the machine. this can be useful if you would like to do manual machining with cnc accuracy. though we have been playing around with adding a second parallel port and having mach control a mpg, if we have success you can add a mpg to the x4 standard. (we will keep you posted)

we are currently working on a encoder upgrade for all of the syil products, this is about 1-2 months away.


if you have any other questions feel free to call direct, 403-400-7945

thanks,

keith

[zaebis]

arrrrrwwgg. 11' of X travel on a 22' table??? Any way to tweak it to 13-14' at least?

[gn3dr]

Originally Posted by zaebis arrrrrwwgg. 11' of X travel on a 22' table??? Any way to tweak it to 13-14' at least?

Yes there is.

In Mach 3 if you set up the limit switches to be home switches only (i.e. not limit switches) then you will get more X travel out of it. I think my X4+ is about 395 to 400mm (from memory - but I know for a fact that i have cut something 341 mm long). However you will need to set up soft limits in Mach 3 to compensate for the lack of limit switches. I also had to mill a very slight amount off teh bottom of the left hand x ballscrew bearing mount where the bottom of it was hitting the base - this gave me a few more mm.'s

Or you could also just move the switches and leave them function as home and limit switches. (This is what I originally did until I copped the soft limit thing so I then put the switches back to where they were from the factory.)

[LEN1042]

Hello,
I was able to convert the X travel to 15in (381mm) in CNC mode by relocating the limit switches and actuating screws. I also had to remove a small amount of material from the front side of the drive motor mount because it was not mounted on center and it hit the bed. Niether one of these revisons is a big deal.
I have also fabricated and installed an air operated quick change tool release based on a concept I adapted from Hoss. LOVE IT.
What ever you decide, good maching.
Len