Mini mill head on a Taig

[mcundiff1]

Hello all;

I have a Taig mill, and have been happy with it. But I was thinking of putting a Mini mill head assy from Little Machine Shop on it . I would like the R-8 spindle and would get the belt conversion for it. I do a lot of work on Alum, so I need a higher speed range ( 4000 - 8000 rmp ) . I was also looking at Lathemaster mill, but spindle speed to low, and the miil is kinda big from my Apt.

Another idea was get the ER-16 spindle and the Sherline dc motor, add flood coolent and be happy ..........

Thanks guys Mitch .....................

[Pretorien]

Originally Posted by mcundiff1 Hello all; I have a Taig mill, and have been happy with it. But I was thinking of putting a Mini mill head assy from Little Machine Shop on it . I would like the R-8 spindle and would get the belt conversion for it. I do a lot of work on Alum, so I need a higher speed range ( 4000 - 8000 rmp ) . I was also looking at Lathemaster mill, but spindle speed to low, and the miil is kinda big from my Apt. Another idea was get the ER-16 spindle and the Sherline dc motor, add flood coolent and be happy .......... Thanks guys Mitch .....................

I'm a bit puzzled by your approach - I have an X2 (mini-mill) with the belt drive conversion and am looking at a Taig, in part because the maximum speed of the X2 with the belt drive conversion is 4000RPM (not 8000)

There is an optional motor for the Taig that will take you to 10,000 RPM and, since the Taig is available with an ER-16 spindle, the conversion should be easy - finally, I'm not really certain that the mini-mill spindle bearing will handle 10,000 RPM

To my mind, the only significant advantage the X2 has over the Taig is the quill control which allows me to use the mill as a drill press with precise work positioning.

EM

[in2steam]

Taig mill, has that speed range depending upon the motor, it you convert to high speed spindle like many have done you can have alot more. You can get the two pole motor, from carter tool I believe, I am sure Nick will see this post. At anyrate that mill is already capable of 10k with the proper motor, trying to put a different heavier head on the mill is just reinventing the wheel.
It also has the ER16 spindle option which you can order.....

chris

[cartertool]

I bet that the minimill head is even heavier than the Taig head and motor. You will certainly need beefier steppers for Z in that case, and it may place a lot of stress on the z axis (how much does it weigh?)

The Taig CNC spindle runs at 10K rpm in the top speed range.