Anodizing A Brand New Taig Mill?

[Odin]

Hi everyone,

I'm about to buy a brand new Taig Mill, a manual (CNC is no fun for hands!), and after seeing so many comments on the mill's Y way getting tore up from what looks like sliding contact, I was wondering:

Would it be ideal to send out all the aluminum Taig parts for hard annodizing before using it?

I like the idea of hardening up the work tables by anodizing them. Has anyone else here done anything like this, or recommend it? How much would this cost to have done? Could I do it myself? Where do you send it to have this done right if you did?

If there's anything I can do to make this thing not just bullet proof, but tank proof, as it were, let me know. I'd like to take good care of this thing and make it last a good, long time.

[jalessi]

Odin,

The aluminum cross slide and other sliding parts are all ready hard anodized.

http://www.taigtools.com/cmill.html

[Odin]

Ah, don't know how I missed that. But with all the wear comments, I was starting to wonder. Thanks.

[Dean W]

I don't think you have much to worry about as far as wear goes if you just keep it moderately clean and properly oiled. There has been quite a bit of talk about this, but the talk is response to a couple of rare occurrences, I think.

Originally Posted by Odin (CNC is no fun for hands!)

I'm with ya.

Dean

[Jeff-Birt]

I'm cleaning up a Taig mill right now that was run for hundreds of hours without 'proper' maintenance. The wear on the mating surfaces was surprisingly low. With just a bit of time spent on cleaning and lubrication it will last you a very, very long time.

It takes me perhaps 10 or 15 minutes to clean up my Taig mill after I'm done using it. That includes vacuuming up chips, wiping it down and applying lubrication. It is time well spent.

[cartertool]

Having sold and used the mills for a long time (one of my CNC mills is the older type) I can say that the great majority of wear issues are caused by lack of lubrication, lack of adjustment and lack of wear distribution (fixturing the work in the same small spot the majority of the time causing all wear to localize in that spot).