Have you seen this.
Apparantly Seig are making an X3 designed from the ground up to be CNC
It comes already fitted with ballscrews and steppers but no control gear. You fit that yourself.
This link is a posted by a company that is selling it in the Philipines.
They have fitted control gear and running it on Mach3
http://www.artsoftcontrols.com/forum...p?topic=3446.0
There is nothing on the seig site as yet.
Looks a very good concept. Much better than a converted X3.
Rigid single purpose head. No quill. Spindle takes collets directly.
Way covers and coolent tray buit in.
Not sure whether the oiler is added by them or original.
The picture is taken from their thread and credit goes to them.
Greg
Oh the irony. Just starting installing my ballscrew conversion on the x3 last night.
*laffs*
Why would you love having no quill? I can see giving it up but certainly there is no advantage to not having it. The quill certainly is very rigid when locked.especially love the no quill part.
My x3 is converted and I still use the quill all the time. If you ever plan on using the mill manually with cnc control, the quill is a must IMHO.
Steve
I'd love to have the no quill options. More so in a fully cnc machine. It's just one more thing to work lose and potentially throw off the tool height. As I plan on having a quick change system.
In fact, if it's an option. I'd like to buy that head and put it on my x3.
Less is more in my mind. Which is why I wasn't interested in the super x3. I don't have a need for a tilting head.
Either way. I'm definitely curious to see the final offering.
It may be rigid when locked, but I would have thought that not having it there at all could be even more rigid, as it would both eliminate an extra source of spindle movement and allow for more solid castings and/or larger main spindle bearings to be used.
Out of interest, what operations do you do 'manually' on your mill? IHMO, even for drilling a single hole, it's easier to just punch the coordinates into a wizard and hit go.
Sorry guys I have to disagree. Do you guys have x3's?
The quill is VERY rigid! There is at least .0005" clearance at all times in the gibs. The endmill flexes etc. The quill locked "at the top" is of no concern at all and poses no issues at all on this mill. It's just a 300lb mill. You will never have the power or forces to even think about making the quill a liability on a x3 mill.
You'll need a monster stepper to equal the power of manually using the quill for drilling. I'll bet anybody here I can slam out a hole faster in steel of any size using the quill manually than you can with a stepper driven screw on a x3 mill. Unless you plan on putting a 1000oz inch motor on there good luck.
I have a x3 and it performs very well under cnc control for the z-axis. I am just being honest though. No way in heck my z axis with a 425oz stepper with 2:1 reduction and 10TPI screw compares to the force of manually using the quill.
"Manually" doesn't mean I move the table with handwheels.out of interest, what operations do you do 'manually' on your mill? IHMO, even for drilling a single hole, it's easier to just punch the coordinates into a wizard and hit go.
It is often said the best manual mill is a cnc mill!
Lot's of things. Right now I am building a cnc lathe from scratch. The surface of the bed is 1" thick steel and I am drilling it at 2.364" intervals with a .25" drill. The plate is 24" long so it needs to be relocated on the table and indicated back in after 15" X travel( max for my x3). So it needs plenty of manual attention anyhow.
It is much faster to just cnc jog the table at 2.364" intervals and use the quill to drill through the 1" steel than to program an entire cycle and peck drill it. I could have a beer and a smoke before a g-code cycle was finished.
Just one example. There are many more.
If you never use your mill for anything but G-code then I understand there is no need for a quill and then, yes I do agree less is more. But I kind of thought most guys with a benchtop cnc mill use it manually( cnc style manually) now and then and in that case you'll sorely miss not having a quill IMO. Maybe I am wrong to think this.
Steve
Read this article, near the bottom, where he chickens out pushing 130 Kg, that's #286 just using a 218 oz/in motor on the X of an X3.
http://www.jeffree.co.uk/pages/x3-to-cnc.html
PR
looks like smithy cnc machine, which is supposedly made by sieg. check them out.
Sounds impressive eh? Well not if you want to compare it to a manual driven screw with just a 5" handwheel.Read this article, near the bottom, where he chickens out pushing 130 Kg, that's #286 just using a 218 oz/in motor on the X of an X3.
Take a .2 pitch ballscrew and put a 5" handwheel on it. The leverage is now 78.54 : 1. Assume we have a string bean behind the handwheel and can only muster up 10 ft/lbs( weak!!) of force at the handwheel. Well now we still have 785 lbs at the screw. But most manual screw drives will have a lot more leverage than that.
A 500oz/inch motor is equal to 2.6lbs/ft. I trust everybody here is quite a bit stronger than that! Take a look at a small arbor press rating and think quill.
Steve
Yes, the specs are identical to the Smith 622 - the smithy is available in 3 flavors from "bare bones" mechanical bits only to fully finished with software - $2800 - $6000. The baby - about X2 size looks interesting also - all mechanicals (ball screws, steppers etc.) - under $2000 - but only 5K RPM spindle speed.
EM