SyiL X4 + (Plus Manual Needed)

[mlchman]

I recently found and purchased a SyiL X4 Plus milling machine from the original owner. It has very little use and is in great shape. Unfortunately (luckily), it has been in storage for many years and the owner has lost any documentation for it. I contacted Jeff at SyiL USA who was able to provide the correct XML file for the X4. He has not been able to find a PDF of the owner's manual.

Any chance one of you has a copy you would be willing to share? Also, any information about this machine will be greatly appreciated.

mlchman

Similar Threads:

• Syil S5 manual
• Syil Manual Mills?
• Power Drawbar/prototype ATC Syil China/ Syil Canada/ Syil North America
• new retractable 56,000 Air spindle, Syil China / Syil Canada / Syil North America
• New Machine Build- SyiL Present X4 Manual Machine

[neilw20]

From my collection, up to 12 years ago.
Still using my SX3. 2000 hours approx. now. Every 200 hours, redo the X slide gibs. Needs teflon ones, one day( or year)

[mlchman]

neilw20, thank you, thank you, thank you. I will print this out in the morning. Jeff from SyiL USA sent me the XML file so I have the machine's axis's moving. With this manual, hopefully, I will be able to better understand how it works.

Thanks again,

mlchman

[neilw20]

Hi mlchman,

I have all manner of circuits, information, settings for Mach3 (still recommended interface) ... USE old XP PC for most reliable operation. Win 7 with LOTS of changes to scheduler. Win 10. Never tried it, or dared to.
Why XP? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[mlchman]

I am using an old Dell running XP. The axis's are moving using Mach3's jog function. I also figured out how to use the manual mode - with and without the MPG. Seems like a pretty nice machine for a beginner like me. Looking at your photos and the photos in the manual, my X4+ electronics control box is different. It is attached to the back of the column cover and only as wide as the column cover. Your pictures show it to be considerably wider than the column cover. Mine was purchased new in 2008. I am second owner.

Thanks again for your help,

Michael

[mlchman]

I have a question that probably has an obvious answer that I am not seeing. The Z Axis on my X4+ in Manual Mode goes almost all the way to the top of the column and will go all the way down until the air assist piston bottoms on the base - about 11 or 12 inches. When in CNC Mode, it will only travel down from the top about 6-1/2" (160mm) which is what the manual says for Z Travel. Taking the cover off the back, there is obviously a lot more travel that is available but the limit switch stops the travel about halfway down the column. Is there a reason for the short Z travel. If I moved the limit switch trip lever further down I could gain about 4" of Z travel. Am I missing something?

mlchman

[neilw20]

Your soft limits are probably not correct.
Home the Z axis.
Zero the z readout.
Turn off the soft limits (screen 1). Might already be off.
Move down until you hit the bottom hard limit. Write down the Z reading.
Home the Z axis. Should move up until the Z limit switch.
Turn off soft limits.
Move up until you hit hard limit. Write down the Z reading.
Move back down below 0.00.
Home the Z axis.
Go into homing limits menu. Can't remember exact way to get there.
Set the upper and lower limits with about 5mm or 0,25" safe space.
Try it all again.
On the SX3 the Z axis upper limit was restricted by the air assist piston travel.
I made a bracket and used a longer cylinder. 360mm 14.2" or longer travel.
Shiny part of strut should be at bottom so seal always stays lubricated.
SX4 is similar. The previous pictures I uploaded were just some I found. Could be wrong for SX4

[neilw20]

Here are some useful (IMHO) Mach3 files.
Black box is a useful PDF. Just click it. Weird web site feature??

[mlchman]

neilw20, I have been jogging it without the soft limits turned on. I looked at them and they are not set - still with out of the box settings. When I home, the spindle goes to the top and bumps the home switch and backs off a hair. When I jog the Z Axis down, It goes about half way down and hits the limit switch and I get a reset - limit switch message. In manual mode, the spindle will go down until the air assist piston main body touches the base. I took the back cover off today and the finger that trips the limit switch at the lower position is only 6-1/4" below the finger that trips the upper switch. There is an easy 5 or 6 more inches of travel available if the limit switch trigger finger were placed further down.

The manual you sent me yesterday says there is only 160mm of Z Travel, which is all I am getting. I am just wondering if there is a reason for such a reduced travel allowance for this axis. If not, I will relocate the finger to get the extra travel available.

As always thanks for your help.

mlchman

[neilw20]

Travel restricted due to short gas strut, I think.
In the files I sent, buried in there, are the procedures for setting soft/hard limits.
When it is all setup correctly, Referencing should work and then it will turn on soft limits.
In alt-7 menu (I think) referencing a single axis does not turn on soft limits. I fixed that using screen.exe to modify button sequences.
Also, if you try to reference machine and an axis is past a limit switch, then is will crash that axis. I sort of fixed that by making it attempt to blindly move off a switch.
If soft limits are set correctly, you can't crash the axis to end stops. I get at least 12" spindle travel. Not sure exact number. But at the maximum.

Don't know what spindle speed controls are like on SX4 but pwm stuff was bad on SX3. I just do M0 and say want speed to set manually.
No tool changer so you are already working the machine by hand. Just set speed, start spindle before hitting cycle start.
Caveat. On a long job, it won't turn off the spindle is speed spindle set to manual. SX4 might be totally different.

I also attached the back of the column to a brick wall. Hard to open the back now! Been achieving 2.5 micron Z-axis repeatability with other black magic -- counterweights via 4th axis control.

Balance weights..

[mlchman]

Thanks for the PDF Information. I will give them a good look over tomorrow. The Using Mach3 Mill PDF looks like a really useful manual to get printed so I can have a hardcopy readily available.

mlchman

[mlchman]

It references (Ref All Home) correctly but does not turn on Soft Limits. Hard Limits are functional and that is where the problem is on the Z Axis, I hit the Hard Limit 160mm off the Home position (only about halfway down the column).

I will take a closer look at your suggestions in the morning. I am off to bed.

mlchman

[mlchman]

neilw20, I apologize for not getting back with you sooner with news of my progress. Unfortunately, I was called out of town to help take care of some family matters. I did look through some of the material you provided and I think I have a handle on setting up soft limits. One question though - if hard limits and soft limits are both enabled which one takes priority or does hard limits turn off if soft limits are turned on?

Anyway, I hope to have some time over this holiday weekend to work with the mill and get some answers.

Thanks again for your help,

[neilw20]

neilw20, I apologize for not getting back with you sooner with news of my progress. Unfortunately, I was called out of town to help take care of some family matters. I did look through some of the material you provided and I think I have a handle on setting up soft limits. One question though - if hard limits and soft limits are both enabled which one takes priority or does hard limits turn off if soft limits are turned on?

Anyway, I hope to have some time over this holiday weekend to work with the mill and get some answers.

Thanks again for your help,

Soft limits take priority, if they are WITHIN the hard limits.
Hard limits still work, and probably, if you are lucky, and have it all good. HARD limit is a mechanical crash, then you have hard limit switches which should prevent SOLID crashes.

[mlchman]

So then I still need to move the Z Axis hard limit trigger finger down to increase the Z Axis travel past the 160/170mm it is set up for.

I will post some pictures this weekend to better explain my situation.

[neilw20]

So then I still need to move the Z Axis hard limit trigger finger down to increase the Z Axis travel past the 160/170mm it is set up for.

I will post some pictures this weekend to better explain my situation.

It depends on whether the hard limit is electrically wired to trip e-Stop. Otherwise it is just a switch as a reference point for homing, you can configure in settings, and you can set soft limits past the switch. All of my switches are inside the hard mechanical limits, and I don't bother with end of travel trip switches as the drives are not strong enough to do mechanical damage. They then just miss steps meaning my reference point(s) have moved and machine needs to be referenced again.

[mlchman]

I have run into another issue. The spindle seems pretty noisey for a belt driven spindle. I took the spindle belt covers off and took off the belt. The spindle bearings sound pretty dry. There is no notchyness (?), they feel pretty smooth when turning by hand but they sound dry. My Precision Matthews PM-25MV belt driven mill sounds SOO much quieter.

I need to figure out what to do about the noise before I worry about the spindle and table travel.

Everything appears to work - I ran a small program last night (cutting air) with no issues which is when I became concerned about the spindle noise.

[neilw20]

I have run into another issue. The spindle seems pretty noisey for a belt driven spindle. I took the spindle belt covers off and took off the belt. The spindle bearings sound pretty dry. There is no notchyness (?), they feel pretty smooth when turning by hand but they sound dry. My Precision Matthews PM-25MV belt driven mill sounds SOO much quieter.


I need to figure out what to do about the noise before I worry about the spindle and table travel.

Everything appears to work - I ran a small program last night (cutting air) with no issues which is when I became concerned about the spindle noise.

Get a piece of tube to use as a stethoscope and you will then be able to locate the problem. Might be the belt stiffening with age (most likely) and it looses flexibility.
3 years waranty on most things is because the chemistry after that time changes things. My SX3 has become noisy, too.

[mlchman]

I will try that out tomorrow. I am also going to do the spindle bearing break in procedure called for in one of the bigger Grizzly bench mills (G0935) to see if that will get things loosened up.

[neilw20]

I will try that out tomorrow. I am also going to do the spindle bearing break in procedure called for in one of the bigger Grizzly bench mills (G0935) to see if that will get things loosened up.

Might be dried lubricant in sealed bearings.