Quote:
Originally Posted by wasyoungonce
Thanks Mark...yeah the std x3 will be in my sights, once I talk myself out of the X2. This is pretty much settled now....X3
MT3 has been around for quite a time. They call it 3MT now..or maybe it was always called this? From what I have read R8 is up and coming wrt to easier to remove (due to the taper), but as you said MT3 to lets say ER32 collets are pretty common.
Love that engine 
If I buy a mill for the garage...maybe I can seek in a Lathe?  |
Morse taper 3 or 3 morse taper, bit like tomato's or tomatoes yes
. The 3MT sleeves are easy to remove as The X3 has a drawbar which you just undo 3 or 4 turns then give it a tap with a rubber mallet, the sleeve comes free easily and you just unwind the drawbar the rest of the way to get it right out. R8 is more of a UK/euro thing I think, just as many tools available though but often more expensive from what I have seen. The ER32 collet sets are sweet for this mill, I bought the full kit from Hare and Forbes, does both metric and imperial in one set and are very accurate and well priced. A must for the X3 if you want to do accurate work is a good quality tool makers vice with guaranteed grind tolerances (mine allowed me to get inside that final 2 thou threshold and its worst figure is 0.002mm grind accuracy). If you stay within the limits stated on the mill the X3 is good value for money and as you build experience It will allow you to make some very precise parts (its all in the setup, 3 hours set out 5 mins cutting
). I have put a 3 axis DRO unit on mine and this has proved to be an excellent addition. You really want a coolant tank and pump as this will extend tool life hugely as long as you are sensible with your depths and feed speeds as you can easily kill a new bit in a single pass. Make sure all your end mills/slot drills etc are made from Cobalt HSS and don't bother with indexable carbide bits except for the face mill as the RPM is not high enough to warrant them and they do dull quickly at low speed (I bought a tool sharpener, even does end mills but expensive to purchase but I also kill a lot of end mills so worth it for me). I use the powered X axis add on which saves my arm a lot of pain and produces a much more even cut especially when face milling, nice and even. In terms of tooling there really is no end to the goodies you can buy for mills and lathes, I must have spent 10 times the amount on tooling then I did when I bought the machines (only a few more bits to go like some gear cutters, perhaps a sine bar, ooh and a machine tapping chuck and...
) The block in the photo's was made entirely on my mill with only the front nose hub being turned on the lathe. Need to make the crank and camshaft now but that's a whole new challenge. Here's an adaptor I turned up on the C4 to fit my EM200 to a vixen tripod, $30 of ali and a couple hours of my time saved a lot of money, I love owning these machines.
Mark