Microlux X2 Mill, Anybody Have One Of These?

glad to hear it arrived in good condition. Mine is scheduled for delivery tomorrow.
There is one bolt holding the mill to the side of the crate. Then the crate comes apart very easily with a pry bar. The mill is laying down on the Styrofoam right side down. I just removed the top of the foam box and grabbed the bottom and tilted the whole thing upright. My son then helped me lift it onto the bench. Going to need to make a thin right angle 14mm wrench to tighten the handwheels double nuts. They used the same size nuts for both and there is no room for two wrenches.
 
I haven't had time to use mine much. I've been busy cleaning up my basement workshop and doing yard work. I did find time to do a quick tram check on the X axis. After setting the column by the pointer scale to visible "0" I set a dial indictor in and swept the table over about 6" left to right. It was within about .015 set by the visible scale! I bumped and thumped it back and forth and got it within .002 which is about the repeatable ability of my indicator and its fixture. Should be fine for anything I do.
 
Well between yesterday and today I cleaned up all the red grease. The column mounting bolts were finger tight. The spindle head to column adapter bolts were loose, I removed the intermediate gears and lever/shaft. Installed the air spring kit and the belt drive. Cleaned up the table and ways and removed any remnants of rust. Then lubed the ways with vactra #2 and adjusted the gibs for the best fit with no table play. Installed the X power feed and tested. It is smooth and goes to both ends of travel. Next is to adjust the gibs on the Z axis and then to think out the DRO mounting system I ordered a Machtach kit and will most likely make a panel to incorporate the DRO's and tach in one panel. I taught electronics at the local Vo-tech school for 6 years while I was working as an electronics tech and taught high reliability soldering and circuit board repair for military and aircraft techs so it should be an easy task to build the Machtach. Hope I don't jinx myself. I hope to teach my Son and grandson on the Machtach build. If my patients holds out. One thing is for sure, check and tighten every fastener on the mill and check/adjust everything that moves. The drill chuck was installed on the R8 adapter in the spindle. I removed the adapter and laid it on the bench. The drill chuck came off in my hand. So use a block of wood and whack the chuck to seat it in the taper.

All the kits from Little machine shop were good quality and installed easily. I had one extra part in the air spring kit, looks like a metal spacer but is not called out in the parts list or the instructions. Works great without it too.
 
I had the same "extra" spacer with mine. I think it may have been a bushing for a airspring with a different size hole on the end. Not the first time I got as mystery extra.
 
Why is it that every time I get a new tool I get very busy and can't find any time to set it up? My mill arrived on Tuesday in good condition,I got it home and on the table and there it sat until today. I cleaned off the grease and checked all the bolts, did a quick tram and got it to .001.
Then I opened the box from LMS with all the tooling. A screwless vise, hold down kit, R8 collets, endmills, edge finder, parallels and the belt drive kit. I organized everything on the table clamped down the vise and then, cause I couldn't resist, put in a collet and endmill and made a couple cuts in a piece of 2x4. Tomorrow I plan to install the belt drive and do a proper trimming if I can make the time.
 
I got the belt drive installed finally. After removing the spindle nut the instructions said, yes I read the instructions, to remove the steel sleeve. I don't know about the rest of you but that sleeve was on so tight I had to use a make shift gear puller and the smoke wrench to get it to budge. Once that came off the rest was easy.
Now I need to decide which project to try first and get some material. So many ideas and so little time. I suppose I should start small 'til I get used to which way to turn the wheels and the other intricacies of the machine. The possibilities are endless.
 
I didn't have the problem with the sleeve. It came off easily when I used a sharp gasket scraper to get under it. Probably a stack up of tolerances. One thing about Harbor Freight there are no two machines the same. But the price is still absurdly low for what you get. IMHO
 
Finally finished most of the modifications/add-ons to the mini mill. I used the hall effect sensor and 6 magnets for the tach pickup. It works great. Loving the pulley/belt drive.
Dsc_0337 small.jpg
Dsc_0332 small.jpg
 
Back
Top