New 12z Owner Here

It looks ok, a few bondo cracks and chips some undesireable overspray. Nothing to bad looks mechanically sound. It was a bit nerve racking, but relatively drama free. I used a hybrid method to rig it all e3c2df83234577cce1a862f77106ec3e.jpg I ran the sling around the head by the column. Then ran a second strap around the column to the motor. To prevent any shifting. I then ran tie downs from the boom to the front lifting bolts. I used a 6400 lb 2" x 6' sling. The lift went fairly simple. I used ratchet straps as come alongs to move the pallet, to the edge of the trailer. 7853ed5886a20b7506411be67443149b.jpgf911a8f3c059d773588407361ef0dd03.jpg4b04cfb1cd9bb146fc14802f6eb031c1.jpg then I lifted it off the trailer and placed it on wooden blocks. Moved the truck and wheeled it in the garage. To place it on the stand I pulled the casters. Lifted it with the levelers just enough to clear the legs under the outriggers. Had 2 people holding the chip under the mill slid it all on put bolts through holes lined it up, set it down put the nuts on and done. It all took about 4 hrs the first 3 were solo. Now for cleaning, checking, and setup. Its 11 degrees here I've had enough cold this weekend should be nicer. Frozen cosmoline sucks.

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It was 6 degrees when I walked outside this morning. This AZ lizard is freezing to death. ;)

A friend was supposed to come over to help with the lift onto the stand, but he had to go do something else (one reason I don't like relying on people...) so I quietly went out to the garage and did it myself. Wife kinda freaked out when she figured out what I was doing but got over it. Everything is still attached and functional.

I cracked more paint and bondo doing modifications to the mill than it had when I got it. That's nothing. :)

I too am waiting for the weekend to do anything serious. I have to stop and pick up a 1 3/4" hole saw tonight to enlarge the Y-axis hole in the front of the base before I can continue anyway. Then I'm off for two weeks... :D
 
I think tonight I'll wire it up and let the motor run for a few minutes. Im gonna wait on cleaning more cosmoline until Saturday when I can get some daylight to help with temperatures. So far I've blown through 80 bucks worth of propane just heating the garage enough to paint the stand.

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I would recommend a real low spindle speed to start. That oil in the head is likely quite thick in these temperatures. Just a suggestion though. :)
 
Ok so I got a few more things accomplished. The whole garage is moved around now and the mill has been placed in it's new home. I've got it all mostly cleaned off. With wax and grease remover and wd40. There was a brief break from working because my nephew's wanted to see the mill run. They like building lego robots and my dad and I mentioned the robots we had built for my brothers high school robotics program. So i showed them how it worked and made a couple light cuts in a piece of 1/4" flat strap they were all amazed because they had never seen anything like it before. Of course it didn't take much convincing me to show them. I was pretty impressed at how interested they were in it. I also fired up my lathe and showed them how it works to. After they went home I went back out cleaned the chips up and pulled all the gibs and put them in my parts washer. I was impressed they were all scraped and flaked along the friction surfaces (is this normal on these machines)??
Anyway here is my next question. I did find a decent amount of casting sand and nastiness behind the gibs. This obviously needs to be cleaned out. However I'm having a tough time mentally pulling the bearing blocks off of my brand new machine. Why on earth do they bondo around the joints from the factory. My question is this what aerosol solvents would work well to flood and clean inside there without dissolving the paint? I usually go the brake clean route but it will take paint with it.
I know the best solution would be disassembling everything and thoroughly cleaning, and deburing all of it. Which may still happen but id like to try flooding with a high pressure aerosol first then inspecting with a borescope and 50 cal cotton barrel swabs coated in light grease to catch any left overs then cleaning out the grease oiling and re assembly. Any recommendations on paint safe solvents? f49d06fc0f45a6335ea9b454066b5e54.jpg

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If you care about the stuff back there now, will you really ever trust the results of a flush? If you can wait a couple days. I'm tearing mine apart over the next 2 days for ballscrew conversion. I can take pics and at least tell you what not to do. Bill had his all apart for the one shot oiler conversion so he may already have advice in the matter.

That aside you are the first person I have come across who reported actually finding sand in a chinese machine. You get a gold star.:p
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When I first got my mill, I basically pulled the gibbs (yes, they were scraped and flaked. Flat too.), deburred, and ran a stone over them and oiled the crap out of everything after flushing the ways out with a half dozen aerosol cans of WD-40. Adjusted the gibbs and ran it for a few days like that doing some test cuts and making a couple of small parts I needed to finish a project. The mill did OK, but I knew in my heart that I really needed to get into this thing and see what's what. It IS a Chinese machine after all, so of course fit and finish are suspect. I accept this as a matter of course, as do some other folks, but some expect a perfect machine right out of the box at this price point. YMMV...

Like I said on the phone yesterday, for all intents and purposes I personally looked at the purchase of the 12Z as getting a set of base, saddle, column, and head castings pre-machined for a couple thousand dollars (try asking a US company to do that for the same money). Everything else is suspect and will get fixed, replaced, and/or modified until the machine meets MY standards. But I am a bit odd compared to most folks, or so my wife keeps telling me.:rolleyes:

That and my oiler kit showed up from Paul.

So, I tore it apart. Gentle taps with a dead-blow to loosen the bearing blocks (yes, they are bondo'd and painted over). Pulled the table, saddle, screws, and bearing blocks. Sharpened a thick-bladed putty knife and attacked the paint and bondo anywhere near a mounting or sliding surface on the table, saddle, base, and bearing blocks (I may re-paint someday. Maybe). Cleaned and deburred everything. Filed all of the sharp edges off of the table and stoned the top and all the sliding surfaces. Same process for the base, saddle, and bearing blocks.

NOTE: The oiler holes on the table, saddle, and bearing blocks have no reliefs cut in them on the inside to promote oil flow. They are just a straight through hole. Some I could get oil into, some I couldn't unless I loosened up the machine. If I wasn't planning on doing the one-shot oiling system, I would have taken my Foredom and a 1/8" carbide bur and hand cut some channels off the inside of those oiler holes to get the oil better distributed to where it needs to go. Same on the bearing blocks. This iron is not that hard, and it NEEDS oil to prevent premature wear. Just a FYI.

For the oiling system I hand drilled the oiling holes in the saddle, but then did the oiling grooves in the sliding surfaces with my PM25. They could be done by hand, but they wouldn't have been as straight. :cool:

Reassembled and adjusted everything and it has worked well for over a year. Now it's back apart while I do the ball screw upgrade and I took the opportunity to inspect all the sliding surfaces. Everything is looking very good so far. But as you have seen, I oil the crap out of this thing (oil puddled in the troughs on the base and dripping on the floor). When I pull the oiler handle I don't stop until I see oil running everywhere. Then I know it's good to go for the day. :D
 
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