Thanks for the quick reply guys
Darren: I hate to go against experienced peoples good advice! Makes me feel twice as dumb, when I eventually discover they were right in the first place!
Until now, I had not found any disadvantages, except for the missing horizontal milling parts. But, I dont plan on using this in the nearest future anyways.
Regarding the speed, some say it's going to be ok. Since I'm a hobbyist I'll just find the speed that looks to be working ok for the current application and not think about it any further. But then there are the more thorough ones, like you, who reccomend a wider speed range for more optimal cutting conditions. I like to listen more to the ones who actually refer to their own experience, but I also have to take the costs into account. For a similar amount of money, I'd get a new mini mill about the size of an X3.
Asking price is about £1000, that is quite cheap compared to prices for the same machine in Sweden, where it was made. When googling the name of the mill, one can find several companies that have added exactly the same mill, or it's bigger brother, to their machine stock during the last years.
When you say a larger fly cutter, can you estimate what diameter? I assume you are talking about a HSS cutter? Just want to know if it's something I'm likely to be using.
kvom: considering it costs about the same as a new sieg X2/X3 over here, it sure is a lot of machine for the money. And I'm not sure I'll need to use smaller than say 5mm cutters in the nearest future.
Bernd: I plan to use the mill to make the occasional tooling for itself and the lathe. Apart from that I want to make flanges, surface manifolds, heads and blocks for cars, and some day I'll take on boring an engine block. Until now, I'm still to fascinated about making stuff for things that I can ride in, but when I discover model building I'll have to make some changes to get higher speeds.
When I get some experience on both machines, making a high speed head for the mill would make a nice little project! I'm thinking a motor mounted on the head in parallell with the spindle, belt-pulley transmission and no quill.
I also spoke to the seller today, and got some additional information. Axis movement in all directions has been tested, runs quite light when turning the handles manually. Both spindles run smoothely, tested in several gears. Even the coolant pump works, despite it having not been used for the last years. The quill extends about 50mm and has a handle for quick drilling and a small turning wheel for precise cuts.
There are two central lubrication systems, as I understood, one is on the table and has a little handle to pump it. Transmission oil levels are all above the lowest mark, but have not been changed for the last 3-4 years. The machine has not been used more than possibly 5 hours in the same period, as it is owned by a hobbyist who restores old american cars.
