Gallery, Projects and General > How do I??
Tramming SX2 fixed column milling machine
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bigmini:
Hi folks, it's been a while since I last posted, having not been doing much of interest in the workshop until now.

Yesterday, my annual bonus went toward a Sieg SX2LF Milling machine. I spent yesterday cleaning off all the packing grease,  relubing everything & bolting to the workbench  followed by some test cuts.

These test cuts showed the cutter wasn't cutting evenly (evidence of a tilt), so I put a dial indicator in the quill mounted on it's arm, and checked both ends of the table.

I found a 0.40mm difference from left to right and about a 0.1 mm difference front to rear. This was with all of the axes clamped. This difference is pretty consistent regardless of column height or table position.

I checked the alignment of the spindle with a piece of hex bar in a drill chuck and it seems OK. I checked the difference in level from front  to rear and that seems OK too. I tried loosening the holding down bolts in case the benchtop was warping the base, no joy there either.

It would be simple to fix it, except that this model Sieg does not have the tilting column.  :doh: The column is held down by four mounting bolts. I've done a search procedures but they all refer to the X2 type with the tilting column.

Should I remove the column and try shimming one side? or is there an adjustment I might have missed. The user manual is no help at all. I suspect Google translate was one of the authors. :lol:
Brass_Machine:
I believe you have to shim it.

I have the solid column kit (to convert my X2) and as far as I can see, there are no adjustments anywhere. Most non tilting mills you have to shim the column (iirc).

Eric
bigmini:
It took 3 goes, some alfoil, and some basic trigonometry, but I finally got it down to less than 0.01mm in all directions. That's the limit of reading of my dial gauge and the minimum increment I can make at the column base. (The alfoil is exactly 0.01mm thick).
 :ddb: :ddb: :ddb: :ddb:

I took photos of the whole process and I will prepare a step by step if anyone's interested.

The only misgiving I have is that the alfoil may creep over time and squeeze out. Time will tell. In the meantime I've written down the amount of correction  used at each bolt, so it would be just a matter of reproducing that using brass shim if necessary.
John Rudd:

--- Quote from: bigmini on October 21, 2012, 03:21:08 AM ---

The only misgiving I have is that the alfoil may creep over time and squeeze out. Time will tell. In the meantime I've written down the amount of correction  used at each bolt, so it would be just a matter of reproducing that using brass shim if necessary.

--- End quote ---

Which is why you would ordinarily use steel shim....Couldn't you obtain some steel shim of the requisite thickness? :dremel:
bigmini:
Not on a Sunday, no.
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