Thread: Martys X3 Adventure

Hi Marty,
How did you get on with H&F?
The jibs are easy enough to adjust so you can check if the play can be removed. I have the CNCFusion kit on my X3 and all the Z axis winders are removed so if the Promica kit is the same then you can probably live with any damage there.
Suggest you build an enclosure and use full flood coolant.
The X3 is a good size for a backyard workshop.

Hi Rod, unfortunatley life got i the way and I didn't get a chance to call H&F. Will properly unbox and gckout the gibs tomorrow. The winders do get removed with the Promica kit so it's not a huge deal, just a shame really. Would like a full enclosure but that may have to wait a while, looks like we will be moving soon so hopefully the next place will have a workshop

Just build the house around a workshop.

The jibs need lapping anyway but make sure there are no cracks in the castings. They take a fair pounding so it should be alright but better to find out before you get started.

I would recommend you do the pull down and rebuild described in the link below - this is the quality control that Seig don't do. It describes how to adjust the jibs so you can do that at least.

Teardown and rebuild guide

If you can do the one shot oiler as they are a pain to lubricate the ways. There is plenty of literature on CNC Zone for that.
The X3 makes a very good CNC machine and mine has done many hundreds of hours doing all sorts of things.
Get yourself an ER25 collet chuck and collets from CTC and and they will serve you well. Is yours MT3 or R8?

Have a look at this link post #4 as there is a lot of other intersting things to do with the X3. Sorry you have many hours of reading there - I'd like a dollar for every hour I have invested in researching CNC things.

Thanks Rod. Would you beleive I was just looking at that page yesterday still have a lot more to read through. Will be doing the arc eurotrade when I get the chance. I just stripped down the C3 using their other guide and am 3/4 through the way of putting it back together.

The mill should be Mt3. You may not be that far off the mark with your shed around the house comment. I'm looking into an indoor work area at the moment. I'm in no rush with this project beleive it Not I justified this as something relatively small (compared to the router) I could work on while we build the next place.

Well I had a good look. Everything seems ok, the gibs were loose so I'm hoping that was the reason for the play in the table.

One thing I noticed is that my X3 doesnt come with the chip guard as advertised. I'm guessing that makes mine the 'old' version? As a result it also doesn't have the internal gas strut. Can anyone see this as a problem? will check with Promica as well to see if this is an issue.

Rod, when you did the X3 prep did you go as far as dissasembling the spindle?

Hi Marty,
I recommended it but didn't do the full strip down myself.
Was too keen to get my machine running so only did part of the strip down - well only the bits where I had to pull it apart to fit the kit.
I should have done it all but as I built the enclosure at the same time it was a big undertaking so I dodged what I didn't have to do.

Hi Marty,

my X3 doesn't have the gas strut either, and the head zips up and down without any problems thus far.

Cheers,
Andrew

Thanks for that Andrew. I've done a quick and nasty adjustment on the gibs just to check and I seem to have eliminated the play on the table which is good. Just waiting to receive the kit now so then I'll be able to figrue out what adiditional parts I need etc. Biggest issue now is trying to find a temporary home for this monster

I'd suggest pulling the gibs out and shaking your head in horror at them, then spending some time getting the bearing surface flat and straight.

(The scraping guys can chime in here), but I just used a cheap diamond plate and wet-n-dry on a glass slab, to get the bearing surface mostly flat(ish).
It made a huge difference in smoothness and consistency of table movement, as one gib was originally bowed so much it was only touching on diagonally opposite corners, and the other had one end bent up.

I'm off to generate a new toolpath for cable hole Number 2, as hole 1 worked well, but took faaaaaaarrrrr tooooo loooong.
Sheesh, after converting the machine, you need to learn a couple of bits of software, then speeds & feeds, and also how to approach a job

Plan A: pocketing with a 4mm em, going .1mm deeper each time, went from exciting to yawning in the 15 mins it took.

Plan B: is looking like starting with a much bigger em, then running around the edge with the 4mm em lowered enough to cut the full depth at once.

Has your kit arrived yet?

Cheers,
Andrew

Hi Andrew. Kit hasn't arrived yet but was sent last week so should arrive soon. Unfortunatly I won't be home again till next week due to work Besides machine prep the first thing I will probably need to do is design and make some limit\home switches. Might need to hit you up for some milling time Rod

Talk about a thread revival

My kit arrived just before Christmas and shortly after I realised that a part used to initiate the homing sensors was not included in the standard kit. So in January I fired off a quick email and I ordered the additional parts. I received them last week

I could have done a bit more in the mean time but for a variety of reasons it was easier to put it on hold.

So now the conversion can begin

I was looking at the stepper motors and how I was going to seal them, in case I go down the flood coolant path.

I purchased some sleeving and I think I'll just widen the grommet on the stepper and glue it in. The stepper cables will be joined to some four core cable inside the axis housings using some sort of connector. I'll need to see how much room I've got in there.

A number of people seem to recommend a one shot oil system as well. I like the idea of them but all the installations I've seen look quite messy. I know that seems a bit silly but one of the reasons I chose this kit was the very clean look of it. I was considering changing out the the oil fitting to grease ones (Zerks) but continuing to use oil and making a breakout manifold for the hard to reach areas. It would be a simpler system and you wouldn't need to worry about flow restrictions etc of the one shot systems.

Hopefully will start stripping it down tomorrow.

Any one have any other ideas or suggestions?

What size motors do you have?
You could fit covers such as these to help against all but total immersion of the stepper.

Hi Geoff,

They are single shaft Nema23's. Those covers do look good but because of the fold back design of my kit I don't have any clearance to add to the length of the motor.