The Cheap Chinese Mini Mill

If you are concerned about the reliability of the controller/electronic add a fan. I have a mill similar to yours, added a fan the first day and 11 years later never had a problem. Heat is the greatest enemy of electronics.

You’re obviously a qualified machinist but you also do a great video . I’m a 60 year old fitter machinist and have purchased a mini lathe for home as I have found your clips inspirational . I don’t have to machine at work these days so it’s time to enjoy making stuff for myself. Great work👍

Take a 150mm or 200mm diameter piece of pvc pipe which is a couple of cm taller than your coolant level, but will still clear the lid. Cap one end and glue in a heavy weight. Drill holes around the circumference near or within the end cap. Place vertically in the coolant and put the return into the pipe. Over time the oil will float to the top of the pipe and coolant will flow out the holes in the bottom. Oil can be sucked out the top of the pipe with a large syringe or baster. That size mill will hopefully be my next purchase as I have space limitations too. Great tips and videos, thanks.

I am always impressed with what you accomplish on a small budget. That epoxy putty on the vice trick was an excellent idea.

When you’re gluing materials like that, a cool trick is to put tape on both pieces of material, then glue the tape together. Still strong but it comes apart much better and leaves no mess

Well made video, very helpful. And you obviously spent a heap of time editing all the footage from many small jobs there. Thanks! 👍

From the bottom of heart thank you for this video, i have the same mill (pre covid model as the speed control etc is nicer) but its had a knock in the spindle bearings for ages. Its nice to have a decent tear down video for the replacement. From a fellow aussie mill owner thanks.
My ends up acting as more of a glorified drill press but the occasions its done milling has really helped out

Great bunch of info here, nicely made video. Enjoyed the spindle refurbish and the coolant treatment, well done!

Excellent video, I love seeing opinions and changes after a machine has been in use for a while

For the best scrapers, contact your local machine shop and ask them for any old circular cutting blades they are throwing away. Put on your PPE and throw it as high into the air as you can so it lands on a hard concrete floor where it will shatter. Some of the shards will have a convex edge which you don't touch - don't even sharpen it. Grind the bit behind this edge to fit in your handle and you will have the best scraper known to this planetary system.

A small note from a fellow hobby-level machinist... I own the Harbor Freight mini-lathe and mini-mil and have to say that while I never would have wanted to go smaller to something like a Sieg, both machines have allowed me to do real machining in a home environment, with the ability to move either one by myself in one trip vs. having to disassemble and painfully move them piece by piece. They also cost a total of less than $1000 USD (Obviously with no vise/bits included), which made it possible for me to actually afford them, though this was back around 2001 so obviously inflation will have to be factored in. It would be great to have larger machines, but you can't discount the fact that they allow entry into actual machining, building up those skills, and are quite capable for machines of their size-- no issues tackling stainless or other ferrous metals.
Anyway, just had to chip in since I feel like the mini-lathe and mini-mill are often immediately dismissed as "not a real lathe or mill", when often they are quite capable for their size and allow people with less money to build all those important skills that are impossible with hand tools. Just my two cents...

This is a very good video. You explain things clearly, the audio matches with video, and you show how to improve the machine in a way that everyone can understand. What more is needed? nothing. You turn a basic cheap mill into one that works to high standard: I found it encouraging to watch you work, thanks for an excellent video.

Very cool. Haven't seen anyone do manual scraping in awhile. Love the content 👌

Grear vid! Interesting to see the spindle disassembly, and the scraping. It made me realize that scraping isn’t such a big deal, at least on small jobs like this.

I love the content man. Wouldn't mind seeing more from you. You make me want to get down in the shop and mess with my machines that have never been used.

Gday, the mill has definitely served you well and it really does a great job, the project you do prove the mill stands up, great video mate, Cheers

Thanks for another great video. You've given me a lot of ideas for improving my mini mill.

When I did my apprenticeship, we made our own coolant - an emulsion made from roughly 2:1 engine oil and a mineral oil detergent (so, not dish soap!), and then watered down to the right consistency. Basically, you're using enough detergent to get the oil to emulsify with the water, making it "water that won't make things rust", so I'm guessing you could do the exact same thing with cheap vegetable oil and dish soap!

Great idea building up the vice edges

I have a different mini mill. But I did all the same things you did. Crazy how they made sure some things were flat and others were not. Same on mine.
But the closer to perfect and consistent you get, the more expensive things are.

I don't know anything about mills or milling but this was very satisfying to watch!

Great upgrade these small mills are very versatile in the home shop

Nicely done on the scraping.

QOL upgrades like these are the best! you'll probably thank yourself daily ^^

Awesome vid love the milling stuff

I have to get one of these, I built a MPCNC (Mostly Printed CNC) for milling wood and engineering resins but I want to replace the 3D printed parts with steel and aluminium, this will be the ideal first project once I get used to working with the Mini Mill, great video and some great tips!

Very good video. I have a similar mill and initially had overheating problems. After taking the head apart, like your situation I found out that the factory installed a deep race bearing with an angular contact bearing. I replaced both bearings with SKS AC bearings. It really made a big difference.

When you mentioned bacteria/mould in the coolant i had to think back to my apprenticeship, where someone got assigned the mill that no one used and turned on the coolant pump, only to have what can only be described as looking like "diarrhea" all over his part and cutter. Smelled awful too and immediately prompted checking of coolant on all machines. Fun times.

Funny, I'm using the exact same rectangular storage container as a reservoir for my hydroponic setup. Even has a pretty similar looking pond pump in it. I ended up using cheap 13mm irrigation fittings to plumb it all through the top of one of the sides to keep the lid easy to remove for drain, refill and checking nutrient concentration etc.

Nice work

If you use linseed oil for anything be aware that it polymerizes and becomes gummy within some weeks. That's why it's used for oil paintings or for impregnating wood. Don't want that stuff sticking on your surface plate. I had better success mixing mineral oil with a lot of pigment powder. You really want it to be like a paste so you can see the very thin layer. Otherwise get some bluing dye off the shelf, it's not that expensive. I built a simple scraper out of a power saw, removed the linear mechanism and replaced it with my own which I can attach scraping blades to. Also added a shallow tslot to the cam gear so I can adjust the stroke. Oh, and once you scraped both sides, technically you'd have to check the whole thing for pararellism between both sides, since that could be off too now.

A single cut file drawn perpendicular to that bed would have kept the material removal where needed without using that improvised scraper. Draw filing or using the proper scraping tooling is what us Millwright’s do.
Bonus point for being right on the handle removal but minus two for using a slip-joint plier instead of a hook spanner.

Excellent video. Tons of useful infos there.

On my Sieg X3 I replaced the top radial bearing and thrust bearing with a tapered roller bearing. I used a belleville washer to under the nut to set the perload.

Great vid mate, very informative & interesting.

great tip with always grabbing the handle farthest from you. I will certainly be using that one with my new drill press mate

Those were quite the mods. Well done sir.

Great video! thanks for sharing. I was thinking of getting one of these

Thank you. Very interesting and useful video again.

I have the smaller sister of the Sieg SX2.7, the SX2.3. The biggest difference is the table size, the SX2.3 has a shorter table in the X-direction, other than that it should be pretty much the same. I quite like the mill, once you know how it behaves, you can actually squeeze a lot of accuracy out of it.
I added a gas-strut to mine, that pushes the head upwards. I can really recommend doing that mod, you get less sagging of the head, it's way nicer and easier to crank up and down and it vibrates a little less (I mounted the strut at an angle, so it pushes the head slightly into the dovetail, which stiffens it up a bit).
The next upgrade on my list is reinforcing the column, since that's still stock and probably the biggest weak point.

It's a very capable small milling machine. I have to inspect the bearings and adjust the preload on my SX3. Thanks for the reminder 😂

Good information! Enjoyed !

The X2.7 looks pretty good. Most people (myself included) have the X2 or equivalent, which is slightly smaller.

Excellent again.

Good stuff!!! Keep em coming!!!!

Steel putty... OMG, mind blown!!!

sorry about loosing the bearing but thank you for showing us how'd you take it out!

Great video 👍

Nice job fella 👍

I have a similar size mill, Amadeal AMAT25LV with the brushless motor and belt drive (no gears in the head) . Watching you using your mill, I'm so glad I waited for the brushless one to become available (and pay the extra money for it). The performance difference is outrageous. If you get the chance to go brushless, I highly recommend it.

Way that this saddle was manufactured is correct, by making contact at the ends of these surfaces it prevents assembly from wobbling. Similar method is used in lathe support.

Thanks again, your motor lathe mod l did, still works great for what l do.

Hi you may know the guy I wish to refer you too ! CEE CUTTING EDGE ENGINEERING AUSTRALIA MAKEING A LINEBORING HOLDER !
But your would be a little smaller in size in the mini mill however I am thinking of the possibilities !! Thanks for the hours of enjoyment you give to people like myself besides introducing us to new skills we did not know we had in us CHEERS BRIAN

great video mate!

Glad to see your mill. after a long time when i first see you get it and i got mine weeks after yours.
I would say ,
Even though brushless motors is noisy but at least you can repair the brushes when worn , i know 2 people who have had Brushless and after a while they had problems, as the small motors don't like the strain, but bigger brushless motors seem to be good.
but still when a brushless stops it needs to be replaced, but as a brushed motor, 99% of the time you just spend a few bucks on new brushes and your good to go.
Anyway i like seeng what you have figured out, and is nice for some one like you to do videos on these small machines and follow up on how you have got on, as it is inspiring for those who are thinking about getting one.

Every time you said "mill" is sounded like you said "mule". Funny English accents from around the world!
Oh, and "fix" sounded like "feeks".
Lol, thank you for the laugh today. You confirmed that my hearing is really bad!

19:19 on the return line to the sump chuck a couple of filter socks in there and it will pickup any particulates that get carried away in the fluid. The bulk will settle out but the super fine bits will act like silt and clays do in a stream.

great video

Thanks a lot for your videos and info 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👍👍👍

Well done

If you want a surefire no-rust coolant, try Metalium XDP1000 mixed 10:1. It's a bit hard to find (harder to find than XDP2000 or XDP1800), but it leaves a good oily film on surfaces once the water evaporates.

I have a similar setup to your coolant but it pumps oil it seems to make a big difference to tool life but it makes a real mess but im going to make some Perspex splash shields like Blondi Hacks has. I have it on my big lathe & mill. My mini lathe has no drip tray so i just manually add cutting oil. In UK winters the biggest enemy is corrosion from condensation on everything so oil helps a lot with that.
Keep up the good work ive been enjoying your videos like a podcast while cleaning an old Oris watch to hopefully get running tomorrow.

Love your vids.

yay enjoying this but have to go out, bummer, but will watch end when i get back

if you ever get the chance to take some scraping classes with richard king i think youd enjoy it. it did my heart good to see that surface plate come out. well done sir :)

Interesting video. Thanks. I couldn’t see how the coolant got from the vise to the reservoir.

Sealed angular thrust roller bearings are probably best for the top. But parallel roller bearings are probably best for the bottom. However, one way to find out would be to study the specifications of far more expensive milling machines and copy their setup.

You're an inspiration, dude :)

VERY NICE. THANKS

Definitely get sealed bearings next time, as in the orientation they are in they wont retainant luberication without the seals. So glad you look after your equipment properly. Kudos

Looking forward to doing my mill, but it's a bit bigger - and I want to scrape all the dovetails as well. Only thing stopping me: A 900x600 granite block is $2200.... it would become the most expensive item in my workshop.

Well done. May have been good to finish the metal putty with the mill and make it look factory. Your coolant looks like Dettol 😂. You always make excellent videos. Cheers Stuart, Canberra.

Cool experience

Another great video dude. Good too see your pushing this mill to its limits so much so your having to replace the bearings. Just out of curiosity any reason in particular you didn’t go for taper roller bearings top and bottom ??

As someone who knows jack squat about machining, I love your content. Probably the English accent

Awesome thanks.

You are the best 👍

Alright mate. What I enjoy about ur videos is u show us and explain how and what ur doing with ur machines. The upgrades are bloody great mate. Really enjoy ur channel but could u tell me how much this Mill cost? I'm thinking about 1500 quid? If it's cheper then it's a great deal. I sw u changed out ur Mini Lathe for a bigger one recently? or at least it was recently when I watched the video anyways my bro. Great content as always. Thanks for posting the content. It actually helps out so many ppl I'm sure.. I get tonnes f information even though I don't own either a Lathe or a Mill yet. They will be coming in the next 12 months though..

Great video! I like the reasoning for the spindle handle removal as a safety issue. As you seem very conscious of safety, I would recommend wearing long rubber gloves when messing in your coolant tank as the coolant could be carcinogenic. Also I liked the metal putty use. I have a Sieg X2 mini mill and wish I had yours! But got what I could afford at the time. I enjoyed seeing your scraping job you did. I wonder if a Multi-function Tool would work as a power scraper? I think it would being careful not to let too much be taken down. You could grind one of the tools to make the scraper blade or make your own. Maybe a Saws All would as well, but the stroke may be too long.

Way cover: I cut the dove-tail profile into the bracket, added some magnets and now I can move the bracket & way cover further up when it is in the way.

Keep making vids they are very good !=8)

Hi, Traming a head save running gauge over the table slots. Get a gauge block or something similar, set that under the stylus to read zero on 1 side swing 180 other side slide block in take your reading.
Steve in UK

Some u tube creators have a lot to answer for introducing scraping to the masses. You listening Adam! To scrape successfully you have to be finer than that mate. When I was a aprentice one of our first jobs was to create a cube 1 inch on all sides. + or - half a thousand using a hacksaw, a couple of files, scraper and surface plate and square. This was out of a lump of rusty plate 1 and a half thick.

Thanks for the video. I need to look at the bearing on mine but that will be a while. How did you go about tramming your mill? I have the Grizzly version of the SX3 which has been a great mill but I haven't checked the tram yet but I can see a slight re-cut when I use the fly cutter. Thank you for the video.

I haven't put coolant on my mill yet for the very reason you have said, rusting, so I'm very interested to see how you get on with that new stuff. The whole idea of water around my machines worries the hell out of me

You could boil your water first to sterilize it. A metal tank with an immersion heater would allow periodic resterilization of the coolant.

Hi mate any chance of getting a list of the gear you have so i can setup a similar workshop I only have small area .
The info from your videos is great and more on how to use the equipment would be great
I live in Au also cheers Leigh

Bearings typically have a wear in schedule, and I’ve always seen tapered roller bearings packed in grease. Oil may work too, just need to follow mfg instructions very closely.

Nice video. I have same type of mill. Is there any way to lubricate the spindle bearings in situ?

Awesome! i am inspired to change the bearings on my SX2.7. Could you tell me the bearing sizes you used or a link to them? Thanks

I really hope you fill this mill with epoxy granite, I’m curious what it’ll do for vibration dampening and rigidity on a mill that size.

10:03 it’s no real Artisan Makes video when the hacksaw doesn’t show up 😍

You want the slide to be slightly hollow or " undercut" in the middle, as it was.
This is to prevent rocking.

Danke.

The problem is (was) not with the brushed DC motor as it is capable to produce the nominal torque even at standstill. The problem is (was, again) the open loop drive electronics and the lack of forced cooling.
DC motors are so great that they were even used even in MW power level locomotives.
Maybe the only downside of DC motors are the brushes and the commutator.

oh hell yeah it's This Old Tony's Australian cousin

I'd recommend getting some smaller nozzles for your coolant. They help with restricting flow and can make less of a mess cause you're actually using less

Hey,, great video,, I have the same mill, At the top of the spindle, With the new angular contact bearing, did you put the thrust bearing back , use a spacer or did you only use the angular contact bearing ??
Thanks

I always remove at least one lever from my drill presses. my main press only has one lever on it, actually, and I haven't seen the need to put the other two back on.

There are slow drying Oils that artists use. I think poppy seed oil is one.