Earl Wong
Active Member
Its been a busy summer for me so now that I am somewhat caught up I can share what's been happening at my home hobby machine shop.
The 1937 Atlas 7 Inch Shaper Restoration is complete. I'll post on another thread.
I acquired a new Craftex CX 601 Milling Machine from Busy Bee. There's not a lot of information on the internet about these specific machines, sure there are very similar machines like the Grizzly G0704 and the Sieg X3, and although they share the same DNA there are numerous differences as they are built by different specs. So I will post what I have learned from my machine in the hope it can help other Canadians eh.
The first thing about the CX601 is its weight. It's heavy. 560 lbs heavy. I managed to lift it off my truck with a Princess Auto overhead electric winch rated for 440 lbs.
With a lot of praying, hoping and wincing I managed not to injure myself or anything else.
After doing the usual rolling it to its final destination in my shop like an Egyptian building a pyramid, cleaning, tramming and set up, I found just as I expected, the machine isn't usable to me without a few mods.
The first thing I installed was I-gaging DRO's on all 3 axis. I plan on upgrading the head units with a wireless Blue DRO using a Galaxy tablet. I'll show that in a future update.
The very next thing I found was performing tool changes for the R8 spindle requires three hands. According to the owners manual (which at best is comic book reading with bad pictures and inaccurate or deleted information), the flats on the spindle "nut cover" are held while the drawbar nut is turned to release the tool. Of course if your using R8 collets, this will also release your tool from the collet unless you have three hands. The tool kit that comes with the machine provides two open end wrenches that do not fit anything on the machine... weird. There are no holes, registrations or flats at the bottom side of the spindle to lock it in place, so I made a spindle lock.
Since one of the first thing most people do is eliminate or bypass the plastic safety guard at the spindle I decided to re-purpose it for my spindle lock.
I milled a pocket that the lock wedges against to lock the spindle. The machine will not turn on if the lock is engaged and of course has to be disengaged for the machine to turn on.
The system is simple and works very well.
My next update will be adding a homemade X axis power feed.
The 1937 Atlas 7 Inch Shaper Restoration is complete. I'll post on another thread.
I acquired a new Craftex CX 601 Milling Machine from Busy Bee. There's not a lot of information on the internet about these specific machines, sure there are very similar machines like the Grizzly G0704 and the Sieg X3, and although they share the same DNA there are numerous differences as they are built by different specs. So I will post what I have learned from my machine in the hope it can help other Canadians eh.
The first thing about the CX601 is its weight. It's heavy. 560 lbs heavy. I managed to lift it off my truck with a Princess Auto overhead electric winch rated for 440 lbs.
With a lot of praying, hoping and wincing I managed not to injure myself or anything else.
After doing the usual rolling it to its final destination in my shop like an Egyptian building a pyramid, cleaning, tramming and set up, I found just as I expected, the machine isn't usable to me without a few mods.
The first thing I installed was I-gaging DRO's on all 3 axis. I plan on upgrading the head units with a wireless Blue DRO using a Galaxy tablet. I'll show that in a future update.
The very next thing I found was performing tool changes for the R8 spindle requires three hands. According to the owners manual (which at best is comic book reading with bad pictures and inaccurate or deleted information), the flats on the spindle "nut cover" are held while the drawbar nut is turned to release the tool. Of course if your using R8 collets, this will also release your tool from the collet unless you have three hands. The tool kit that comes with the machine provides two open end wrenches that do not fit anything on the machine... weird. There are no holes, registrations or flats at the bottom side of the spindle to lock it in place, so I made a spindle lock.
Since one of the first thing most people do is eliminate or bypass the plastic safety guard at the spindle I decided to re-purpose it for my spindle lock.
I milled a pocket that the lock wedges against to lock the spindle. The machine will not turn on if the lock is engaged and of course has to be disengaged for the machine to turn on.
The system is simple and works very well.
My next update will be adding a homemade X axis power feed.
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