Hi from Kitchener, ON

[LenVW]

@LenVW seemed pretty sold on the craftex mills so I thought I would pass it along. You are right though, needing a part donor doesn't make owning own sound promising.

if a sales guy is warning you, you should just run away, he's either going to upsell you or their products are that bad. Either way you are probably going to regret listening to them later.

I do not have any first hand experience with the Craftex line of mills.
I was hoping that someone had experience to add.
I have been to the store in Mississauga and looked over a few 1/2hp models.
The King Canada KC-15VS is a basic desktop unit but it is 3/4hp.

I worked on Ex-Cell-O #604s knee mills and can assure you that they are the most robust vertical mills I have seen. I liked the Ex-Cell-O better then Bridgeports. They are full size mills and meant for full time production shops. We utilized them to produce many boring heads and tool holders as well as carbide cartridges. Unfortunately, I do not have room for a full size mill.

Does anybody have a SEIG ? . . . Or Harbor Freight ?
Any horror stories about these models ?

 

[gmihovics]

I do not have any first hand experience with the Craftex line of mills.
I was hoping that someone had experience to add.
I have been to the store in Mississauga and looked over a few 1/2hp models.
The King Canada KC-15VS is a basic desktop unit but it is 3/4hp.

I worked on Ex-Cell-O #604s knee mills and can assure you that they are the most robust vertical mills I have seen. I liked the Ex-Cell-O better then Bridgeports. They are full size mills and meant for full time production shops. We utilized them to produce many boring heads and tool holders as well as carbide cartridges. Unfortunately, I do not have room for a full size mill.

Does anybody have a SEIG ? . . . Or Harbor Freight ?
Any horror stories about these models ?

I don't have any first hand experience with the SIEG line but I have heard really good things. The machine listed by @Susquatch is actually a SIEG X2 from the looks of it. They are a very reputable machine in the mini mill market. the main complaint from what I've seen is the z column has a tilt adjustment for milling on an angle. some people say that makes it less rigid.

http://littlemachineshop.com has all kinds of replacement and upgrade kits for this machine and they are relatively inexpensive.

here is the Kijiji link again

Kijiji - Buy, Sell & Save with Canada's #1 Local Classifieds

Visit Kijiji Classifieds to buy, sell, or trade almost anything! New and used items, cars, real estate, jobs, services, vacation rentals and more virtually anywhere.

www.kijiji.ca

 

[darrin1200]

@darrin1200 , @LenVW , @gmihovics (hope I didn't leave anyone out - please forward if I did.)

Here is a small mill on Kijiji in Paris. I'm not vouching for it, just pointing it out. I know zero about the model.

Kijiji - Buy, Sell & Save with Canada's #1 Local Classifieds

Visit Kijiji Classifieds to buy, sell, or trade almost anything! New and used items, cars, real estate, jobs, services, vacation rentals and more virtually anywhere.

www.kijiji.ca

This is the type of pricing I was talking about. The equivalent of this mill new, is $999 right now with a warranty. The only thing extra is a few collets. To me a good price on this would be more down around $600-700. Or am I to unreasonable?

Buy Milling Machine Mini 1/2hp at Busy Bee Tools

CX605 Mini Milling Machine - Craftex CX-Series The CX605 is a small, high accuracy and affordable milling and drilling machine. It features a 1/2 HP motor and has a maximum milling capacity of 5/8" and drilling capacity of 1/2". The precision ground table travels 8-1/2" on X-axis and 4" on...

www.busybeetools.com

 

[YYCHM]

CX605 Down Feed Tune Up

Finally got fed up with the sloppy down feed and head drop issues on my CX605 and decided to do something about it. Apparently the head drop issue has to do with the poor mesh between the column rack and up/down feed gear as well as the sprung head support system. I tackled the mesh issue by...

canadianhobbymetalworkers.com

 

[Susquatch]

Actually, yes I think you are being unreasonable. The craftex has a plastic gear drive. That's part of what makes it so inexpensive.

I'm NOT saying that the one in the ad is any better. For all I know it make have plastic gears too.

What I do know is the the Craftex has lots of complaints. Google it for yourself. I decided totally against buying a new one. But I understand the ok'd ones are better made. So I might have considered a used unit.

Basically, I would pay more for a solid reliable machine that is used than a new one that is fragile with a reputation for problems.

 

[gmihovics]

This is the type of pricing I was talking about. The equivalent of this mill new, is $999 right now with a warranty. The only thing extra is a few collets. To me a good price on this would be more down around $600-700. Or am I to unreasonable?

Buy Milling Machine Mini 1/2hp at Busy Bee Tools

CX605 Mini Milling Machine - Craftex CX-Series The CX605 is a small, high accuracy and affordable milling and drilling machine. It features a 1/2 HP motor and has a maximum milling capacity of 5/8" and drilling capacity of 1/2". The precision ground table travels 8-1/2" on X-axis and 4" on...

www.busybeetools.com

I'm kind of with you, I would want to see if I could get it for 700-750 but what do I know lol I'm a newbie. I just know that this model has the smaller table compared to the x2d and does indeed have plastic gears on the headstock and drive. I can get metal gears and a belt drive kit from little machine shop and I can even get the larger table with fixed z column if I wanted to to basically upgrade it to the x2d.

if I factor in the price of the gears, assuming they have seen abused which I think is likely, I would want to try and offset that repair cost.

I'm actually trying to find a way to bypass the spending embargo and see if I can't snap it up if @LenVW isn't interested.

 

[Susquatch]

I wonder how much the tooling would cost to make steel gears for it yourself. I made a small gear for my mill drill and it's still hanging in there.

 

[LenVW]

@LenVW seemed pretty sold on the craftex mills so I thought I would pass it along. You are right though, needing a part donor doesn't make owning own sound promising.

if a sales guy is warning you, you should just run away, he's either going to upsell you or their products are that bad. Either way you are probably going to regret listening to them later.

If you check the history of LMS Mills in the USA they are supplying a ‘belt drive’ conversion kit for their mini mills. It replaces the plastic gears and reduces the noise generated by the meshing teeth in the drive train.

 

[Susquatch]

If you check the history of LMS Mills in the USA they are supplying a ‘belt drive’ conversion kit for their mini mills. It replaces the plastic gears and reduces the noise generated by the meshing teeth in the drive train.

Sounds like a plan!

 

[gmihovics]

Sounds like a plan!

they even have an upgraded 500W brushless motor on their higher end model.

 

[Susquatch]

Oooooo...... VFD capable then..... Starting to sound like a hell of a machine!

 

[YYCHM]

If you check the history of LMS Mills in the USA they are supplying a ‘belt drive’ conversion kit for their mini mills. It replaces the plastic gears and reduces the noise generated by the meshing teeth in the drive train.

See my post above. After spending $300 upgrading my CX605 I was still left with a down feed that's wasn't all that great. The belt drive conversion bypasses the two plastic gears.

 

[Susquatch]

The belt drive conversion only replaces one plastic gear, there are two.

Ya, all these upgrades are starting to add up.

But near as I can tell, you love your machine and don't mind improving it. So there is a message there for everyone.

Heck, my wife married me thinking she could turn me into something she could be proud of. That didn't work out like she planned but we are still married and we even had kids. Surely a mill can't be a bigger challenge!

What do these gears look like? Why not make steel (or even brass) ones?

 

[gmihovics]

Ya, all these upgrades are starting to add up.

But near as I can tell, you love your machine and don't mind improving it. So there is a message there for everyone.

Heck, my wife married me thinking she could turn me into something she could be proud of. That didn't work out like she planned but we are still married and we even had kids. Surely a mill can't be a bigger challenge!

What do these gears look like? Why not make steel (or even brass) ones?

here are the original plastic ones

Spare Parts Kit, R8, Mini Mill 1703

Spare Parts Kits 1703 R8 Mini Mill Spindle Gears; 5 GMA-5 Fuses; 1 Motor Gear; 2 Spindle Gears; 2 Intermediate Shaft Gears; This kit contains the part...

littlemachineshop.com

here are the metal versions

Transmission Gear Kit | Steel Gear Kit

Never break expensive or hard-to-replace gears again! Once installed on your mini mill, this kit replaces plastic transmission gears with metal ones. Order for your workshop today.

littlemachineshop.com

 

[Susquatch]

here are the original plastic ones

Spare Parts Kit, R8, Mini Mill 1703

Spare Parts Kits 1703 R8 Mini Mill Spindle Gears; 5 GMA-5 Fuses; 1 Motor Gear; 2 Spindle Gears; 2 Intermediate Shaft Gears; This kit contains the part...

littlemachineshop.com

here are the metal versions

Transmission Gear Kit | Steel Gear Kit

Never break expensive or hard-to-replace gears again! Once installed on your mini mill, this kit replaces plastic transmission gears with metal ones. Order for your workshop today.

littlemachineshop.com

Beautiful!

Those look like cast gears but so what. Still better than plastic. It looks pretty doable to make them out of steel or brass. The double gear will have to be made in two pieces that are then either pressed or welded or screwed together.

So the question is:

1. Do you want to buy a new one and use it to make the new gears or

2. Buy and new one and wait till December for new gears or

3. Find a decent used one and fix it instead?

Edit - for 100US you get metal gears. You can't buy a gear hob and arbour for less than that. I'd just wait for the metal gears to be available.

Again, @YYCHM (and others) really like their machines. It seems to me that metal gears and a few other changes are not a huge obstacle.

 

[gmihovics]

Beautiful!

Those look like cast gears but so what. Still better than plastic. It looks pretty doable to make them out of steel or brass. The double gear will have to be made in two pieces that are then either pressed or welded or screwed together.

So the question is:

1. Do you want to buy a new one and use it to make the new gears or

2. Buy and new one and wait till December for new gears or

3. Find a decent used one and fix it instead?

Again, @YYCHM (and others) really like their machines. It seems to me that metal gears and a few other changes are not a huge obstacle.

completely agree.

 

[YYCHM]

Again, @YYCHM (and others) really like their machines. It seems to me that metal gears and a few other changes are not a huge obstacle.

I'm not sure "really like" is an accurate statement. I was trying to make do with what I had. I ditched it the first chance I got to upgrade to a RF30 that I could afford.

 

[Susquatch]

Just thinking out loud.

For those of you with a lathe, you could make your own arbour and gear blanks and then grind a single tooth highspeed steel cutting bit to cut the gear teeth with. It would take a while, but I bet the result would be something to be very proud of!

 

[Susquatch]

I'm not sure "really like" is an accurate statement. I was trying to make do with what I had. I ditched it the first chance I got to upgrade to a RF30 that I could afford.

Ouch. Ok then. I never got that impression.

So tell us then. What would you do if you were given the chance to do the whole thing over again?

 

[trlvn]

My impression was that @LenVW is interested in an RF30 class (round column, circa 1.5 HP) whereas the machines with the failing plastic gears are RF45-type (mini mill with square column and .75 HP or less). I don't think BusyBee even offers an RF30-class machine at this time. Mine is a 2008 vintage.

King Canada's PDM-30 is an RF30 style machine, $2,700 at KBC:

KING INDUSTRIAL,KING BENCH MILL/DRILL MACHINE 1.5HP 220V,6-125-030,KBC Tools & Machinery

KING INDUSTRIAL,KING BENCH MILL/DRILL MACHINE 1.5HP 220V,6-125-030,KBC Tools & Machinery

www.kbctools.ca

Craig