overview Can you get the most out of your Proxxon MF70?

Jimsky said:
NOT AT ALL! This topic was designed in mind for everyone with ideas for improving the Proxxon Mill. I just happened to share mine first. All ideas are welcome as comments and suggestions as well.

By tuning, I don't necessarily mean upgrades. Yes, the thrust bearings will make the turning job much easier, but as Stephan mentioned, it will not remove the backslash. There are things you can improve without additional cost. The mill comes from the factory assembled, but what about lubricant? What about the backslash on the X and Y-axis? You can tune those and at the same time put fresh lubricant.
With your coordinate table attached to the mill base, hold the X-axis table in your hand and try to move sideways, and up and down. Did you feel the backslash? If yes, you can adjust the tension using the three set screws designed for each axis. Loosen the set screws and push the brass plate against the housing, such as lossen\tighten the tension and removing the backslash. If you untighten the set screws, you can push the brass plate on either side. Put the lubricant and push it back again in the slot. Just carefully position the plate, on one side there are notches guides, they have to look at you. Be careful to tighten it too much, you will have a hard time turning the wheel ;) Well...that's it does it cost you anything? Maybe a lubricant... BTW, I use the MultiLUB by STIHL. One tube lasts a lifetime, you need just a dub. But any machinery lubricants will do.
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Jim

Sorry I had overlooked your explanation of tuning here when I posted a reply last night. I'll have to learn to use the forum search tools.

Appreciate the lubrication ideas and the MultiLub suggestion. My son is USFS and a big STIHL chainsaw proponent so the STIHL product would get a thumbs up from my son.

The proper nomenclature is essential in anything technical and here I'm also a newbie. One of my next steps in "tuning" is to make sure I can mill slots that are aligned to the faces/ edges of the work. I've used a mill bit and traversed the table with the mounted vise and see that the rear fixed vise face is "eyeball" ok. I'm using the fixed vise face as a reference. "eyeball" but nothing done with a caliper. Wouldn't know how or where to place a caliper to check it. And I don't know the techniques to make the 1/1000" adjustments if it was out. I don't need that level of precision at first, but eventually want to be able to mill slots that fit a PCB decoder board tightly into the alloy frame. For that I expect more precision is necessary. Plus, the alloy is weak, and reports that risk breaking concern me. It would seem that an aligned tool would reduce the forces that might cause the work to shatter. Frame parts are hard to come by.

I'm trying to understand the options and techniques developed for holding the work (model parts). I see from photos posted here that some shipwrights (is that a correct term?) use what in woodworking I would call a fence and a secondary wood table top. That suggested to me that perhaps some wood parts are moved past the bit as in woodworking, rather than clamping the parts and traversing the table. I'm probably way off in assuming so much from a photo. Or maybe the fence is at used to align long parts, the work is clamped in some fashion, and the table still traverses.

Appreciate the contributions of all and your work and time to admin this forum.

Bob in Denver
 
Stephan -

Thanks for the link. That helps as I'm beginning to see users have a hybrid "woodworking" jigs vs. full-on machinist approach to fix the work. That is helpful as many of the mill tutorials I've found are for serious, dangerous, big mill use. And my worry was none of my woodworking experience was transfering to Proxxon MF70 use. Now I have a hint that a hybrid "common sense" is good. The davits and mass production idea very good as I have some small parts to make multiples of. Didn't want to learn resin casting (master, mold, etc) and nice to see how Ondras (?) solved his problem.
 
Stuart Little said:
I did consider this but as the adaptor is hardened I decided not to go that direction. I cut from a piece of 0.001" brass shim, a strip 15mm x 24mm, [24mm being the circumference of the spindle] formed it around the shank of a 7.5mm drill bit & inserted it. The adapter fits by 'screwing' on to the spindle, which produces a very shallow thread. I tightened the grub screws (I previously drilled dimples in the spindle to prevent thread damage), then checked run-out = 0.001". OK by me, but the shim is a one-time use, but it's simple enough to replace whenever the adaptor is required, if not wanted to be kept permanently attached.

Stuart
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Hello Stuart
It was me that suggested using a threaded shaft instead. I have done it very successfully using a mini lathe with high quality drill & tapping bits to make the M8x 0.75 pitch thread.
If anyone in this forum is interested in this, let me know and I can make them to order.

Thanks
Tolis
 
I agree with Steph, this is an excellent idea. ER11 should be most appropriate for this mill; a more than 6mm diameter will be overkill for this milling machine.
 
I seen this 9n Aliexpress, but with the wrong thread. What doesn't fit to the axle of the MF70. A collet with the right thread could have a future. But watch out like Jim said. No mills above 5 or 6 mm. for wood and keep under the 4 mm. for soft metals. This machine is not build for bigger mills. You destroy the motor. There is a planetary gear available in German to solve this problem. The link is where Jim ordered the shaft he's using. I like the single colled with the good thread. So you don't have to change the shaft.
 
Steef66 said:
I seen this 9n Aliexpress, but with the wrong thread. What doesn't fit to the axle of the MF70. A collet with the right thread could have a future. But watch out like Jim said. No mills above 5 or 6 mm. for wood and keep under the 4 mm. for soft metals. This machine is not build for bigger mills. You destroy the motor. There is a planetary gear available in German to solve this problem. The link is where Jim ordered the shaft he's using. I like the single colled with the good thread. So you don't have to change the shaft.
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Yes, @Tobias helped me to acquire this shaft as they don't ship to the USA. I think this is the most valuable upgrade alone with the thrust bearings I made on my mill. Planetary gears are great but expensive, also, larger-size mills are impractical due to the size of the milling table. The most common diameter is 4 mm endmills, this is what is missing from the packaged mill. I found a huge variety of 4mm endmills: from 0.2mm to 4.00. However, the 5mm shank will give other options for specific endmills, like in the example below:

IMG_2620.jpeg
 
Jimsky said:
Yes, @Tobias helped me to acquire this shaft as they don't ship to the USA. I think this is the most valuable upgrade alone with the thrust bearings I made on my mill. Planetary gears are great but expensive, also, larger-size mills are impractical due to the size of the milling table. The most common diameter is 4 mm endmills, this is what is missing from the packaged mill. I found a huge variety of 4mm endmills: from 0.2mm to 4.00. However, the 5mm shank will give other options for specific endmills, like in the example below:

View attachment 348868
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Hey Jim

Have you or anyone ordered the planetary gear from usovo in Germany? I can see that that sell this only for the old versions of Proxxon MF70 but since I have newer one USOVO told me that their planetary gear cannot fit into mine machine.
If there is any further advice on this upgrade bit, will be highly appreciated.

Regarding the end mills I agree with all the above comments. I don't recommend either using this shaft for bigger than 6mm for wood and 4mm on brass and aluminium.

Thanks
Tolis
 
T-8 said:
Hello Stuart
It was me that suggested using a threaded shaft instead. I have done it very successfully using a mini lathe with high quality drill & tapping bits to make the M8x 0.75 pitch thread.
If anyone in this forum is interested in this, let me know and I can make them to order.

Thanks
Tolis
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Thanks Tolis, I eventually made a shaft from a straight shank E11 chuck, woks pretty good.

Stuart
 
Stuart Little said:
Thanks Tolis, I eventually made a shaft from a straight shank E11 chuck, woks pretty good.

Stuart
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I ordered an adapter for ER11 collets. I guess I'll find out how well it performs. It will replace the 8mm collet chuck that is standard on my new MF70. I also received 15 new ER11 collets. Should be fun!

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What Tolis is offered is a bit different. Did you have noticed that he is offering a threaded (M8x0.75) shaft ER11 adaptor? All standard adapter comes without a thread and can be secured with 2 hex bolts, a bit dangerous to destroy the thread on the shaft! The threaded adapter instead will secure itself like the current collet holder.
 
Jimsky said:
Greetings folks. The more I learn about the new collets system (ER), the more I understand what will be required for successful milling. Recall, in my post where I performed a number of tests with various endmills. For some reason, tests made with Proxxon endmills didn't yield precision results. This is while I considered Proxxon endmills a very good quality. Well... the mystery is actually hidden behind the collets themselves.

The collet sits in an internal tapered shaft that matches the taper of the collet. This taper compresses the collet against the tool and locks it into place. When the collet has loosened the ring that is clipped into the collet pulls it away from the taper lock releasing the collet and the tool. Take a look at the image below, the collet 'sits' or clips into the nut.

View attachment 291378

The ‘ER’ numbers are loosely associated with the diameter of the interchangeable collets, measured in millimeters. This gives you a general idea of their size and how big a spindle will have to be to accommodate each size. So ER11 will fit the 8mm endmills at the biggest. If you need bigger size endmills, you will go with ER16. The collets for each designation are all identical apart from the hole down the center, this dictates what size of the tool you can use with each collet. Most hobby machines will use an ER-11 or ER-16 size spindle.

Now is the interesting part. The collets are available in sets or as individual collets. Ther are metric as well as imperial collets. A good collet set (either metric or\and imperial) could cost you a fortune. For our purposes, specifically with Proxxon mill MF70, I don't see using all of the collects in the set. However, when you will buy the collets for your system, make you buy the correct one. What do I mean?

The ER systems collets are designed in a specific way to hold endmills for various jobs. If the collet is labeled 3.1mm (1/8 inch), it will not hold firmly an endmill with a diameter of 3mm. Well, it may hold it OK, but it may not be centered well while gripping. So here is my suggestion: Grip for your endmills correctly!

Apparently, most of my endmills are 3.15 ~ 3.18mm, and sure enough, Proxxon mills are 3.00 mm even. Some of the collets are designed to fit a range of sizes, they are labeled on the top like this: 3.0 - 2.5. This collet will fit all the endmills from 2.50 mm up to 3.00 mm. Don't try to push 3.17mm (1/8) diameter bits!! For 3.17mm endmills, you better use a 3.2mm - 3.0mm collet. This collet will also support endmills of 3.00mm. So...here is the dilemma: what collet should I need? I bought most of the endmills on Alixpress and they are labeled 3.00mm. However, they are 3.15 ~ 3.8mm. The answer is I need the collet labeled 3.2 - 3.0mm so it will fit all my 3.0\3.78mm endmills.

I bout this collet Techniks 04211-1/8 | 1/8" (0.125") Super Precision ER11 collet. It does scale down to support 3.00mm bit and cost $13.00, but it is of good quality. Highly suggested.

Once I use the 3.00mm collet for the Proxxon bit, I got the precision expected! Get the right collet size for your Grip!! Check the video below. It is 20 minutes, but worth every minute to watch...

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Hi,
Like you I bought some end mills that are too large for the proxxon collet and am now looking at either an adaptor or the USOVO kit to replace the shaft. You mention here that using the correct sized collet reduces the run-off to acceptable levels but in a later post, after you installed the replacement shaft, you seem to say that even using the adaptor you are still getting run-offs of about 20 hundredths of a mm. Would you mind confirming the run off you get using the adaptor please.

I'm planning on using a 0.5mm end mill to make some gratings so a 0.2mm run off would not be good enough for the job and i would need the replacement shaft.

ALso did you find a way to identify the MF70 serial number, i've checked mine and can't find anything that would help me decide which of the shaft kits to buy.

Many Thanks
Brett
 
bslats said:
Hi,
Like you I bought some end mills that are too large for the proxxon collet and am now looking at either an adaptor or the USOVO kit to replace the shaft. You mention here that using the correct sized collet reduces the run-off to acceptable levels but in a later post, after you installed the replacement shaft, you seem to say that even using the adaptor you are still getting run-offs of about 20 hundredths of a mm. Would you mind confirming the run off you get using the adaptor please.

I'm planning on using a 0.5mm end mill to make some gratings so a 0.2mm run off would not be good enough for the job and i would need the replacement shaft.

ALso did you find a way to identify the MF70 serial number, i've checked mine and can't find anything that would help me decide which of the shaft kits to buy.

Many Thanks
Brett
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ER11 mounted easily. Fun to use too.

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