When I did my intro post I mentioned a modification I did on my mini mill and got asked about it so thought I'd post it here.
I had converted my Seig X2 Mini Mill (Harbor Freight Mini Mill) to CNC and wanted to do some engraving so I needed a high speed spindle. Little Machine Shop dot com who sells parts etc. for these mills, sells an adapter plate and ring that mounts under the headstock and holds a Proxxon IB/E Professional Rotary Tool to the side. However I converted my Mill back to manual because I seldom used it, I no longer was building rc car parts, and it was too much effort to program the computer to drill a hole or two. Converting it back made it so that I couldn't use the adapter, So I took a second adapter from them and cut it and threaded it to hold the tool farther to the right.
Here you can see the Rotary tool off the the right of the mill head. The round wheel in the middle is the fine feed for the Z Axis which is removed when the machine is converted to CNC.
Here's a closeup from the top
And here you can see how it bolts around the main spindle. It bolts in to the holes where the lower bearing retainer is bolted. The kit also replaces the stock plastic bearing retainer with a steel one.
When the drill chuck is removed the rotary tool spindle is about 1/8" higher than the main spindle. So any bit should be long enough to not hate to worry about the quill hitting anything.
I had converted my Seig X2 Mini Mill (Harbor Freight Mini Mill) to CNC and wanted to do some engraving so I needed a high speed spindle. Little Machine Shop dot com who sells parts etc. for these mills, sells an adapter plate and ring that mounts under the headstock and holds a Proxxon IB/E Professional Rotary Tool to the side. However I converted my Mill back to manual because I seldom used it, I no longer was building rc car parts, and it was too much effort to program the computer to drill a hole or two. Converting it back made it so that I couldn't use the adapter, So I took a second adapter from them and cut it and threaded it to hold the tool farther to the right.
Here you can see the Rotary tool off the the right of the mill head. The round wheel in the middle is the fine feed for the Z Axis which is removed when the machine is converted to CNC.
Here's a closeup from the top
And here you can see how it bolts around the main spindle. It bolts in to the holes where the lower bearing retainer is bolted. The kit also replaces the stock plastic bearing retainer with a steel one.
When the drill chuck is removed the rotary tool spindle is about 1/8" higher than the main spindle. So any bit should be long enough to not hate to worry about the quill hitting anything.
