I got my X2 mill from the Hamilton Princess Auto in December.
The control board blew up after a few hours of use. With the holidays
over I finely got around to calling and asking for a replacement machine, but they are out of stock and won't be getting anymore in.
They are sending me a new board at no charge.
I also live in Niagara and have got tools from J&K Tooling in St.Catharines, and Smith Industrial in Port Colborne and recommend both.
Scott in Niagara, Ontario
--- In GrizHFMinimill@yahoogroups.com, "radiomaninca" <kevin_lemon@...> wrote:
>
> Hi All
>
> I bought my Princess Auto Mill a couple of years ago and I am very happy with it. For the new owners here are a couple of tips.
>
> 1)The mill needs a solid base to sit on or it will flex under load.
>
> 2)Take the time to thoroughly clean it.
>
> 3)Check and tighten the end play in the x and y lead screws. reduce the end play as much as you can with the adjustments available. This end play will cause chatter and busted tooling if left untouched.
>
> 4)Never lower the head on the vertical rack while milling, there is play in the leadscrew and it will drop causing tool and part destruction. Keep the lock on at all times.
>
> 5)take the time to align and set up the head and table for squareness the time spent in leveling and aligning the machine will save money spent on scrap parts.
>
> 6)Buy tooling from tooling stores, the tooling sold at princess is useless, also buy all the accessories for the mill that Princess carries, but be careful of the clamping kit. In the store at Hamilton where I bought my mill they sell a clamping kit that is marketed to fit my machine but it doesn't.
>
> I have bought tooling from Busy Bee, and it was acceptable.
>
> Most of my tooling came from KBC Tooling and Machining, kbctools.com
> They are fast, reasonable and very friendly to the small machinist, even though they are oriented to the large factories.
> I have also dealt with J&K Tooling in St.Catharines and found them to be very good to deal with.
>
> The PA Mill uses MT tooling which is becoming harder to find as it is no longer being used. I suggest you source a set of MT tapers for holding end mills and cutters, a good fly cutter is also handy.
>
> High speed steel works well and small carbide cutters work ok, but the mill does not have the strength or horse power to run larger carbide tools over 1 - 1 1/2".
>
> Also BE Prepared..... I paid $500 for my mill but I have over $2000 in tooling for it and I'm nowhere near finished.
>
> I also have the PA Lathe and I am quite happy with it as well, both machines are very capable and useful machines for their size.
>
> Kevin in St.Catharines, Ontario
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