Arceuro Milling Machine

I've acquired a bloody great CNC machine. Realistically, it'll be a wossname's age before I can get it fired up and working. And I miss having a manual machine about to hack lumps of metal to death with.
So.
I am toying with the idea of ordering this:
http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Machines-Accessories/Milling-Mach ines/Model-X3-Small-Mill
I know there's a certain Cynical Trader who has worked with these blokes before. I trust his judgement, so that's a major plus-point. And it's an attractive offer they have on at present.
I'll happily pay for the "fettling" service, I'm time-poor at the moment!
I have R8 tooling, and the idea of a "plug-and-play" machine is appealing.
Any good reason not to do this?

Wot can I tell you?
Plus points:- Good value, quality is as good as is coming out of China at the moment. Good point for a previous British bike owner is they don't leak oil, mainly because they don't put any in. The prep service is good mainly because I don't have anything to do with it. Service is very fair to good depending on which way the wind is blowing, the price of kippers and whether Ian got his leg over last night.
Bad points:- Can be noisy at high revs but really immaterial for a previous British bike owner, treat it as being stuck in third. On a scale of 1 to 10 compared with a Hardley Dangerous the X comes in at about 76.
Wot happened to the Taig and the Bridgy ?
John S.

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British bike owner. I have the Royal Oilfield, and an 850 Commando in the stable at present. This may have something to do with my clinical need for machine tools...
At least I'm on the path to redemption. I want a metric X3!
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Taig sold, Bridgie... gone.
I needed room for the aforementioned bloody great Matchmaker. Having got that I keep looking at it, and thinking "That is *far* too bloody big.". Its thirst for stupid amperage of 3-phase is a contributory factor.
I need to retire, is what I need to do. Problem is, I have a money habit that needs maintaining...
I'll order an X3. Cheers John.

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Is the Matchmaker on steppers or servo?
If it's on steppers than look at it from two angles, or normal if pissed. One is the drive motor which will be three phase but this can be run from an invertor putting it back to single phase supply.
Then the big box of magic tricks/ wires / sticky out bits / [ delete as required ] when examined you will find only needs 240 volts to make it whirl / smoke / throw things at next doors cat. So no reason why it can't all run off 240 volt single phase quite cheaply, especially if you have a street lamp post handy.
John S.

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<hurries back in from stepladder up lamppost>
What? What?
I haven't really started to investigate yet. I suspect it'll end up hooked up to a PC and some clever stuff.
Eventually.

On Sun, 7 Sep 2008 01:00:50 +0100, Nigel Eaton
Smart move. Nice machine for the money.
Regards, Tony

Tony Jeffree wrote:
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Yes indeed - however, how does it compare to the super-X3?
-- Peter Fairbrother

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The X 3 and Super X 3 are the same machine and only differ in the head design and layout. The X 3 has a 600W DC motor driving the gearbox thru a reduction belt drive, then to an internal 2 speed gearbox then to a further gear reduction on the spindle.
The SX3 has a 1000W brushless motor driving the spindle thru a small belt reduction, both then rely on electronic variable speed.
Plus points of the SX3 are the head tilts for angle work, it's quieter because it has no gearbox and it has fancy electronic gismo's like speed display and a tapping feature.
Bad points of the SX3 are the motor drive. Whilst it looks good on paper and shares most of the drive unit of the KX3 CNC machine this is after all a manual machine where low speed will be needed for boring and tapping etc. The CNC doesn't rely so much on low speed as it's capable of taking smaller interpolated cuts at higher speed and can thread mill etc. Because of the lack or gear or large belt reductions it lacks torque, it's lowest usable speed is around 250 to 300 rpm regardless of what the blurb says and even at those speeds it can't push a large cutter thru hardish material.
Because the motor is buried inside the head and is very compact it doesn't lend itself to a transplant easily.
If you want a general purpose machine then the X3 is a better bet, if you only want to use small cutters in soft materials at high speed then the SX3 is better.
John S.