X3 v XJ25

[JimM]

Hi all

Further to my previous post I thought I'd pretty much made up my mind and was going to purchase an X3 mill, however chatting with a supplier today he mentioned that for the same price as an X3 he could do a XJ25 like this one

http://tinyurl.com/8n6m58
(This isn't the supplier I was talking to)

The spec seems pretty good and would make it comparable to the SX3 but I can't seem to find much info about them.

Does anyone on the board use one or know anything about them.

Cheers

Jim

 

[menthol]

I bought my mill off harry123 (amadeal) he's a nice guy to deal with.

There are a few threads on cnczone about the XJ25, what put me off it was the ones commenting on quill problems. From what I can tell they are made by Real Bull http://www.realbull-machine.com/en/PRODUCT/xj9520.htm

Mark

 

[BillH]

From my experience so far with the X3, I really love the R8 spindle! I use endmill holders and not collets. I do not need to torque down on the quill, just snug. When I want to take it out, just loosen and a light tap, it comes out. My X1 has an MT2 spindle with collets, I really had to hammer on that damn thing to get it undone. I do not imagine the MT3 spindle will be any better than the MT2 in that regard and the tooling will be less plentiful than it is for the R8.

 

[cfellows]

I would have to second Bill's comments. It's my sense that there's a lot more varied tooling available for R8 spindles.

Chuck

 

[greenie]

I would like to know the answer to this lot, the X 3 blurb says the spindle has a stroke of 80mm, to me that means that the head stays locked while you do the drilling, milling or whatever with a movable quill. So it seems that you shift the head up and down, then the quill comes into play.
See link,
http://www.siegind.com/Products/br-x3-super-lathe.htm

Now this XJ 25 does NOT mention ANYTHING about a quill, only the head travel height, so does this XJ 25 work the same as an X 2, the whole head moves up and down with NO separate quill movement at all.
http://www.realbull-machine.com/en/PRODUCT/xj9520.htm

Someone here must be knowledgeable about these two machines.

regards greenie

 

[JimM]

Hi Greenie

I've been doing a bit more rersearch and from what I can gather the XJ25 does have a moveable quill, however there is a possible issue that the quill can be quite loose in it's mounting when extended (see menthols post earlier) Apparently the 'slop' is eliminated by locking the quill in position however this may be an issue if you intend to do a lot of drilling etc

The outher negative of the XJ25 is that it has (at least one) plastic gears similar to the X2, which are both noisy and prone to wearing and breaking. (Don't think there is an off the shelfbelt drive conversion for this either)

However the positives are that it is more powerful, has the tilting head, DRO on the z axis, heavier and presumably more rigid, bigger table with more travel. From reading the CNC forum those that have bought one (or the XJ20) all seem happy but the quill especially is a concern to me.

It's a tough one to call so would still appreciate any feedback from owners / those that have seen/used both machines

Cheers

Jim