# Microlux X2 Mill, Anybody Have One Of These?



## Steve Austin

I'm in the market for a mini mill. I've read hundreds of reviews and comparisons on the versions available. My choices are either the LMS Hitorque 3990 or the microlux r8 (84630) sold by micro-mark. There doesn't seem to be any talk about the microlux. Does anybody have one of these mills or purchased from micro-mark before? I'm thinking x-mas in July.


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## Steve Austin

I guess that ones not a big seller. I suppose I will go with the LMS 3990 as it has a lot positive feedback.


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## natoround

I've bought a lot  of "stuff" from  LMS but not a full machine. They all come  from the  same  place but I expect LMS holds them to  higher standards on its  made  to  contract machines. The only drawback is  cost  of shipping. Horrible  Fright will ship a mill for  $21.00 instead of $150.00 to  $200.00. I wish they had a better  shipping  cost like  Grizzle does. LMS gets my vote on a lot  of  things ( just placed a order today) but there should be a better  shipping  price from them on machines. I guess they aren't big enough to get a discount  rate from FedEx or UPS on heavy ground  shipments.


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## Steve Austin

There freight is a bit excessive $145 without a lift gate. I have no experience with mills but reviews seem to say that the solid column mills are the way to go. LMS is the only place I can find that sells the mini-mill with a solid column. They have 2 choices, the 3990 and the X2D. The X2D is$300 cheaper, has a smaller motor and gears instead of the belt drive. Add in the belt conversion and its now only $145 cheaper. Is the extra torque from the bigger motor worth it?


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## natoround

I share  your pain  on the  extra money.  I was going to buy the same  3990 and the  shipping  turned me  off. I whimped out and bought a  HF X2 for  $599.00 less a 20% coupon add in the  $21.00 shipping and  tax and  I was totaled out at  about  $525.00. Should be  ok for my use. If money isn't a issue  for  you I'm sure the 3990 is a better machine. The Brushless motor is AWESOME.  Quieter and  smoother and  probably will last longer. Once again  if money isn't a issue the  3990 is a  better machine.  Money was a issue  for me  and  $525.00 all done is a  difference. The price difference with no 20% off plus the shipping seems to have  doubled the  price.
If I was buying  for more serious use or planned to  add CNC I would have had a different look at the  price. You may ask  your self the  question I had to  deal with. How are you  going to  use it? Will the  projects you  plan to  do tax the  motor and the  less ridged column? HF is not  top of the  line  but they are all SEIG machines. I expect  LMS requires a  higher standard then HF from SEIG. I recently bought a almost  new  HF 7x10 lathe for a whopping  $180.00. I have had some  real junk  from  HF but the SEIG machines are some  of their  better efforts. My  good experience  on the lathe opened the  door for the  mill.  If  you  can swing  the  bucks the  LMS 3990 is  best  of breed. If I had the  extra money I'd like to have a 5K CNC mill! What ever you  buy remember unless you have a lot  of  tooling on hand or  have access to friends in the  trade you will need to drop  several hundred $ on tooling  or the  machine is  just a drill press. Odds are with the 3990 and minimal  tooling you are going to  be around  $1500.00 out  of  pocket  real  soon. Nothing  wrong  with that if  you  need it, want  it and  can afford it.


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## Steve Austin

Unfortunately I have no idea how taxing the work will be. I would like to make some of the engines I see plans for on the web and whatever else pops into my head. Mainly aluminum and brass but I'm sure some steel will get on there at some point.
 Unlike you, I went with the Sherline 4400 lathe because of the HF stigma. Not a bad machine but nowhere near rigid enough. .025" cut in aluminum is taxing on it. I good tolerances on it but it takes a lot of time and effort. I have already planned on getting one of the tooling packages from LMS that are $300 to $400. They have a good selection of what's needed to get started making chips. 
All that said, money is always an issue. I hate to over spend because I am ignorant on the subject and get caught up in the bells and whistles. I have nothing to compare to, no friends in the hobby just YouTube and what I read on the web. Your responses are helpful and appreciated. If you would, please describe the work you do with yours and are you happy it?


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## natoround

I got started collecting  machine  tools  for  home use out  of  frustration. Before I retired I worked as a Aviation  Composites Technician and the facility I worked in had a machine  shop. So I got to  see how some things were  done and  what was  used and  how. I also had  access to the  occasional  professional  favor for  personal projects. After retiring I have  missed the  daily access to  knowledge being able to get .020  took  off of this  or that. Recently  I had a part I needed .019 took  off the  I. D.  I took it to  a local machine shop and the  guy gave  me a price  of  $25.00  to  do it and ask me to leave it  with him  for a week. Ok fair enough. After checking  back  for 3 weeks he  still hadn't done it so I picked it  up and  went to  another  shop. That guy wanted  $65.00 to do the  5 minute job. Time  to  buy some  tools... Another  project that helped me make the  decision to  get  a home  setup was a old Sears band saw I have that just won't die. The blades guides died years ago and Sears wanted something  in the  $40.00 range  for 4 plastic blocks that were a bad design  to start with and I knew wouldn't last. I cobbled together a fix  out  of  what I had and  could  do with basic hands  tools. Now I can  do a proper  repair. As for the  HF stuff I'm the first to  be skeptical but  everything  in the  lathe and  mill is Seig which is everybody's  product  more  or  less. Different name  and color same  design. Keep  in mind I got the  Lathe for  under $200.00 but  it proved to  be  a good small tool for the money. LMS has parts and its a proven design more or  less.
I have  noticed  HF does improve their quality  on some things  over time and the  Chicom stuff is  better than it was.... I recently went looking  on  Craig's list  for a local buy on a big  drill press. I found a local company that bought out  closing  business and they had  listed some American  branded drill presses. Ok I thought I can score  some  old solid American  Iron. Went to  look and it was  all brand  name  old stuff made in  Taiwan and they wanted the same price as  a new  HF press. The HF press I bought  turned out to  be a better machine all around and  new for less.
The HF lathe was a big step up from a old Unimat  watchmakers lathe I have.  .005  is a deep  cut for it! You can choke it  down with a scotch  brite pad! After working around  top  of the  line equipment I know my limited skills and  equipment  budget  are something I 'll just have to  work around. If I had the  room and the  money I'd be  working on a 15 or 20 k budget to  get  what I'd  really want. Since I don't have the  room for it the  lack of  funds is less of a issue. No place to  put it  solves the money issue.


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## Steve Austin

I just spent the last couple of hours going through this site rereading the threads on the mini mill. There are too many to count and all say the same thing. Good work can be done, deep cuts will be trouble, tram often and replace gears with the belt drive. Since it doesn't sound like the 3990 is twice the mill I can't see paying twice as much for it. I think the next time I get a 20% off coupon I will order the HF. That leaves more money for tooling and the other things on my wish list. I guess I will have to build that work bench now.


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## natoround

I can't say you  would  be  wrong because its what I did. Do I still want the LMS brushless? Yes. But the logic to  buy the  HF with the  $21.00 shipping on a 20% off coupon wins.
They do come  from the  same  place...
Think about it  this  way the  HF is 85% the machine  for  50% the  price.  Still a good deal. Here is  your coupon online code  for July --- 36865845
http://www.harborfreight.com/20off-...medium=aff&utm_campaign=wts-coupons&hftref=cj

I have a shipment  for LMS arriving  tomorrow with the  air spring  kit, R8 collets and  the clamp kit. I recently got the  LMS Kurt style 3"  vise and parallels. 
All of that stuff is about  what I saved buying the  HF.  Had I bought the  LMS machine I would still need it all but the  air spring.  
The work bench is  done. and I have a 1" aircraft ply mounting  plate cut and  drilled to  mount the  mill on.


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## brav65

I went through this exact exercise when looking for a mill last year.  The 3990 with shipping was $1000 so I decided to step up to a PM-25MV, I am a woodworker and knew I would want the additional capacity.  If I had not done that I think I would have gone with the HF mill and had money for tooling etc.  LMS sells all of the upgrades and replacement parts.  There are tons of modifications you can do yourself if you find you need it.

Knowing what kind of projects you plan on completing will define what machine you buy.  As far as starter kit goes I would purchase the essentials such as hold down kit, a couple different size endmills, a vice, calipers, set of good drills, a machinist square, edgfinder and foe from there.  I purchased the LMS starter set and found out the endmills are junk and lasted two seconds.  I have since purchased high quality endmills as I need them and my results are much better.  eBay and Craigslist are great sources for tooling.


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## Steve Austin

Since a mill is just one of those things I "want" but don't really "need" and the things I want to do with it are just for fun I can't see spending over a grand just for the mill.
While typing this I recieved the HF 25% off coupon for the 4th of July. With that I can get the machine to my door for under $500. That's quite an incentive. I will order on Saturday.


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## natoround

Hey I missed it  but  you  don't have too. How  about  25% off on  July 4th?  Online code is 28867019.
I just got that code in a email and its  one day only. So get it then and save a few bucks. Mine  took a week to arrive here on the  right  coast.


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## Steve Austin

It is done. I've ordered the HF mini-mill at 25% off and with freight and taxes it was $499. I also ordered a tooling kit from LMS. Now the waiting starts.


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## royesses

Steve Austin said:


> It is done. I've ordered the HF mini-mill at 25% off and with freight and taxes it was $499. I also ordered a tooling kit from LMS. Now the waiting starts.


I ordered one yesterday also. Ordered the belt drive/air spring kit, 7 R8 collets and some other accessories from LMS also. MY cost was $509.00 shipped to OK. I'm tax exempt, but HF doesn't do tax exempt so it was $38.00 higher than it should be. I'll need to submit a copy of the receipt to get the tax back, if I want. Just can't beat the price for what you get.


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## Steve Austin

thats great. There stuff may not be the best but they always have coupons and low prices. I will update again when I receive everything and we can compare experiences.


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## royesses

Steve Austin said:


> thats great. There stuff may not be the best but they always have coupons and low prices. I will update again when I receive everything and we can compare experiences.


Yeah, we can see if the quality control is the same on both machines. Get ready to remove a lot of that red cosmoline like grease. I'm going to check every nut,bolt,screw and adjustment before I do any mods on it. Hopefully next month I'll put some DRO's on it. I prefer to think of Happy Fright as a semi-finished kit supplier. They do have some really outstanding values  there. I've never had a problem with returns or warranty on anything.


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## natoround

Congrats! Now  get  some  paper towels ready and  some  mineral spirits. That thing is  like a greased pig when  you get it.  I hope  you get a better crate than  I did. Mine  just about fell  apart in transit and  I don't think it was  FedEx that did it.  The bolts holding the  mill to the  base  were not tight and  fell  out and  the  band were about all that held the  crapwood box together.   The foam shipping  form saved the day. Get  the  air spring  kit as soon as you  can. I put mine  on  first thing. Well worth the small price. When you install it block up the column and  remove the  torsion spring before bolting in the  air spring. There is a bit  of  interference between the two. You  need the  air spring mod  before the  DRO's. While planning  my  DRO install I have  found the  air spring  opens up  room  on the column you  will find  very easy to  install the Z after the  air spring mod.

I found a  way to  put a stop  on the Z that will not limit the  vertical travel by bolting a "L" on over the top of the column by using the  upper  rack  bolt. You will need a longer bolt and a small scrap of  angle and that's it.


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## royesses

natoround said:


> Congrats! Now  get  some  paper towels ready and  some  mineral spirits. That thing is  like a greased pig when  you get it.  I hope  you get a better crate than  I did. Mine  just about fell  apart in transit and  I don't think it was  FedEx that did it.  The bolts holding the  mill to the  base  were not tight and  fell  out and  the  band were about all that held the  crapwood box together.   The foam shipping  form saved the day. Get  the  air spring  kit as soon as you  can. I put mine  on  first thing. Well worth the small price. When you install it block up the column and  remove the  torsion spring before bolting in the  air spring. There is a bit  of  interference between the two. You  need the  air spring mod  before the  DRO's. While planning  my  DRO install I have  found the  air spring  opens up  room  on the column you  will find  very easy to  install the Z after the  air spring mod.
> 
> I found a  way to  put a stop  on the Z that will not limit the  vertical travel by bolting a "L" on over the top of the column by using the  upper  rack  bolt. You will need a longer bolt and a small scrap of  angle and that's it.



Thanx for the tips. I have a gallon and a half of odorless mineral spirits. I think it says harbor freight grease remover on it. I have the air spring/belt drive ordered already. It will probably be here before the mini mill. Next month I'll pick up the Igaging absolute dro's and design a mount system. Not in a hurry, still waiting for my son to get a workbench out of the garage so I can finish putting in cabinets and putting everything away.


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## royesses

The mini mill was delivered today. The shipping crate was in pristine condition. Everything inside was in good condition. The right side of the column has some serious rust on it on the flat unused portion. That is the portion that was laying down against the Styrofoam and had no grease on it. Moisture pooled there. Cleaning that with pb blaster and steel wool. I have the belt drive and air column kits and a set of Igaging DRO's now and waiting on the x power feed kit. Should be here Wed. or Thurs. Clean up is going to take some time. Then to install all the upgrades. 100 degrees in the garage today so I must work slow. Congestive heart failure can limit your ability to cool down.


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## brav65

Congrats on the new machine!


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## Steve Austin

glad to hear it arrived in good condition. Mine is scheduled for delivery tomorrow.


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## royesses

Steve Austin said:


> glad to hear it arrived in good condition. Mine is scheduled for delivery tomorrow.


There is one bolt holding the mill to the side of the crate. Then the crate comes apart very easily with a pry bar. The mill is laying down on the Styrofoam right side down. I just removed the top of the foam box and grabbed the bottom and tilted the whole thing upright. My son then helped me lift it onto the bench. Going to need to make a thin right angle 14mm wrench to tighten the handwheels double nuts. They used the same size nuts for both and there is no room for two wrenches.


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## royesses

brav65 said:


> Congrats on the new machine!



Thanx! Brav65.


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## natoround

I haven't had time to  use mine  much. I've been busy cleaning  up my basement  workshop and  doing  yard  work. I did find time to  do a quick tram check on the  X axis. After setting the  column  by the  pointer scale to  visible "0" I set a dial indictor  in and  swept the  table  over about  6" left to  right. It was within about .015 set by the  visible  scale! I bumped and  thumped it back and  forth and  got it within .002 which is about the  repeatable ability of my indicator and  its fixture. Should be  fine for anything I do.


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## royesses

Well between yesterday and today I cleaned up all the red grease. The column mounting bolts were finger tight. The spindle head to column adapter bolts were loose, I removed the intermediate gears and lever/shaft. Installed the air spring kit and the belt drive. Cleaned up the table and ways and removed any remnants of rust. Then lubed the ways with vactra #2 and adjusted the gibs for the best fit with no table play. Installed the X power feed and tested. It is smooth and goes to both ends of travel. Next is to adjust the gibs on the Z axis and then to think out the DRO mounting system I ordered a Machtach kit and will most likely make a panel to incorporate the DRO's and tach in one panel.  I taught electronics at the local Vo-tech school for 6 years while I was working as an electronics tech and taught high reliability soldering and circuit board repair for military and aircraft techs so it should be an easy task to build the Machtach. Hope I don't jinx myself. I hope to teach my Son and grandson on the Machtach build.  If my patients holds out. One thing is for sure, check and tighten every fastener on the mill and check/adjust everything that moves. The drill chuck was installed on the R8 adapter in the spindle. I removed the adapter and laid it on the bench. The drill chuck came off in my hand. So use a block of wood and whack the chuck to seat it in the taper.

All the kits from Little machine shop were good quality and installed easily. I had one extra part in the air spring kit, looks like a metal spacer but is not called out in the parts list or the instructions. Works great without it too.


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## natoround

I had the  same "extra" spacer with mine. I think it  may have been a bushing  for a airspring with a different size hole on  the  end. Not the  first time I got as mystery extra.


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## Steve Austin

Why is it that every time I get a new tool I get very busy and can't find any time to set it up? My mill arrived on Tuesday in good condition,I got it home and on the table and there it sat until today. I cleaned off the grease and checked all the bolts, did a quick tram and got it to .001. 
Then I opened the box from LMS with all the tooling. A screwless vise, hold down kit, R8 collets, endmills, edge finder, parallels and the belt drive kit. I organized everything on the table clamped down the vise and then, cause I couldn't resist, put in a collet and endmill and made a couple cuts in a piece of 2x4. Tomorrow I plan to install the belt drive and do a proper trimming if I can make the time.


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## Steve Austin

I got the belt drive installed finally. After removing the spindle nut the instructions said, yes I read the instructions, to remove the steel sleeve. I don't know about the rest of you but that sleeve was on so tight I had to use a make shift gear puller and the smoke wrench to get it to budge. Once that came off the rest was easy. 
Now I need to decide which project to try first and get some material. So many ideas and so little time. I suppose I should start small 'til I get used to which way to turn the wheels and the other intricacies of the machine. The possibilities are endless.


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## royesses

I didn't have the problem with the sleeve. It came off easily when I used a sharp gasket scraper to get under it. Probably a stack up of tolerances. One thing about Harbor Freight there are no two machines the same. But the price is still absurdly low for what you get. IMHO


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## royesses

Finally finished most of the modifications/add-ons to the mini mill. I used the hall effect sensor and 6 magnets for the tach pickup. It works great. Loving the pulley/belt drive.


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## 6mmBR

Royesses, it looks great! I recently bought the Grizzly version of this mill, the G0781. Just finished the clean up and break in run. I even have it mounted on the same model bench. That bench is the best thing I've bought from HF. 
I'm considering the LMS air spring kit, and maybe the belt drive once I try the mill out and actually make something. 
Mine wasn't loaded down with grease. There was enough on it to prevent rust, but it came off easily with WD40 and paper towels. 
I actually had the LMS 3990 in the cart, ready to go. I just couldn't pay that freight charge. I am curious why they have to charge so much to ship things.


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## royesses

6mmBR said:


> Royesses, it looks great! I recently bought the Grizzly version of this mill, the G0781. Just finished the clean up and break in run. I even have it mounted on the same model bench. That bench is the best thing I've bought from HF.
> I'm considering the LMS air spring kit, and maybe the belt drive once I try the mill out and actually make something.
> Mine wasn't loaded down with grease. There was enough on it to prevent rust, but it came off easily with WD40 and paper towels.
> I actually had the LMS 3990 in the cart, ready to go. I just couldn't pay that freight charge. I am curious why they have to charge so much to ship things.



Thanx! 6mmBr, I too had the LMS 3990 in my sights until I looked at the shipping charge($200.00 for my location). I looked at the grizzly but the HF was on sale and I had a 25% off coupon. That was about $600 less than the LMS.
The bench is better than I thought it would be. Some HF products are worth what you pay, others are worth more.

The belt drive and air spring kit is what I consider a"must have" since it is a pain in the keester to change out the gears if they break. It is quiet and the belt slips or the motor stalls if you make a mistake instead of breaking the gears.
The DRO's are so nice to have. I consider them mandatory now.

You are going to have a lot of fun with the Grizzly. Congrats are the new mill.

Roy


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