Author Topic: Sixis 101 House Mill  (Read 124420 times)

Offline Jo

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Sixis 101 House Mill
« on: November 24, 2013, 12:19:36 PM »
Having bought myself a house lathe a few years ago:



I have been looking to give her some company. My initial thoughts were to buy a matching Cowells Mill but one never came up and I do  :Love: my BCA.

I have always fancied an Aceira F1 but they are as rare as hens teeth  :shrug: But as luck would have it I happened to be in contact with my friend on the day that he had taken delivery of a very nice (but bright orange  :o) Schaublin 102 mill. And he needed some space and mentioned he had a little Sixis 101 that he was looking to get rid of. Like his new mill some on had decide to paint her with what is called "security paintwork"  :hellno: So these are the photos he sent me









So it was not difficult to decide I needed it so I arranged to go and pick it up last friday.

Jo
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Re: Sixis 101 House Mill
« Reply #1 on: November 24, 2013, 12:21:13 PM »
Oh this should be a good one!

Dave
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Offline Jo

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Re: Sixis 101 House Mill
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2013, 12:44:23 PM »
Now normally you see Sixis set up either as a horizontal, here with the horizontal table:



Or as a vertical, with the more expensive tilting table:



This machine was originally used in the Jewelry trade so it does not have a table instead it had one of these:



Sadly this was sold seperatley leaving the machine table less but luckily one of the previous owners has acquried this off of fleabay:



It is too big for me to be able to machine but my friend was good enough to offer to get it machined for me  :whoohoo:

It was difficult waiting for friday

Jo
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Offline Florian Eberhard

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Re: Sixis 101 House Mill
« Reply #3 on: November 24, 2013, 12:46:58 PM »
He Jo

Whats gonna come witht he machine? Any tools like dividing head, collets, vise, ....?

Florian

Offline tvoght

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Re: Sixis 101 House Mill
« Reply #4 on: November 24, 2013, 02:59:09 PM »
Looks like a real jewel. I had to laugh at the "Red Devil" inscription.

--Tim

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: Sixis 101 House Mill
« Reply #5 on: November 24, 2013, 03:11:48 PM »
Nice looking machine Jo!  With a little TLC it should be a real beauty.

Bill

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Re: Sixis 101 House Mill
« Reply #6 on: November 24, 2013, 03:16:59 PM »
That table casting looks nice and scruffy......should be nice and stable now.

I have the original build sheet for the F1.....the table was measured square to .001mm in both directions.....I think that's better than my surface plate :o......

Considering in 1972....when the original owner of my F1 bought it...it cost $17000...or about the price of 2 1/2 brand new cars at the time.....it had better be nice!

Dave


 :lolb:.....I just ran that sale price through a inflation calculator....$93K in 2012!
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Offline sshire

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Re: Sixis 101 House Mill
« Reply #7 on: November 24, 2013, 03:28:12 PM »
Ooooooooh! The horizontal orientation is excellent and could be very useful.
Can't wait to see it after it's been through the "Jo Treatment"
Best,
Stan

Offline Jo

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Re: Sixis 101 House Mill
« Reply #8 on: November 24, 2013, 03:58:02 PM »
Whats gonna come witht he machine? Any tools like dividing head, collets, vise, ....?

Florian

Sadly none because it was used to make jewelery  :'(

---
So Friday a very heavy car came home with a sexy mill:







Saturday I was scraping the base  :(





Sunday I was still scraping the base  :-\:



And then  :whoohoo: it was finished so I had a little paint:




and then it sneaked into the house  :naughty:





Jo


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Offline Jo

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Re: Sixis 101 House Mill
« Reply #9 on: November 24, 2013, 05:01:19 PM »
The scraping continued   :wallbang:



Actually that bit didn't for long as I got side tracked  :slap: On to this bit:



Which meant I could start putting the mill together.



Then I finished off the doors and hung them ;)



Jo
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Re: Sixis 101 House Mill
« Reply #10 on: November 24, 2013, 05:07:13 PM »
So...the plan is a fixed table, and then tool it "conventionally"..?

Keep an eye out for W12 collets....I see some now on Fleabay...though You only need a handful of sizes.
Not having the factory accessories is probably a good thing.   Outfitting them with swiss tooling is expensive!

The 100mm manual rotary table for the F1 was on the bay recently and it went for $1900!

Dave
"Mister M'Andrew, don't you think steam spoils romance at sea?"
Damned ijjit!

Offline Jo

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Re: Sixis 101 House Mill
« Reply #11 on: November 24, 2013, 05:09:33 PM »
In the mean time my friend has started milling the table for me  :whoohoo:











He tells me it is a very good casting as the witness marks are nice and even  :whoohoo:

Jo
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Offline Jo

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Re: Sixis 101 House Mill
« Reply #12 on: November 24, 2013, 06:00:39 PM »
So...the plan is a fixed table, and then tool it "conventionally"..?

Keep an eye out for W12 collets....I see some now on Fleabay...though You only need a handful of sizes.
Not having the factory accessories is probably a good thing.   Outfitting them with swiss tooling is expensive!

I brought a couple of collets from my friend  :)



The tools at the bottom are jewellery facet flycutters. The black one is a Sixis 2 diamond milling cutter which should have gone with the facetting head. The two aluminium ones are home made tools for the same purpose. But I have not got the Diamond cutters :headscratch:

There are also two blank arbors and the last item is a 8mm cutter holder. What is missing is a horizontal arbor. Dave  :help: I am missing the handle for the vertical traverse so I need some measurements. I also don't understand how you are supposed to swop over to the rapid traverser  :noidea:

I have started work on the top of the mill but the paint is giving me problems and I had to resort to paint stripper  :wallbang:



Most Sixis heads are geared. Giving a high and low ratio. This one as it was for use in the jeweller trade does not have the noisy addition:



What I have instead is an inverter drive  :naughty:

Jo
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Re: Sixis 101 House Mill
« Reply #13 on: November 24, 2013, 06:04:06 PM »
I have the gear head, and I find it very quiet!....not noisy at all.

I think I have the manual for the F1 in pdf format and it talks about disengaging the leadscrew nuts for lever operation, and how to set the vertical spring counterbalance for sensitive drilling.

Dave
"Mister M'Andrew, don't you think steam spoils romance at sea?"
Damned ijjit!

Offline Jo

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Re: Sixis 101 House Mill
« Reply #14 on: November 24, 2013, 06:07:06 PM »
I am only repeating what my friend used to sell it to me  :LittleDevil:.

Yes please to the F1 manual.  :whoohoo:

Jo
Enjoyment is more important than achievement.

 

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