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Upgrade your mini mill's spindle lock

9/21/2014

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step out of the dark ages with the phenom engineering safety spindle lock

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Face it: one day, you will leave the original metal rod in your mini mill's spindle when you turn on the motor.  If you are lucky, your motor will stall; no harm, no foul.  But, if you are not lucky (and when it comes to situations like this, most of us are not), then you can count on having stripped a few teeth from the plastic head gears.

After you finish kicking yourself for making such a simple mistake, you will resolve to never do it again.  Let us help!

The safety spindle lock is exactly that, a safe, spindle lock.  When you release pressure on the pin, it retracts out of the spindle, thereby preventing you from accidentally starting your mill with the spindle lock installed.  A high quality spring forces the lock out of the spindle and back against the bearing block so that everything is clear of the rotating parts.

Our spindle lock design has a huge advantage over the other designs out there: it mounts to the Z-axis fine feed cover and not the motor mount.  Consider the installation process of the two designs:

1) Our spindle lock:  Mark the hole locations on the feed cover.  Remove the cover by removing the two screws holding it to the head.  Use the mill to drill out the two marked holes in the cover.  Mount the lock with the included hardware to the cover.  Install the cover to the mill with the screws removed earlier.  Verify the lock pin smoothly retracts.  The only mistake that you can make during the installation is in drilling the holes.  If you drill them in the wrong place, you can drill them oversize to get them to the correct position.  If, for some reason, the entire cover gets completely messed up, a replacement can be purchased for just a few bucks (<$4).  

2)  Their spindle lock:  Remove the motor mount from the milling head.  Remove the motor from the mount so that you can work with just the mount.  Place the spindle lock onto the mount and use a transfer punch to mark the hole locations.  Use a power drill to drill two #7 holes.  Run a 1/4-20 tap in both the holes.  Install the lock to the mount using the included hardware.  Install the motor to the mount with the previously removed hardware.  Install the mount to the milling head with the 4 screws removed earlier.  Verify the pin smoothly retracts.  This install can go wrong a few ways: 1) The holes are not in the right place.  To fix this, the holes in the block will need to be drilled oversize.  If that still does not fix the issue, then most likely the holes in the mount are far enough off that you will have to buy a new mount (~$22).  2)  Since you can't use the mill for this step, there is the possibility that the drill bit will break off in the casting as you are making the holes.  Unless you can get the drill bit out, a new mount is in your future (again, ~$22).  3)  Since you drilled the holes by hand and you now have to tap by hand, the possibility is there again that the tap will break off in the mount.  Unless you can figure out a way to get the tap out, you will be buying a new mount.  

So, not only is our Sieg X2 mini mill spindle lock design superior to the competition's, but it's also about 1/3 less: $16.50 for ours vs. $24.95 for theirs.  Seems like a no brainer to us!  Stop by our store now to get yours!

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Safety Spindle Lock
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The Photonx2 mini mill light is here!

6/12/2014

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PHOTONX2 Logo

The PhotonX2 is the latest product from Phenom Engineering.  We specifically designed this spindle light for the Sieg X2 mini mills.  It comes in Harbor Freight Red, Grizzly Green and black.  The initial offering will be sold only through eBay for $65 including shipping, and will be limited to 10 units.  How these initial units sell will determine the future of this product.


PhotonX2 mini mill light
The ring light is designed to fit around the spindle without interference.  The ring consists of 21 white LEDs (rated to provide 1,000hrs of use) which are not diffused, to provide the maximum light possible to the work area.  The housing is made from plastic and is held to the milling head with three high quality Neodymium magnets.  The housing is sealed from the elements, making the assembly coolant resistant.  Power for the LEDs is delivered through a spring back cable, allowing the power cable to move with the head without getting in the way.  The light can be turned on and off through an inline switch on a UL listed power adapter that provides 12V to the LEDs.

Photonx2 light level graph
The PhotonX2 provides the just right amount of light to the work area without being so bright that the reflected light is blinding.  The light output is equivalent to a bright, sunny day, in the shade.  This chart shows where the PhotonX2 ranks among common light levels (Note that the resistance values decrease as the amount of light increases).  We used a Light Dependent Resistor and a multimeter to take the values in the table.  All readings were taken on the same day and within 30 minutes of each other (with the exception of the 'Dim Room' which was done at night.  The PhotonX2 ranks just slightly brighter than a very sunny day in the shade (and remember, this is a very sunny day in the midst of summer in Arizona!).      

Installed mini mill light
Unlike other 'mill spindle lights' on the market, which are really nothing more than camera or microscope lights made to 'work' on a mill, we designed the PhotonX2 from the ground up to be used on the X2 milling machine.  We designed the housing with our CAD program to verify fit and function, then had it 3D printed.  After cleaning the 3D print, we made a mold of the housing and cast the plastic parts.  We paint the housings, build the harnesses and even form the spring back coils in the harnesses. 


We also performed life cycle testing in house by subjecting the parts to stresses far beyond what they would see in normal use.  The robustness of the housings were tested by dropping them from 10 feet onto a concrete surface to ensure they would not crack.  The power switches were turned on and off 1,000 times.  The soldered connections to the ring were tested by hanging weights from the cable for 2 days then stretched the cable 1,000 times then verified the light still worked.  We are very confident in our design and currently warranty the PhotonX2 for 6 months.


PhotonX2 color choices
To purchase the PhotonX2, please click one of the following links:

PhotonX2 - Harbor Freight Red


PhotonX2 - Grizzly Green



PhotonX2 - Black

Photonx2 instruction sheet:

Check out our PhotonX2 installation video:

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    Author

    Your author has been working in the defense industry in the areas of design, manufacturing and testing.  This job has spanned a couple of different defense companies working on projects ranging from ammunition to cannons to rockets.  This career has so far spanned four cities in three states with job titles like 'Design Engineer', 'Project Engineer', 'Field Test Engineer' and 'Manager' over the past 7 years.  Those years have seen working environments in old NASA test chambers (complete with a nuclear fallout shelter), ordnance assembly manufacturing facilities on military installations, underground test ranges, state of the art manufacturing facilities and, perhaps the most deadly of all, the cubicle.

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