Just discovered your website; nice write-ups on the Sieg made X2 mills. Wish they had been on the net back when I bought my X2 four years ago. I felt that it was a noisy piece of Chinese junk , sold it and bought a Taig manual mill with the ER-16 mill spindle. Much better machine. I noticed in your video about the SX-2 , that at one point during your tear-down and clean-up process with the mill you made a statement to the effect that you could not get the Y-axis to turn as smooth as the X-axis. I immediately thought "I wonder if he has noticed that the Y-axis has no ball bearing whereas the X-axis does?" . This was one of the reasons that I sold my old X-2. I felt that I could never make it into a very smooth machine. BTW; what is the purpose of your comparison testing the three machines? This can get to be an expensive way to satisfy your curiosity about machinery! As you said above: "In my experience there is a pretty big difference in quality and fit and finish between a machine tool made in mainland China versus Taiwan. With the latter being much higher quality." I agree- my next machine, a larger mill, will be Taiwan made!
Great job on the reviews and assembly so far. I'm just about to decide whether to buy a lathe or a mill, and I think I have decided in the Sieg SX2. I am looking forward to the next video in the series. I'm afraid the Taig is not available here in Sweden. but the SX2 is, at a fairly good price. I have never really worked with these kind of tools before but just like you I like to dabble with just about anything. Good luck with the big Grizzly! :)
Monday, June 28, 2010 at 12:02PM 
Reader Comments (3)
Hi there!
Just discovered your website; nice write-ups on the Sieg made X2 mills. Wish they had been on the net back when I bought my X2 four years ago. I felt that it was a noisy piece of Chinese junk , sold it and bought a Taig manual mill with the ER-16 mill spindle. Much better machine. I noticed in your video about the SX-2 , that at one point during your tear-down and clean-up process with the mill you made a statement to the effect that you could not get the Y-axis to turn as smooth as the X-axis. I immediately thought "I wonder if he has noticed that the Y-axis has no ball bearing whereas the X-axis does?" . This was one of the reasons that I sold my old X-2. I felt that I could never make it into a very smooth machine. BTW; what is the purpose of your comparison testing the three machines? This can get to be an expensive way to satisfy your curiosity about machinery! As you said above: "In my experience there is a pretty big difference in quality and fit and finish between a machine tool made in mainland China versus Taiwan. With the latter being much higher quality." I agree- my next machine, a larger mill, will be Taiwan made!
Great job on the reviews and assembly so far. I'm just about to decide whether to buy a lathe or a mill, and I think I have decided in the Sieg SX2. I am looking forward to the next video in the series. I'm afraid the Taig is not available here in Sweden. but the SX2 is, at a fairly good price. I have never really worked with these kind of tools before but just like you I like to dabble with just about anything. Good luck with the big Grizzly! :)
// Mikael
I was following your mini mill shootout. Where are you hiding the final videos? What were the results? Don't leave me/us hanging!!!