A Review of the Syil X2

If you want a small but capable CNC machine, the Syil X2 is a very good option. It is well built, is reasonably stiff, runs Mach 3, and is a reasonable price. If you have the space and money, you would certainly be better off with the X3 or the Tormach, but not everyone has extra space and money.

PLEASE NOTE: My company is currently selling this machine due to business issues, not the performance of the machine. If you in the north eastern Massachusetts area and interested, please send me an e-mail.

Pictures out of the box:

Pictures after a few months of use:

Pros:

• Ballscrews! Wahoo! The backlash in X and Y are less than .001".
• R8 Spindle! I'm loving the Tormach Tooling System.
• Accessories! The belt drive from Little Machine Shop is great and bumps the RPM over 4000.
• The limit switches are great. I'll never use a machine without them.
• Mach 3 is a *JOY* to use.
• The axis bearings, motor mounts, and couplings are well made.
• 50 IPM rapids seem very reasonable on this machine.
• I like the crinkle tube protection for the wires.

Cons:

• The Mach 3 profile didn't work out of the box. I needed to fix the accelerations in order to get the limit switches to work. Then the soft limits had to be set.
• Loose screws! Lots of them.... You should go over your entire machine carefully. Include the thrust bearing nuts and couplings.
• Loose wires! Lots of them.... I think this is why my Y driver blew after a few days. Syil America replaced it free under warranty. You should go over all your electrical connections before hooking it up to power. Others have seen similar issues.
• Z axis screw to gib distance causes racking issues that cause backlash... This should be able to be reduced with gib settings. I wasn't able to get the backlash below .003".
• The spindle head to saddle connection had to be shimmed to acheive a reasonable tram.
• The bellows don't cover the limit switches. This caused at least one crash when I let the switch get stick with chips. A table tray does help though.
• The cables are too short, meaning you don't have alot of options in where to put the control box. The X motor cable is the limiting factor. There is no way I will be able to reach the Emergency Button with the way I had to set it up.