This is a review of my X3 milling machine, which I bought from Arc Euro Trade in the UK.

This is a small, single-phase machine with a table size of approx 550mm x 150mm. For detailed technical specifications, see the Arc Euro Trade website.

I bought the machine for use in my model engineering activities. I have been extremely pleased with the machine and find it easy to use. The good and bad points are shown below.

Good Points

Excellent build quality and finish. Seems to be significantly better than typical ‘cheap’ Chinese machine tools.

Accuracy of X, Y and Z movements seems to be very good.

Infinately variable speed control on the motor is a very desirable time-saving feature. There is no need to fiddle about with changing drive belts. I would be reluctant to buy a machine without this feature now.

Lends itself to being upgraded to CNC operation. This was a significant reason for my choice of this machine.

Perfect size for a home workshop. Capacity is adequate for most model engineering work.

I thought that the machine was very well priced and compares favourably with other machines.

I have received very good service from Arc Euro Trade and would recommend them.

Bad Points

I don’t think that the machine spindle is perfectly perpendicular to the table. I get noticable ridges on the work when using a 30mm diameter face cutter.

My machine is the newer version with the taller column. The head is counter-balanced by a gas strut. The gas strut prevents the head from being lowered far enough – i.e. it is impossible to perform milling operations on small work-pieces bolted directly to the table without extending the spindle much further than is desirable for rigidity. To get around this, AET sell a shorter gas strut which allows the head to be lowered to the table. I now use the shorter strut – swapping over to the longer strut takes about 45 minutes. It would only be necessary to swap back to the longer strut when working on very tall work-pieces.