Another one of the big-ish upgrades I decided to do on my Sieg X2D was to upgrade the spindle drive system from gears to belt. The stock gears are very noisy, and are prone to breaking if you crash hard. They also limit the RPM of the spindle. I could have made my own conversion, but the Little Machine Shop belt drive conversion is a drop on set and is reasonably priced. The spindle now runs very quietly, I have double the RPM capability, and if I crash I don't have to worry about tearing the head apart to replace gears.
The next upgrade isn't new, but I never really showed it. The stock rubber way cover bellows work fine for most of these mills, but they wouldn't work for me. My Y axis limit switch is placed such that the bellows might accidentally trip it. So, I drew up and 3D printed my own way cover. There is room for improvement so I might make a V2 some day, but for now it gets the job done.
Lastly, it occurred to me that I never showed my vice. Good machinists vices are expensive, and I am cheap, so I came up with my own. In my stash of "That looks like it might be handy some day," I had the compound rest from a giant old lathe(with no giant old lathe in sight). It wasn't even too involved. Basically, I split it in half where the tool post went, pinned and bolted the back section to the base, and made a set of steel jaws to bolt to it. Now I've got a very solid, very precise, and repeatable vice for almost zero dollars.
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