The Brother Speedio S500X1 is a compact CNC drill/tap center with a reputation for dependable, fast cycle work that has made it a staple in high-volume job shops and production cells. This 2020 Speedio S500X1 is a vertical machining center built around a 10,000 RPM spindle driven by a 6.7 kW rated spindle motor (approximately 9 HP), sized for drilling, tapping, reaming and light milling on small to mid-size aluminum and steel parts. Tools are held in a 14-tool turret-style automatic tool changer mounted directly over the spindle, a layout Brother uses to keep tool-to-tool time short and non-cutting time low. This unit is equipped with a Brother 4th-axis rotary table, so multi-face drilling, tapping and milling can be completed in one setup instead of being flipped and re-fixtured between operations. The machine runs on the Brother CNC-C00 control, Brother's in-house CNC built specifically for its own machines, so the control and the machine are designed as one system. Electrical service is 200-230V, 3-phase, 50/60 Hz at 9.5 kVA, and the machine weighs approximately 4,960 lbs (2,250 kg), giving it a small footprint that fits into tight cells and alongside lathes or other machining centers.
The Speedio line succeeded Brother's earlier TC-S2D family of compact tapping centers, and the S500X1 carries that same focus on speed into a more capable, more versatile platform. Where the TC-S2D series was built primarily as a drill/tap machine, the Speedio S500X1 is designed as a true compact machining center that handles drilling, tapping and milling with equal confidence, backed by the Brother CNC-C00 control. The result for a buyer is a machine that does more of the part in one place, works naturally with a 4th-axis rotary for multi-sided work, and keeps the low operating cost and small footprint that made Brother tapping centers popular in the first place. Shops moving up from an older TC-series machine get a meaningfully more capable platform, not just a newer serial number.