And now I have a mill!

[historicalarms]

For an RF30 mill?

I think mine is a model 35. The only difference that I can remember seeing at the store between the two models when I bought mine was that the column on the 35 was a bit heavier & rigid. The head & base/table were identical. Not more than a few lbs difference that I could see.

 

[historicalarms]

Craig I have used my mii-drill for many hours and quite frankly if I had to make a choice between keeping my lathe or my mill, the mill would win hands down...but there are a couple draw backs to a solid head mill-drill that most gear driven heads beat hands down.

The first being the belt driven thing. It is a royal pain having to climb up a ladder and loosen everything and then pry them back tight again to change belt speeds every time you change a cutter or the metal you are going to work on. On gear-head...change speeds in 30 seconds...on a belt machine, 30 minutes by the time you find all the whenches & proper pry bars to do the job so to speak.

The second drawback is that the heads don't swivel 90 deg right or left, you only have vertical movement of the quill. Many's the time I have wished for the ability to turn the head to a usable angle. I do notice that the newer variable speed mill-drills with the angle option do have a very short quill movement (2.something " to 5.5 " for mine) compared to mine but I think I could live with that as I could angle the head and then use the table travel if a deeper cut/hole was required than the short quill would do.

 

[YYCHM]

I think "shipping weight" on the crate for my mill was 330 lbs.

You sure it wasn't 330 kg? Where did you find these at a store?

 

[Tom Kitta]

I may have some tapered end mills you may want. Otherwise I suggest you get rather cheap MT3 to ER32 adapter - I have one for the mill. It will eat about 2" of Z but otherwise works great.

For a $1000 if all works on it you got a good deal. The 1hp motor may be small by today's standards but I would be surprised if you could overpower it in that small mill - older BP machines had tiny 1hp motors.

 

[Hruul]

Congrats David, As I was looking at the pictures, I was thinking to myself, man this looks familiar. That was when I realized you posted this to one of the machining groups on facebook that I am in. Hope to get a similar mill at some point. Lots of videos on these mills and add-ons to them.

 

[DavidR8]

I may have some tapered end mills you may want. Otherwise I suggest you get rather cheap MT3 to ER32 adapter - I have one for the mill. It will eat about 2" of Z but otherwise works great.

For a $1000 if all works on it you got a good deal. The 1hp motor may be small by today's standards but I would be surprised if you could overpower it in that small mill - older BP machines had tiny 1hp motors.

Thanks @Tom Kitta, I might take you up on that. I'm trying to sort out tooling needs now...

 

[DavidR8]

Congrats David, As I was looking at the pictures, I was thinking to myself, man this looks familiar. That was when I realized you posted this to one of the machining groups on facebook that I am in. Hope to get a similar mill at some point. Lots of videos on these mills and add-ons to them.

The amount of support for these mills was actually a factor in my purchasing decision.
Funny how worlds collide
Was it the Benchtop group?

 

[Hruul]

Had to go back and check, but yup that was the one.

 

[historicalarms]

You sure it wasn't 330 kg? Where did you find these at a store?

It may very well have been in KG's Craig. it was at least 20 yrs ago LOL. and they were always on display at the now long defunct House Of Tools both Ed. and Cal.

 

[YotaBota]

Are you making chips yet?

 

[DavidR8]

Are you making chips yet?

Sure am.
Just fooling around here.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[trlvn]

Is this using the MT3 collets?

Craig

 

[DavidR8]

Is this using the MT3 collets?

Craig

No, ER-32 collet chuck. I need to make a spindle wrench to use the MT3 collets.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[YotaBota]

I'm doing the same, just playin around. My first project is going to be building a sharpener jig for end mills cause I know I'm going to need it.
http://www.homews.co.uk/page121.html
I bought a Harold Hall book "The Milling Machine" and it showed the sharpening jig and he has a bunch of goodies on the web site. The book is best for someone who can't spell "milling machine", it shows a lot of setups and describes what the machine is and what it can do. I think it will be good for reference.

 

[DavidR8]

I'm doing the same, just playin around. My first project is going to be building a sharpener jig for end mills cause I know I'm going to need it.
http://www.homews.co.uk/page121.html
I bought a Harold Hall book "The Milling Machine" and it showed the sharpening jig and he has a bunch of goodies on the web site. The book is best for someone who can't spell "milling machine", it shows a lot of setups and describes what the machine is and what it can do. I think it will be good for reference.

Thanks for the link, I didn't know that Harold Hall had a website. I might pick up that book.

 

[kevin.decelles]

I have most of his books and I’m starting on his advanced grinder rest project

We should start an “ode to Harold hall” Thread



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[YYCHM]

Hey David,

Could you please post an image of the entire machine as it sits on it's stand so that I can get a feel for it's size.
Maybe put a yard stick in the image if you have one.

Thanks,

Craig

 

[Everett]

Nice! No one got hurt and no damaged components, that's a win for sure. When I got my shaper I just borrowed a folding engine crane from my buddy's shop (ironically, I now work for that buddy a year later) and he was happy for just doughnuts in return. Depending on your connections, like a your local mechanic's shop, you might be able to horse trade some doughnuts and coffee for use of the crane for a day if they're not in the middle of an engine job. I agree with the others though, not worth wrecking one's back for stuff like this. We have hydraulics and leverage for a reason, lol!
You're going to have a lot of fun with that machine, have you got much tooling put together for it yet?

 

[DavidR8]

Hey David,

Could you please post an image of the entire machine as it sits on it's stand so that I can get a feel for it's size.
Maybe put a yard stick in the image if you have one.

Thanks,

Craig

Does this mean you bought that mill???

I’m standing in the line at Home Depot so here’s a teaser.

With the head raised to the top and the cover installed it would be about 7 feet tall.

This manual says it’s 43.5” tall. That sounds about right to me.

http://blog.penntoolco.com/munics_files/webshare/RF-30-manual.pdf

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Janger]

I've had good success with MZG carbide cutters on ali express.