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RF30 head alignment guide

DavidR8

DavidR8

Scrap maker
Administrator
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Premium Member
I started building the head alignment guide for my RF mill today.
This is inspired by an excellent idea and execution over on Hobby-Machinist.com

RF-30 Clone Head Alignment Guide
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/to...ent-Guide.84270/&share_type=t&link_source=app

I sourced a piece of 6” diameter 6061 yesterday and today I faced both sides in the 4-jaw.
I hoped to bore it out but got too cold and hungry [emoji39]
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On the Youtube channel Blondihacks, she was showing the basics of trepanning. Might allow you to save turning a lot of good material into chips?

Craig
 
Major progress today.
Bored it to size.
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Fitted it up in the mill with a parallel on it face underneath so that the scribed centre line cleared a pair of 1-2-3 blocks on the vise. Using these as references I levelled the ring.
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I marked the centre of the ring rim and drew a vertical line amd extended it across the top as a reference for the end mill.
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Used a center finder and my DRO to find the centre of the thickness and bored the countersink holes for the 1/2-20 cap screws that will hold the two halves together.
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YYCHobbyMachinist said:
What are you using for a boring bar?
Click to expand...
I did it in three stages:
1) used a 3" hole saw to remove the majority
2) ground a 3/8"HSS blank so that it had side clearance and put it in my boring bar tool holder. Ran that in straight taking 1/8" DOC at a time. Feed rate was .0027/rev. Slow going but 1/8" better than I could do with the boring bar.
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3) used my SCLCR boring bar to make the finish passes.
 
Took today off to run errands and get in a little shop time.

Finished the collar for the mill.
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Made up the four plugs for the stabilizer tubes. All set to be TIG welded on.
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More progress.
TIGed the bungs into the pipes.
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Cut the brackets and TIGed the pipes onto them.
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Finished assembling the parts yesterday.
Works very well.
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YotaBota said:
Interesting set up (in a good way).
Are you sure someones race car isn't missing some suspension parts. ;)
Click to expand...

Let’s just say that my Formula 3000 bid took a hit :)


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That's great work David. I wanted to do something similar for my drill press, but my machining skills aren't to your level. I guess I kind of cheated when I got my ironworker and started punching everything instead. I hardly ever use the DP now.

Your solution is elegant. I often wonder why there isn't a commercial product that does this, or at least manufacturers who provide a support collar out of the box. From a marketing perspective, it would allow them to boast about less runout.

But after viewing the pics I've developed an unquenchable desire to go watch "Days of Thunder" again. How odd....
 
CalgaryPT said:
That's great work David. I wanted to do something similar for my drill press, but my machining skills aren't to your level. I guess I kind of cheated when I got my ironworker and started punching everything instead. I hardly ever use the DP now.

Your solution is elegant. I often wonder why there isn't a commercial product that does this, or at least manufacturers who provide a support collar out of the box. From a marketing perspective, it would allow them to boast about less runout.

But after viewing the pics I've developed an unquenchable desire to go watch "Days of Thunder" again. How odd....
Click to expand...

Thanks Pete, I appreciate the positive feedback.
I cannot take any credit for the design, it’s a semi-faithful copy of a design I saw on Hobby-Machinists.com.
It is more elegant than any design I’ve seen. And was dead cheap to build.
I had the angle iron and aluminum plate.
$30 for the aluminum round for the column collar.
$25 for the iron pipe
$13 for the heim joints
$10 for the hardware
All in, $80 :)


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Hmmm, for a drill press I’m wondering if it wouldn’t actually be simpler. On a drill press (mine anyway and like the one David used to own) the rack slews with the table so there’d be no need for a collar. Heim linkages from either side of the table to either side of the head should do it. Or am I under-thinking that?
 
francist said:
Hmmm, for a drill press I’m wondering if it wouldn’t actually be simpler. On a drill press (mine anyway and like the one David used to own) the rack slews with the table so there’d be no need for a collar. Heim linkages from either side of the table to either side of the head should do it. Or am I under-thinking that?
Click to expand...

I miss that press [emoji26]
I think that there needs to be means for the arms to adjust to raising and lowering the table.
Because the table doesn’t have near the same mass or forces acting on it I could see a somewhat simpler setup working well.


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Sometimes I read/look at something 50 times and I just don't get it. This is one of those times. I read the link you sent, and I went over your pictures many times -- drawing a blank.

What alignment issue/challenge are you trying to solve and how does this help (how do you use it)?

I have a standup drill press, with a round column, so this should be making sense, but it isn't. Please enlighten me!
 
kevin.decelles said:
Sometimes I read/look at something 50 times and I just don't get it. This is one of those times. I read the link you sent, and I went over your pictures many times -- drawing a blank.

What alignment issue/challenge are you trying to solve and how does this help (how do you use it)?

I have a standup drill press, with a round column, so this should be making sense, but it isn't. Please enlighten me!
Click to expand...

https://canadianhobbymetalworkers.com/threads/the-ultimate-round-column-mill-fix.2517/
 
kevin.decelles said:
Sometimes I read/look at something 50 times and I just don't get it. This is one of those times. I read the link you sent, and I went over your pictures many times -- drawing a blank.

What alignment issue/challenge are you trying to solve and how does this help (how do you use it)?

I have a standup drill press, with a round column, so this should be making sense, but it isn't. Please enlighten me!
Click to expand...

If you have to raise the head on a round column mill it’s impossible to maintain X-Y position because the head is free to rotate around the column just like the table on a drill press when it’s raised or lowered.
This setup prevents the head from rotating as it’s raised or lowered.


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