Milling Machine Restoration, Overhaul and Base Build
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- čas přidán 25. 05. 2018
- I got a really good deal on this used milling machine. It's a round column mill very similar to the Rong-Fu RF-30. Probably around 20 years old. These old round column mills have some downsides but you can get them relatively cheap and they're real workhorses. They are sold by a bunch of different brands, like Grizzly but there are many used ones on the market. They're very sturdy and bigger than most people imagine. But for a small shop, they take up a lot less space than a Bridgeport or similar mill.
The mill wasn't in great shape so I decided to do a complete overhaul with the help of a friend. We took everything apart down to the last screw, replaced some things, cleaned and lubed everything and I also decided to give it a new paintjob and add a frequency drive so that there's no need for changing drive belts for different speeds.
I also built a sturdy base with some drawers for it. Welding together square tubing is getting really boring for me too, but this is hopefully the last piece of shop furniture I have to make for a while.
I'm very happy with the result, the mill is nice and heavy (about 400kgs) and has a decent amount of power for nowhere near the price I would have paid for a new mill of comparable size and weight. I will probably make more modifications to it in the future.
If you have any questions about this kind of mill, leave a comment!
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Great video,I am glad to see young men with hands on shop skills, I bought the same bench mill in 1994 and I added power feed and DRO. Good tunes too.
Wow, amazing restoration! And perfect choice of music!
I felt compelled to clap when the video ended 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
I think I mostly have to thank Tchaikovsky for that ;)
Dream tool for small workshop , I bet you you gonna use it a lot.
She was beautiful before you restored her, now looks amaaaaazing! What a beautiful mill! Enjoy !
Not only your work is awesome but also your videos, BRAVO!
Ahh that was a beautiful thing, I love bringing new life into old or mistreated machines
I love the article. I always learn a little bit from each video. I plan to incorporate the changes to my mill that clean up my past efforts.
Great work, your color choices and the details of tending to refurbish bearings even the paint removal was nice to watch. Nice scales addition, once we added them to our lathe we could never look back. Love the hand welded work table for the mill, never enough drawers for storage.
Bravo! This has been beautiful. Start to finish.
Great video, great work, great music! Chapeau!
Very nice job. After all these years it needed some TLC. Adding a vfd is a great idea and the quill position indicator comes in very handy. Your machine was originally imported by Knuth Werkzeugmaschinen in Germany. The original gray power switch was a unique feature that only Knuth was using. Thank you for sharing this video!
That was awesome!!! Congrats on the rebuild.
Digger, das ist sooo gut. Ich schaue deine Videos seit gefühlt der ersten Stunde. Das ist mit abstand eines der besten Videos. Man spürt das du mit dem cutten und dem Sound Design immer besser klar kommst. Cooles Projekt! :D
Danke :) Ist gut zu wissen dass das Leuten auffällt. Ich hab auch noch einen Haufen Dinge die ich an weiteren Videos gern verbessern würde...
This press has worked like a charm for my projects czcams.com/users/postUgkxajoEbapTfqWaadnqb04h6U576yxXp-FE . I didn't even secure it to my table top, mainly due to the fact that I was using a 15 lbs drill vise. It's not flimsy at all as to what others have claimed it to be. Make sure the locking nuts and levers are secured and there won't be any issues with light pressure and patience. I was able to drill through aluminum, plastic, and steel (steel took a while) with no problems at all. Yeah it took a little longer than a regular drill press, but I don't have the space OR the money for one.The instruction manual was worthless, but luckily assembling the press was intuitive. However, the manual would be good for ordering replacement parts if needed. There is a nice breakdown of the parts that are included in the kit. Before ordering, make sure it is compatible with your unit, it is clearly stated what models the press is compatible with.This was an excellent purchase for $40!!
The Music, well, just beautiful - as is your Mill!
The restoration was as elegant as the soundtrack. Bravo.
Amazing work mate! Love that white / machinery grey color combination.
just curious; why not re-paint standard green?
I bought one of these new from Warco machine tools in the UK about 20 years ago, loved it.
Love those drawers. You just gave me an idea. Thanks.
Oops. Forgot to compliment you on a beautiful restoration.
very well done mister!!
Beautiful!
Love the DRO conversion on the Z axis
Fantastic job! I which that I had the expertise to do the electrical part!
That was a great video. Really enjoyed it!
just found your site!!!!! Excellent, well done Sir!!
Nice job! Like the VFD, DRO and any paint that's not ugly industrial green!
great job! Very useful video! thanks!
Great job!!!!
Very good restoration 🔥🔥🔥👍👍👍👍👍
Wonderful task !!
Perfect. I have a similar mill and the quill jumps up and down which is most annoying. May need to do a fix soon but your job was quite special.
Man, it's awesome!!
Keep up the good work!
Nice job! :)
I have a similar milling machine like this and I really love it. You chose well. :)
Increíble como quedo!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Very cool restoration and amazing machine! :-)
absolute beauty !
PALMAS PALMAS SHOW DE RESTAURAÇÃO E COM O INVERSOR DE FREQUÊNCIA FICOU MELHOR,,,,, PARABÉNS A TODOS !
Excelente trabalho parabéns!!!!!
Subbed! Thought I would mention that when working with plywood, wood glue is your friend. Pin nails tend to pull out, and although screws are strong they do not prevent racking nearly as much as wood glue does :)
Gotta love those sugar plum faeries!
when i saw this i wanted to run in the garage and start stripping me mill down ... then i thought no wait.... great build tho lads ... Regards Andy
exelent work!!!
With a lathe, a milling machine and a TIG, nothing can stop you from doing your own cargo bike frame ! Can't wait to see that ;-)
That's the plan! Gotta make a frame jig and some other stuff first though
A thing of beauty.
thanks for the last 10min!!! awesome projekt..2 more mashines and i marry you. ;)
Nice job!!
I was planning on doing the exact same restoration on my mill. Same typ, also grey ( But matching my lathe) and digital height read out.
This is a Nice video to watch whats comming for me! Thumbs up!
GREAT work on the stand and also on the milling machine restauration! AWESOMEwork with your videos and your shop!!!
Danke für deine ideas! Ich seen deine videos zu mein machen mein "garage restoration".
Umarmungen von Brasilien!
Very nice good job 😊
Much better than what it was. I had one of those mills. Only thing i didnt like was that they're top heavy. They really need weights on the bottom to help keep it from tipping over.
Nice job! I didn't even clean the sand out of mine when bought new! No better way to get to know your equipment.
Buena maquina,y una restauración impecable
Impressive machinery :D +1 subscription
great job, i'm gonna buy a similar one. What's the rack and pinion pitch on yours? thank you
Later on if you remake those draws you should put a metal grate or something with openings to help clear chips. Also some covers over the ways/gib(s) would be a simple DIY that would really help keep chips out. Very cool machine, loved the AvE style classical music once you started on the restoration.
Good idea! I've already noticed it throws chips all throughout my shop though so I'd probably have to build an enclosure too. I actually did add a cover over the ways between the column and table but now that you mention it I forgot to include that in the video. There was so much film material for this...
I know the feeling. Big projects over time start to really add up in the editing. I did a "small" tube front project on my racecar over about 3 weeks and the footage got a bit hard to keep organized. Looking forward to more videos.
Great restoration and modifications. The video going at 6x is good to convey what was done, but not much enjoyable. I slowed it down to 0.5x. Btw great background music.
Awesome!👍👍👍
HAHA the use of Tchaikovskys 'Nutcracker suite' at 4:31was brilliant! (it probably has a nother name, trolls, do your thing...)
Brilliant
I wouldn't call that burly machine a dancing flower but it sure did blossom.
Wonderful
Nice!!
Hi Phil, Just found your video nice job on the rebuild. I have the same mill and would like to add variable speed control as you did. would you be willing to share the make model of the controller and mounting tube please, also is your mill 110V or 220V? Thank you
I owne same mill and love it , can do soo much work , just dont have a fancy electronic features but would like to install them ?
Die Musik ist der Hammer. „Der mit dem Werkzeug tanzt“ 🥸🙃🤪🤣😂🤔😇😎🤷🏻♂
A great project. The base was well thought out. Those accuride sliders are not cheap, Axminster style paint job is distinctive, the vernier mod has sparked an idea for mine. I would have loved to have seen you set the gibs up. But as you say in other comments you can't show everything. Instant sub.
Awesome!!!
nice restoration and build, what cross section of tubing did you use for the bench/stand you made? I need to make one but I have no idea on a size to be strong enough without being expensive overkill. I was thinking 50x50x3mm box section.
Can you share the make and model of the vfd? Was the motor single phase that came with machine? Wiring diagram or still images of how you wired to motor would be great.
Good job
Great 👏👏👏👏👏👏 from Italy
Great choice of music, Phil! Keep it up! Enjoy the milling machine! Did you put out a video using it yet?
I have the same milling machine as you and about to restore it would like to know what is that creamy colour called that use had used.. thank
How to make an industrial tool using a few more industrial tools.
Сongratulations with the new milling machine.
It went well with the RAMMSTEIN music.
Nice job :-)
I have that same kind of milling machine. It's a great little running machine. I need to do some upgrades, though... :)
Dang man looks good. I recently purchased a wongfu just like yours ( not sure yours is a Wong fu) but looks exactly the same even the green. Wood love to do the dro any chance you have a parts list for your upgrades?
Realisastes una buena compra y un muy buen trabajo de reparación y sofisticación de esa fresadora. Yo tengo una pregunta, ¿Dónde aprendiste mecánica? Saludos desde Guayaquil Ecuador
Tx for the video. What are the downsides to a round column mill?
Incrível, muito bom 👏👏👏👏👏🤘😁👊
Did you have to fit a 3 phase motor to work with the vfd or is it the original single phase? I have one of these and find speed changing difficult. Thanks,
Mitch
Nice job! You should try spraying the inside of the metal belt guard with automotive sound deadener! The biggest improvement they made to these over time was changing the belt guard to plastic, no more drumming sheet metal!
That thing is rattly for sure, Good idea
Great rebuild! Any chance you still have the raw footage from this and could make a new edit just showing the assembly much slower so those of us with the same (!) machine can get a better idea of the construction without disassembling our own? Or before disassembling our own. Backlash is excessive in mine. I need to make new leadscrews and nuts but want to really understand before I do if there's anything else I should plan on while I'm in there. Commentary voiceover would be great but even Blue Danube is fine!
What machine is it?
@@TheDromen69 There are different model numbers from different manufacturers for the same thing. The most common name is (Rong Fu) RF-30, or just by the general term "round column mill/drill".
That is one beautiful piece of machinery, I would typically advise against tampering with something like this but the things you did were miner and can be reversed so i'm not that freaked out about it. Overall I think everything you did for this mill was to make it an even better machine than it was.
I think you have a very good idea on that camera stand and on that welder what kind is it?
congratulations!
amazing job...supercool
Excellent Reconstruction ¡ ¡ ¡ C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S ! ! !
I tried a VFD on a drill press and saw very little torque a low speeds, apparently you didn't experience this.Nice job!
I think it depends on the VFD, I know that some of the cheap chinese ones are like this because they save on the electronics. It's normal to a certain extent though, at super low speeds I think every VFD has this problem. Luckily If I ever need a low gear with lots of torque I can still change the belt
Is that a forward/reverse box on the side??? I have the Jet 16 which is almost a duplicate to this mill and it does not have a reverse switch..
What VFD and motor did you use?
I just bought one and have to get it dissasembled, what size are the bolts that hold the column to the base? How long does it take to dissasemble? Is it metric or english?
Hello. Love you're vids. Just wondering is this the mill you're still using? The one you added the little 24v motor to the other day?
I am busy doing the same with mine, but Damn.... I cannot get the spindle pulley off.
Not knowing how it goes on is a problem. How did you release yours?
Did you figure it out ?
Were the holes added "post-paint" blind? Otherwise it seems like you introduced shavings after the device was cleaned and assembled. I like the DRO on the quill!
Superb video. Beautiful work. I would love to know what this mill is or was before you improved it. Thank you.
It's a very common mill that is sold by a ton of companies all over the world. They were made in China and this one was sold by a German company called Interkrenn but a lot of others sold them too. They just import them and slap their name on it (still very common today). For example in the US they're still sold by Grizzly and mostly go under the designation "RF-30" or some variation of that. Check out the Description for some more info or just search RF-30 Mill on CZcams and you will find tons of videos on them. Which is why they're great to have, people have modified the hell out of them so there's lots of resources to find.
Thanks so much. I"m on it.
Wow good
Anyone know what type of paint they used? I have a Rong Fu that’s in need of Restoration
I have the same old Grizzly lathe. Maybe me had been used very little so all I did was clean it and lubricate it. I am a newbie, but it seems like a nice machine.
Yeah they are actually quite capable mills and very affordable. And even if you don't use it for milling it's one hell of a drill press :)
hey, what is that thing you put on quill, like digital caliper, is it digital height gauge? I wanted to make the same for my big drill, but for some reason, when cheap chinese digital caliper costs 5-10-15$, those costs 30-40$, when all I want is to turn display 90 degrees. Can you share a link where you bought it?
Yeah it's a linear scale and it's basically the exact same thing as a digital caliper except the display is rotated 90° like you said. And you're right, the damn things are ridiculously overpriced. I'm not sure why, maybe just because they sell fewer of these. I thought about just using a caliper but I ended up paying the extra money to get this thing. Like you said it was somewhere around 50 bucks I think. This one is a little beefier than the usual calipers though.
As for a link, I'm located in Germany so it probably wouldn't be much use to you. If you search for digital linear scale on ebay or sites like Banggood you can find cheaper ones. I'm not sure about the quality on those but for a drill press I would give that a try. Some of them come with an external display so you can mount that however you want.