EME Mentor Mill. Model KF-VO-A2F

[John TemplemanParticipant @johntempleman87735]

Hi people, I am looking to upgrade my current milling machine a Warco Gh 18 and have come across an EME mentor Mill KF-VO A2F that I believe is identical to a Myford VMF. I have searched the web for info on these machines including lathes.co.uk but am unable to find basic info on them such as dimensions weight etc. As the machine is some distance from me I would like to have some idea of the sizes before I travel to view it as it maybe to large for me to house. Any help from you guys would be much appreciated. Thank you

[John TemplemanParticipant @johntempleman87735]

Dimensions and any other info please

[John PParticipant @johnp77052]

Warco A2F milling machine from the handbook.

John

 

Just noticed  that there are 2 versions of this machine in the hand book  this one is not the A2F,   the A2F 

wll be in the next posting.

Edited By John P on 11/09/2022 20:03:15

[John TemplemanParticipant @johntempleman87735]

Wow thankyou very much all the info I require, do you have any experience with these mills ?

[John PParticipant @johnp77052]

Here is the Warco A2F

 

John

Had this machine  since 1998  been modified quite a bit has a raising block fitted to the head  now has 24  inches spindle to table height   and a 2 part  vertical knee  screw  so can have   zero inch from   spindle to table ,machine is  part cnc  ,table   long travel  to about     550 mm . Fitted with inverter   as supplied  from new  spindle speed up to 4500 rpm.

There are some more photo's of this machine in the album.  

Edited By John P on 11/09/2022 20:20:15

[John TemplemanParticipant @johntempleman87735]

Once again Thankyou, I see you have converted your machine to cnc so based on that you must be fairly happy with it, is there any particular issues with these machines or are they fairly bomb proof.

[John PParticipant @johnp77052]

Posted by John Templeman 11/09/2022 20:22:10

Once again Thankyou, I see you have converted your machine to cnc so based on that
you must be fairly happy with it, is there any particular issues with these
machines or are they fairly bomb proof.

————————————————————————————

These machines suffer the usual problems as many of the machines from China,
i believe the machine that i have was made in Taiwan,the base parts of the machine
are very well made but suffer from poor fitting on assembly,perhaps an example
is when i converted the machine to cnc i made 2 new leadscrews just new acme
screws it is not really necessary to have ballscrews on a cnc machine as some will
have you believe ,the old screws were poorly fitted to the extent the old leadscrew
was bowed along its length ,all of this was corrected during the re-fit .
The squareness of the X and Y axis is about 0.005" out and always has been ,
i have never bothered to try to correct this ,i was still able to make all of the
parts of the grinding machine seen also in the albums .The table traverse on the grinding
machine is straight to within about 0.0003" in 22 inches and will produce
parts square now to the thickness of the needle of a 1/10 thou clock
in 4 inches, so yes i am happy with the machine and would not part with it.

John

[John TemplemanParticipant @johntempleman87735]

Hi John, well I think based on the info you have provided me I will be having a road trip in the next few days. I do expect to have to do some work to the mill initially, it certainly needs a good clean judging from the photos I've seen of it. I also am thinking of installing a newton tesla inverter and motor on it. Are there any tips I need to know when moving the mill other than lowering the knee right down and rotating the head to lower the centre of gravity. Once again many thanks for your help

[John PParticipant @johnp77052]

That's about as much as you can do to reduce the top heaviness of the machine,
maybe remove the hand wheels if you are going through normal door ways and rotate the ram about 30 deg or so to reduce the rear overhang.
Be careful when swinging the head down as it is very top heavy and beyond about 20 deg it will try to swing down very fast and heavy.

Check that you will be able to use an inverter with the motor that is fitted. Warco originally supplied these machines with a 2 speed motor to be able to use the low range speeds and had to have the motor rewound before delivery to use the inverter. I don't know if that was full rewind or just rewired internally on the terminal block.

Chester's still sell these machines as the 830VS-R price £6,100 .

Have the complete handbook that was supplied with the machine will be able
to copy it if you need it.

John

[John TemplemanParticipant @johntempleman87735]

Hi John many thanks for the offer of the handbook, fortunately the mill comes with the original E.M.E. mentor handbook so hopefully I should be ok. Had a chat to the guy who is selling the machine and he is going to pallet it up and ship it to me to save me going down to collect it. The cost to me is £120 fully insured which is pretty much what it would cost me in fuel there and back with a trailer. I should be receiving it towards the back end of this month as he is away next week. Once again many thanks for your help and advice.

John T

[DC31kParticipant @dc31k]

Posted by John Templeman on 12/09/2022 18:34:49:

Had a chat to the guy who is selling the machine and he is going to pallet it up and ship it to me to save me going down to collect it.

Please have a look at this thread:

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=180134

It might be a good idea to ask the seller to send you photos of the machine when he considers he has palleted it sufficiently for transport. You can then comment on his handiwork as appropriate (if you happen to think his work is acceptable, simply say "no comment" ) .

Edited By DC31k on 12/09/2022 19:05:58

[John TemplemanParticipant @johntempleman87735]

Oh wow now that's worried me, I shall indeed ask for photos when it has been palleted up, however I would like to think that he knows what he is doing as he is a dealer in lathes and milling machines, but thankyou for your advice I shall certainly act on it

JohnT

[John TemplemanParticipant @johntempleman87735]

Well my new to me mill arrived on Thursday all packaged up exactly how it left the vendor so that was a huge relief. It did however change identitys during the journey as it set off as an EME Mentor mill but when it arrived it had transformed into a Warco A2F mill LOL!!!! First job was to strip it down in to manageable chunks to move it in to my workshop. I had bought an engine hoist for this job so it was relatively straight forward. It is now re assembled in the workshop. Next job is a chat to Newton Tesla to fit a inverter package, unfortunately I'm going to have to change the motor as well as it is not dual voltage. I am also going to repaint the base as it is scuffed in places so the paint has been ordered and is on the way from Paragon Paints. Anyway here it is in its current glory

[Tas HussainParticipant @tashussain53300]

Hi, does anyone have the user manual to the A2F Milling Machine similar to the picture in John's post with the automatic feed gearbox to the right of the table?

Many Thanks. Tas

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