RF-35 Mill/Drill

[GrottoParticipant @grotto]

I've been looking for a millimg machine for a couple of years. I was hoping to get a Bridgeport or similar, but the ones I can afford all seem to be extremely well used.

I've seen a Rong Fu RF-35 round column mill/drill which looks like it hasn't been abused, and has a verical power feed which appears to stop head rotating when it's adfjusted up/down (although I don't think the stuff I use it for will neccessitate this).

When I google RF-35 I only seem to get results for Radial Drills.

I wondered if anyoner had come across one of these, and if so are they any good?

Thanks

[GrottoParticipant @grotto]

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

If you google Rong-Fu mill drill, you will find more about these, their clones and variants. Yes, basically a glorified radial drill with an X-Y table for milling. They seem to have been quite popular before the current crop of home shop mini-mills were brought on to the market by Sieg and the likes.

The usual criticism of them is the round column, which means that if you have to move the head up or down during a job, such as when boring a deep hole like a large motorbike cylinder for instance, or when changing tooling, you lose the positioning and have to set it up concentric with the existing hole all over again.

Probably not a problem on smaller model work or with careful planning ahead etc though. ISTR there have been various schemes over the years on various sites and I think maybe in MEW on ways to overcome this alignment problem by way of extra guide rails or the use of lasers etc.

Other than that, the few I have seen over the years (never owned one myself) seem quite solid for model building purposes. Certainly more rugged in construction and weight than the smaller of the dovetail-column mills that have superseded them today.

It won't be as good as a Bridgeport of course, but better than no mill at all, I am sure.

Edited By Hopper on 13/08/2018 06:01:29

[GrottoParticipant @grotto]

Thanks, I've found loads of RF mill drills, but not a RF-35.

It's a round column, but looks more like a RF-45.

The screw for the power feed head looks like it would keep head concentric when moved up or down.

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

It appears that the RF-35 has been replaced by an RF-31 on the RonhFu web site. I had previously seen it there and was similar to the RF-45 but with a round column.

Although the lifting screw would stop some twisting of the drive head when lifting, it would not be as accurate as a dovetail column.

RongFu RF-31 milling machine at:

http://www.rongfu.com/en/Milling-Drilling-Machine/RF-31.html

 

Edited By Paul Lousick on 13/08/2018 07:53:00

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Usually the power feed is on the quill at the front of the machine. Can't see from the pics what is going on with that lifting screw at the back. It may be some kind of clone or derivative not actually made by Rong Fu with some modified feed system?

[GrottoParticipant @grotto]

Thanks guys

Sudden change of plans.

Having decided to buy the RF-35, I saw a Bridgeport clone for sale, and ended up buying that instead.

Quite a bit more expensive, but it comes with a load of tooling and accessories.

Hopefully I'll never need to upgrade.

No doubt I'll have a bunch of questions once it's installed & running.

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Hi Grotto. A few pics once you get your clone set up would be nice, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Looked through your albums out of curiosity & noticed that in your 'Rear tool post' album that the tip of the parting off tool looks overly high to me, unless it's parallax error on the pic, as with front mounted tools the tip should be on centre height, some may advocate very slightly below, all my tools are set as dead on centre height in line with rear tailstock centre, or as near as a gnats d**k as I can get it. Just an observation in passing, enjoy.



​George.

[GrottoParticipant @grotto]

Hi George

I'll post some photos when I pick it up next week.

The rear tool post height is too high (unless for some weird reason my ML7 chuck is too low). Chronos did offer to refund/replace if I returned it, but postage (from NZ) was too expensive for me to bother. My first project when I get the mill is to take a tad off the bottom of the tool post to correct this.

I've been using a HSS blade in it which I've ground to be the correct height when fitted. It works surprisingly well given my lack of experience/skill at tool grinding.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Good choice. A Bridgey clone will be a far more useful machine in the long run. Have fun!

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