Mill

[BK]

I just bought myself a mill, it's a Hafco HM 30 (ya China) 3 yrs old and done little work.



It came with a LOT of extras like a 12" rotary table.



5" HD swivel vice



3 1/2" tilting vice



2 sets of holddowns.




A set of collets and end mills plus a 70mm flycutter



Plus a box of Alum billets



I'm happy with my "haul" to buy the extras new would cost more then I paid for the whole lot. 

[BillTodd]

Nice haul

They're actually very useful machines - my one is a Taiwanese NuTool version. It was knackered when I got it so have been modifying it at every opportunity (see http://billtodd.dyndns.org/drillmill)

Bill

[Brass_Machine]

Nice haul!

Eric

[Jonny]

Good buy i thinks thats known as the RF30 over here, i have the equivalent of the RF25 doing very little.
Leadscrew nuts are a bit naff mine broke within two years so did the motor mid job.
The only thing that spoils them is the round column.

[Stilldrillin]

Bernie.
That's a great starter pack. Yer off to a flier there!   

BIG learning curve ahead........ Enjoy! 

David D

[BK]

Hi David, been 2 days setting it up but this arvo I made chips. 
It seems a very solid machine (very big too), just a matter of working out speeds, how to hold work down, how to, how to , how to, how to,      

[Stilldrillin]

Bernie.
If yer don't already know.......

Find out what climb milling is, and DON'T DO IT! 

     

David D

[Pete49]

nice haul though that ali is dangerous to your health so being old and caring send it to me and I will dispose of it for you
cheers
Pete

[BK]

Bernie.
If yer don't already know.......

Find out what climb milling is, and DON'T DO IT! 

     

David D

Yep, my younger brother has an old mill, been told thanks David.

[BillTodd]

Bernie.
If yer don't already know.......

Find out what climb milling is, and DON'T DO IT!  

    

David D

Actually, if you sort the nuts out and clamp the head tight, the machine is just about rigid enough to cope with light cuts.

As a quick fix, I cut the nuts across the split, faced the cut ends and reassembled thus...

[Bogstandard]

Be very careful with the quill on these machines. It WILL drop when you least expect it and take a gouge out of your job.

Make sure it is physically pushed DOWN before you tighten up the quill lock, and this needs to be done between cuts.

There are a few mods about to cure this problem, and they usually concern a weight and a pulley to counteract the weight of the quill, so effectively pulling it UP all the time.

Just be careful.


Bogs

[Rob.Wilson]

As Bogs has pointed out the quill dose drop on these machines ,giving a poor finish when boring and worse if you are doing an intermittent cut ,say cutting a radius on cylinder saddle using a boring head and down feeding the quill.
The cutter will move up as it comes in contact with the work and drop as it leaves 

So the quill needs to be loaded up so that it is always in contact with the quill feed pinion.
Mods done to my RF25 MILL/DRILL ,,,spring attached to collar  on quill ,fed up through the head casting and secured to the belt guard ..  Sorted .



Got rid of the two nuts that lock the head , fitted two levers ,,,Replaced the small lever that locks the belt tensioner with a T bar ,,, and fitted lever to motor mount plate to make belt tensioning easier.
 


Rob

[Bogstandard]

I haven't seen it done that way Rob, nice one.

I forgot to mention in my last post, if you do such a mod as Rob has done, there is no need to do what I said in the first part, about making sure the quill was fully down.


Bogs

[Jonny]

Its been 6 years since ive used mine but i cannot honestly recall seeing the quill drop in over 4 years.
Reason i always put tension on with the quill lock when winding the Z feed. If a heavy cut i will tighten up the quill before putting a cut on.