Rong Fu RF-35 Mill Drill

brav65

brav65

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I came across a RF-35 sitting in a warehouse a friend of mine owns. It appears to be in working order, but I was not able to power it up when I saw it. What is a fair price for one of these. I may buy it from my busy, clean it up and sell it if it is worth my time. Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Brooks
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I believe its called a Radial Drill Press not a mill drill. I don't think the resale value would be worth it unless it was really cheap. Although, it could be a handy machine to own.

Update: Yup $3-4 hundred would be really cheap :)
 
Yup, a RF-35 is not a mill/drill, it's a radial drill as mentioned. About $2k brand new for a genuine Rong Fu but I personally wouldn't even pay a 3rd of that for it (not that it isn't worth it). For $300-$400 I would.
 
RF 35's are round column mill/drills. They were originally offered to the US market through outlets like HF and others like Northern tool and Bolton. During their hayday before the general public started demanding a higher quality machine tool they were literally sold by the tens of thousands. There are good many of them still out there doing some really great work. The biggest issue with the round column is getting it indexed and keeping it there. Once you have it dialed in it will actually do a significant amount of fairly precise work. You are never going to get and hold sub .001 tolerances but if .001 is good enough for your designs then it would be a decent investment for3-4 hundred bucks. If memory serves me correctly they had either an MT2 or an R8 taper and were set up for using a pull bar through the quil to retain tooling. Tooling is the same as any other mill and constitutes a large portion of what you will end up spending no matter what kind of mill or machine tools you have. They seem to do exceptionally well with cheaper HSS tooling as long as speeds and feeds are paid heed. If you can pick it up cheap it would be a decent addition to your shop for first operation milling then move it to a higher end machine for the finer more intricate work. Otherwise they are fairly capable little machines in the right hands, you just have to learn to work within the limitations of the machine. Hope this helps.

Bob
 
Rbeckett said:
RF 35's are round column mill/drills.
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I believe you are thinking about RF-30/31s & RF-40s, those are round column mill drills. This is what a RF-35 is & is the same machine the OP pictured.
 
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I have an RF31. This 35 you posted looks to be more of a drill press to me also. I use my 31 a lot and it works quite well if not over pushed.....
 
Good morning Brooks,
Arky bought a ProCut radial drill at an auction that is actually a Rong Fu 45 and sold his powermatic drill press. We use the ProCut extensively and like it much better than the floor model powermatic. If I have my choice between having a drill press or the Rong Fu, the Rong Fu will win, hands down, every time. I would buy it in a second. We also run it with a VFD just so we can slow it down even more.

Pat
 
HSS said:
Good morning Brooks,
Arky bought a ProCut radial drill at an auction that is actually a Rong Fu 45 and sold his powermatic drill press. We use the ProCut extensively and like it much better than the floor model powermatic. If I have my choice between having a drill press or the Rong Fu, the Rong Fu will win, hands down, every time. I would buy it in a second. We also run it with a VFD just so we can slow it down even more.

Pat
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Thanks Pat, I wish I had room for it in my shop/garage, but I don't.
 
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