New Toy s/h RF45 Mill

SnakeyJ

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I had been looking for a small mill for the last few months and managed to find a (not so small) bargain on ebay the other day. I had been considering a VMC or an older universal mill (Elliott Omnimill), but this one came along at a silly price and will be a lot more manageable in my 8'x8' workshop.

The Chester Lux is a re-badged Chinese import RF45 clone, gear head mill with 2HP motor and R8 spindle, like the Grizzly0761, with a respectable 22"x7.5" travel and 13.75" travel on the Z axis. I'm guessing it's 8 years old, but pretty much unused and apart from a little surface rust the table looks unmarked. It will need a good clean and only came with a 4 and 5" swivel vice, a couple of threaded end mills and a 3" R8 HSS facemill. A full 320kg or 714lbs of chinese cast iron, but the head and column separated easily for and made it a comfortable two person lift to load up for the return journey. Not too bad for under £ 250 (USD325) and £ 100 travel expenses.

I'll post some more pics once I get it into the workshop and cleaned up.
 
I’d say that was a steal of a deal! Congrats!
 
That's a great deal. I picked up one about 2 years ago. I had to rebuild the motor to get it up and running. And the gear drive is a little messed up on my mill. I can see where someone had it apart and it feels like the detent springs are not strong enough so it sometimes pops out of gear.
That said... I really like the RF45 clone mill. It has served me well and I'm able to easily work around the hookey speed detent issue. Anyway...I'd seriously consider buying a new one if this gives out on me. Its a good design IMO for a hobby machinist. Very capable IMO.
You did real good !!
 
Congrats on your the mill purchase. Pretty hard to beat the price, and while not a lot of tooling, at least enough to get you started. Half the fun of this hobby is acquiring or making all the things you need to make your machines capable of doing what you want them to do. Cheers, Mike
 
Cheers guys, I had to clear the workshop and build a bench, but managed to slide this in to the workshop yesterday. I was doing it singlehanded, so a good excuse to strip, clean and lubricate all three axis and clean up the table.

I gave myself a bit of a scare draining the headstock oil - looks original and full of grit/sand. The motor runs fine, but gear box is seized :-(. Just ordered a set of NSK bearings and new seals, so will strip, paint and rebuild this with my 12 year old lad (school holidays here). Puts another £100 on the price, but will be good to know all is right.

More pics to follow.....
 
Oh dear me, or as my son said OMG! I think this was very overdue and badly needed an oil change.......

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The shaft at the rear of the last image is the power shaft from the motor and the top bearing in this has seized almost solid (I can rock it a little with force, but it appears to have rusted solid).

The gear head is full of thick sludge, which is very sandy/gritty in the corners and almost like a congealed jelly over most of the insides - guessing this might be part microbial growth? On the last image the big cog is covered in rust flakes, though these scrape off and there does not seem to be any pitting on the gear itself.

Hopefully the new bearings will arrive by Tuesday, which leaves tonight and tomorrow for cleaning this all up.
 
Even with the work needed, I'd say you did well. Upside is, when you get done tuning it up you'll know exactly what you have.
 
Oh dear me, or as my son said OMG! I think this was very overdue and badly needed an oil change.......

View attachment 287968View attachment 287967View attachment 287966

The shaft at the rear of the last image is the power shaft from the motor and the top bearing in this has seized almost solid (I can rock it a little with force, but it appears to have rusted solid).

The gear head is full of thick sludge, which is very sandy/gritty in the corners and almost like a congealed jelly over most of the insides - guessing this might be part microbial growth? On the last image the big cog is covered in rust flakes, though these scrape off and there does not seem to be any pitting on the gear itself.

Hopefully the new bearings will arrive by Tuesday, which leaves tonight and tomorrow for cleaning this all up.

While you're in there, might as well replace these 2 seals as well as the one for the motor shaft since you're replacing that bearing. The ones circled (2 stacked on top each other) prevents oil leaking onto the spindle/quill. I just had to replace mine last month.

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Not that you'll probably need them since you've got your head open but here are some pics for reference.

Turns out my motor shaft seal was already damaged but it never leaked from there.

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