G1007

Thanks everyone for the feedback. The stocks and Covid I think have set most of us working joes back. I’m in the mechanical trade (HVAC) which is still going but since I’m in the commercial side of things it has slowed down since buildings are not open still. We still have work but this year was supposed to be our best ever but thankfully the family and friends are all healthy and we can still afford a few toys.


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Another vote for that mill at that price. I've had mine for several years now and it does everything that I need from it. As others have said, there's the one limitation and you will soon learn to deal with it, then it's no longer a limitation. I found that a 4" vise is the ideal size for most everything that I do. Also have a 6" rotary table and that is the biggest one I would put on that mill.

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Using collets instead of a chuck for drills and reamers will buy you a few extra inches and decrease the need for moving the head on a round column mill.
I use the Tormach TTS system for my tooling on the RF30 and the difference in extension between a 1/16" TTS mounted end mill and an R8 collet mounted 1/2" drill is 1-3/4".
 
Do they make an R8 system that pulls in with the draw bar? I’m not quite seeing this in my head how this gives you more working height than a collet? Do you have a picture you can share?


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jlesser27 said:
Do they make an R8 system that pulls in with the draw bar? I’m not quite seeing this in my head how this gives you more working height than a collet? Do you have a picture you can share?


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The standard on my, and I believe most of them is R8 with drawbar. All my standard collets are R8 and it most certainly gives more room than a chuck. I also have ER 32 collet holder, also R8 but that uses a little more space.
I can take pictures in a day or two if no-one else has anything to share.

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I am also one of those RF-3x owners. It is a surprisingly rigid mill when tuned up for performance. I run 3" facing mills without a grunt, and can turn 3/4 end mills (though I stick with 1/2" for most roughing work). It's got plenty of power, and with a x-axis power feed and a DRO the mill is complete. There are dozens of tweaks that owners have made, many posted on this site. One thing that I don't fuss about is the round column return to zero. There are many ways to skin that cat that don't involve modifying the front landing gear of a Boeing jet to attach to your column.

The price tag on that mill will ensure you have to run a few red lights to get to it on time. A base Grizzly without any mods should go for $200 more than that, so it's a good deal.
 
I went and checked it out, it has power feed, variable speed drive, 3 axis DRO and is basically in good shape other than the light covering of sawdust from being in a wood shop. I turned it on and checked all functions and it all works and sounds good. We agreed on $1k including the pictured vices. My first question is there an upgrade for the head locking bolts to make that some sort of lever or cam mechanism. The loosening of the two bolts to adjust the head height seems annoying. Otherwise I’m excited to get it into my garage which will be this Friday. I did order one of those mobile bases that allow you to roll the machine and set it in place.


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In my opinion, you got a smoking deal! Congrats!!
 
@jlesser27, search around the site here on RF-31 head fixing bolts. I posted my excellent solution (if I do say so myself) along with the bill of materials from McMaster-Carr. It's like $15 worth of hardware to solve the head clamping issue for good. I didn't use levers because I keep a socket with a 10" breaker bar in the machine's tray on permanent head bolt duty. The key is big, spherical, and snug!
 
I don't have one of these but I have seen them and have followed a lot of discussions about them. The plus is they are a pretty good size mill for the price, bigger than most bench mills. The bad as mentioned is mostly an issue of convenience / production speed if you have to alter the head height.

Like many of the import machines it seems like there are a million mods documented to improve them, and several people have come up with ways to make re-aligning the head after changing height easier.

The price seems good for what you are getting, and you should have no problem getting your money back if you later decide to get that PM-30 or other mill.
 
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