Long Chang LC-30A mill resto

My mistake. I thought that two were locking but none are locking. It doesn't move in use. But then it is a manual machine. No auto feeds. So I am always turning one of the hand cranks. That must be enough to keep in from moving.
 
We've had several of this kind of units where I work in small satellite shop areas. I've been surprised to see most of them seem to hold up pretty well & keep pretty decent accuracy, even with some of the heavy handed Knuckle-Draggers they turn loose on them! Yours looks to be in much better shape than a lot I've seen with a few years on them.
Don't take it too far apart, sometimes those rabbit holes go lots deeper than you want to go. Start with some cleanup & inspection, maybe some paint & lube & see how she works!
 
Joeman77 said:
Don't take it too far apart, sometimes those rabbit holes go lots deeper than you want to go. Start with some cleanup & inspection, maybe some paint & lube & see how she works!
Click to expand...
+1 ! There are some great blogs on the similar machines like Rick Sparber's site. It's very cool yours has the metal guards over the Y lead screw. With mine there was a rubber sheet on the back side between the mast base and the table base and the previous owner didn't think he had to replace it when it died :( There was a TON of swarf in there as 75% of everything goes back there. i hope your table has a hole in the bottom to be able adjust the Y split nut. Pulling and cleaning and lubing the lead screws and nuts along with the table ways made a huge difference in my RF30.

Personally after you do that and some cleaning up you are going to have your hands full tramming in the head again. Everything is magnified because of the distance between the head and the mast base. Rick Sparber also has an interesting blog on that too. While an engine hoist is not perfect because of the legs sticking out in front it has been a godsend for my use in pulling the head off my RF30 and for lifting the whole thing on and off my table. I'd like a overhead but being a garage shop don't have the overhead clearance or the space. The hoist folds up and has done everything plus some.
 
Thanks @C-Bag I will say that Rick's treatises on tramming are a bit daunting. It sounds as though tramming a mill/drill is many times more difficult than a regular mill. So more distance between the column base and the spindle centre magnifies the fore and aft tram?
I'm trying to wrap my head around this as dig in.
 
DavidR8 said:
Thanks @C-Bag I will say that Rick's treatises on tramming are a bit daunting. It sounds as though tramming a mill/drill is many times more difficult than a regular mill. So more distance between the column base and the spindle centre magnifies the fore and aft tram?
I'm trying to wrap my head around this as dig in.
Click to expand...
Yup, I knew it looked hard just looking at the weight and the fact that unlike a knee mill you can't just loosen some adjusters and get 'er done. But when you start contemplating the distances involved and how microscopic changes in the base are magnified.......scary. I'm totally a deer in the headlights with the thought of that wabbit hole. Have you checked Stephan Gottswinter's YT on his tackling of this subject on his RF 45 clone? That's in one way the best way possible and the most detailed and daunting way to tackle it. Usual Stephan G. The guy blows my mind. That's not a wabbit hole, it's more like a crater!

The guy before me also messed with the column on mine and I've purposely avoided going there as I knew I needed more time and use under my belt before I jumped into the deep end. For me I like to tackle a known problem after I use something so I can know if it's my inexperience or the machine at fault. YMMV.
 
Thanks @C-Bag, its good to know that I'm not the only one who is daunted by the depth of this subject.
My situation is likely much like yours, I've never turned on a mill let alone used one so I have zero experience.

Thanks for the reference to Stephan Gottswinter, I completely forgot that he has an RF mill. I'll check out his video.
 
My column was shimmed so when I re-assemble it I'll replace the shims as they were originally located and see how it turns out.
 
I watched the Stefan Gotteswinter video and I'm bit perplexed.
What I took away from the video is that he raised the column up, placed four pieces of annealed copper wire in the corners, squeezed in metal epoxy to fill the gap and then tightened down the column till he achieved "perfect" tram.
I assume that the copper wire was squeezed and became the 'shims'.

I don't know if anyone else has watched the video and can confirm my impressions.
 
Last edited:
Yup, that's pretty much what he did. Have to get it right the first time because if the epoxy bed is not exactly where you need it, trying to tram the column after that is going to be a bear.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top