I have had a bit of the upgrade bug lately. I started building my CNC router table some time ago and I wanted to be able to do most of the work myself so I bought a RF-30 mill/drill. It is a vary nice drill press and a OK mill but I wanted something a bit larger.

So with a little online shopping I ordered a Industrial Hobbies bed mill

This a much larger machine that the RF-30 or even the larger RF-45 square column mill. It come in at about 1,000 LBS

They sell the unit three different ways, the base unit , the DRO "digital read out" and the full CNC version. I got the base mill with the thought that it would be a good mill to upgrade to CNC at some point.

Like a lot of machine tools (Try finding any info on my Hembrug AI lathe, not a single picture on the net!) there is not all that much good detailed information on how well the units perform against a standard baseline. The RF-30 mill I have is not a clone but a true Rong Fu made in Taiwan where the IH mill is 100% a China part. I will be comparing the two in every way I can.

To get going I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures.

I had to get the thing out of the truck.

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I made some straps and use two cheep wenches to pull the load. I made them a bit short , they hit the table so I added a small piece of strap.

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I do have a supper strong dolly, we all we thinking it would crush but is is a nice made in the USA unit and did just fine. The handle was too heavy to lift so I bolted the floor jack to it. After that it was easy to move.

The table was too wide to go through the door so I removed it. It has to be all of 250 Lbs.

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I had made a nice wood table for the RF-30 mill but for this one I decided to go for steel. I still cant decide what is better. The wood table has some extra room to set things on which seams nice but when you cut metal soon it is just another place for chips to gather. Perhaps the saying " Let the chips fall where they may" has a lot of truth to it. Some 2" x 2" 3/16 tube and some welding and I had a frame.

I made it a bit taller so I would not have to bend over so much to see the work.


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The single 1" cross support is not near strong enough, I will need to add some more struts later.

I had to lift the mill onto the table in my shop. This is a bit of a problem with the room being rather low. I used two hoist and let the column go on one side of the hoist frame the the motor on the other.

On the way up.

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Man, that thing is looking sweet! That is the mill I want too, I also plan to buy the manual version and CNC it myself*, perhaps we can collaborate? If you get me drawings/dimensions I would love to help you get some motor/screw/nut mounts designed in CAD.

* Unless I decide the $4000 for the IH kit is actually worth it, but as it stands it seems like it could be replicated for ~$2500 to $3000.

I imagine you've seen this site already, but if not check out CNC Cookbook. The guy has an earlier version (I think) of the same mill and has done a bunch of modifications.

Arizona,

Where did you buy the new mill? What was the cost if you don't mind.



G.

IH sells online, they charge $2400 + Shipping. They are on the east cost so It cost me the max of $600 so $3K



It is not the most accurate mill but it is vary rigid.

Thanks


I guess for that money I am going to look for a used Cinci...

G.

I might do the same thing in the long run. I'm already at 90% the size of a Bridgeport I will have to see how much I use it and if I want to CNC it. There is lots of good used showing up lately...

[quote name='arizonavideo' date='Apr 22 2009, 09:06 PM' post='
(Try finding any info on my Hembrug AI lathe, not a single picture on the net!) [/quote]

Not even on lathes.co.uk? Is this the same Hembrug you're interested in?

http://www.lathes.co.uk/hembrug/

I have been to that site. Ok but no info on the exact lathe that I bought.

It looks like this.

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This one has no leadscrews so it would need CNC before you could thread.. but I'm getting OT.

Feel free to stop by with your forklift anyday

So how's your IH mill working out. I would be very interested in your evaluation of the machine. I'm looking for a mid sized mill and this IH is one of the options I have been looking at.

By the way, nice table. You might consider puting an encloser around it to funnel chips into a bin for clean up. A plexiglass front sliding door could also be designed to give you access to the machine. I guess it depends on space. Most enclosures are too large for your average 2 car garage setup.

Anyway, good luck and post some pictures.

If you use the 3" face mill at high speed on some AL it will throw chips in about a 6' area, covering the whole shop. I may rig some kind of cuttian to stop the chips from filling up the tool box and covering the workbench.

Right now I'm wiring the shop with 220V and three Phase for the new tools. I have one too many pieces of equipment to fit right so something needs to go but I have not decided which one.

I still need to make room room for the CNC router which is done! I'm ready for the first chips but I don't want to run it in the back room because of the mess.


The IH mill is a good strong mill for it's size but the manual model has the slow motor which is too slow for small bits in AL. The quill is not a great fit so needs to be locked most of the time. I just need to use it more before I can say much more about it.