shifting a Rong Fu 30 mill - any traps/tips ?

[steamingbill]

Hello,

Am shifting a Rong Fu 30 mill tomorrow night.

Have got the help of an experienced fitter with a 900kg hydraulic arm in the back of the ute.

Thought I'd ask here if any tips or traps to look out for, or any previous threads web pages re shifting old mills.

Doesn't seem quite as scary as when I shifted the Hercus 9" 2 years ago and I know this is a trivial task compared to what most of you are used to doing.

Why did I get a round post mill ? Seemed nice and solid, has got 5" travel without needing to shift the head - heaps for me, have been scared off modern small mills by stories about plastic gears failing, and lotsa work needed to get them working properly and I need to buy first mill, any mill, and learn a bit before I know what I want for keeps.

And maybe I'll be as lucky with this as I was with the 9" Hercus.

Bill

Bill

[KBs PensNmore]

Hi Bill,
First thing that should be done is to secure the mill head by lowering it onto a block of wood, onto the table That way there is no strain on the mill heads gears/column.
Next step is the most important part.
Then once it's loaded onto the Ute, send it over the border to me, and I' ll slip another mill in its place, to send back to you.:D It's a good mill to learn on, the one I'm sending back, that is.:rolleyes: You'll get plenty of practice dismantling and assembling it.:oo:
Regards
Kryn
PS See you tomorrow night?????

[steamingbill]

Hi Bill,

PS See you tomorrow night?????

Ok Kryn,

Will send you a text when we are half an hour away and you can put the kettle on.

Block of wood has been selected. Thanks.

[welder]

Its easiest to put a sling through the colum of the machine and but either a bar or plate with a D ring welded to it so IT CANT SLIP and slide up the colum. Thats how I moved mine when I sold It and it lifted very level.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/tqsb6djAab9cZnoG-D2VYsZTYtwuOhcE5A7-eAfqlZ8=w468-h624-no

[Dingo Dog]

I lifted mine out the back of my 4x4 with a Kevrek half tonne hiab. Advice from the Herless rep before the lift was to ensure that the head was secured to the column tight. Used 2 slings that were made for my little hiab by SlingRig here in Perth. The slings went around the Mill head.

Once on the ground I picked it up and moved it onto its home made stand using one of those car engine cranes. I made a short extension to the crane jib, as the fully extended ram would not reach forward enough to place the Mill onto the stand squarely, to offset the extra length and fear that the engine crane may become unstable lifting it up onto the stand, I piled on 3 large besser blocks at front near where the jacking handle is located.

It all went very well.

DD

[steamingbill]

Its easiest to put a sling through the colum of the machine and but either a bar or plate with a D ring welded to it so IT CANT SLIP and slide up the colum. Thats how I moved mine when I sold It and it lifted very level.



Thats exactly how we did it, worked very well, thanks for the tip.

Had some slight problems - my friend's 900kg rated hydraulic arm was theoretically capable of lifting it into the back of the ute - but he took one look at the mill and decided that the crane wasn't mounted into the ute securely enough and that it would probably pull the arm out of its mountings.

Lucky he was alert to that problem - I certainly wasnt - I simply thought "Beauty ! 900kg rated gadget, no worries."

So we used the engine crane, lucky he had one for sale, the seller helped us an awful lot, and the chain attached as Welder advised above and job done.

Scored a lot of tools with it - boring head & bars, vices, box of end mills and slotcutters, couple of facecutters,
, ER32 collet chuck & collets ......................... and an engine crane.

Am absolutely chuffed - Learning to use this mill and the lathe should keep me occupied for years and years.

Gotta tidy the shed again - was a bit of a rush to create some space for it.

Sorry Kryn - didnt have enough petrol to get to the border - maybe next time.

There is a yahoo user group for these mills and manuals are available on the net in various places if anybody needs one, I think the basic machine has been rebadged and also maybe cloned by lots of different companies, this one has the Rong Fu made in Taiwan 1999 nameplate on it rather than Herless or Enco or H&F or Grizzly or whatever else is out there.

Bill

[KBs PensNmore]

Should have yelled out I'd have given $10 for fuel. :D Nice bit of gear you've got Bill. Enjoy:2tsup:
Kryn