Thread: Rf 40 cum mill advice again please

Hi Paul,
5 thou is a lot, did you check for burrs on the quill when you replaced the bearing? Also check to see if the bearing is seated squarely on the quill.

The angle lock vises are great, you can place the jaws on the out side, but no need to turn them around. The removable jaw makes cleaning easy though.

With the clamp kits I have no idea between the 2, I bought orange ones from them years ago.
With your sizing measure between the slot not the bottom. My HM52 only takes 14mm, so I would say your either takes that size or more than likely 12mm.

With coolant it up to you, I don't use coolant with carbide, but do with HSS. It's makes the cutters last much longer and to save money in the home shop this helps out a lot.

I still don't run coolant on my lathe, but the HSS sticks are cheap and can be re sharpened.

Dave

With precision bearings I feel for our size mills (HM35-HM52) they are not worth the money for the home shop.
I priced then up and they where around $800 for my mill (4 bearings) and when you look at the big picture we are running Chinese tooling and cutters etc which would probable have more run out than our bearings.

I would never discourage someone from installing them, but I don't think you would see any real difference on your mill. With a lathe it's different as the part is revolving.

Dave

Hi Paul,

5 thou seems like a lot, even for standard bearings. I replaced the cheap Chinese "precision" bearings in my mill with standard quality Japanese bearings. I concur with Dave, that for the home machinist, standard bearings are fine in the mill, especially a Chinese made mill. As for runout, I would have thought less than a thou?

Clamping kit sizing can be very confusing. My mill takes an M14 stud for a 16mm T slot. I can use M12 at a pinch but it means less take up area under the table which increases chances of damage if I accidentally over tighten Ideally I would have M14 size T nuts but with an M12 thread . My face plate and angle plate need an M12 so I have 2 sets, one of each size. They both come in very handy. At first when I purchased both sets I thought I was being extravagant but I have never regretted the extra purchase.

I have never used coolant, but I'm still wet behind the ears with this game and it's on my "to do" list to get coolant up and running, then I can decide if it's necessary for me.

Good luck Paul!

Simon

Hi Dave & Simon
The T-slots are 16mm the table is from a early Tiawanese mill probably branded a Herless. The Blue kit with 5/8 T/S and 1/2inch UNC studs is the one i'm looking at, I have used a m16 bolt and a 5/8 drill bit to size the slots both had clearance

I won't be buying precision bearings for it at that price but i will pull the quill out check the seating of the bearing like you said, I was thinking of trying to drill the Drawbar hole out to 16mm as i'm using M/T4 tooling, that should be a challenge. Old Mate at the local tooling shop here said if you still have runout after fitting precision bearings turn one 180deg. and it should help, maybe same applies to standard bearings.

I should make the coolant tray at least it will be there if i need it and would be a PIA to do later.

Thanks