# A new arrival in Arnold's shop



## arnoldb (Feb 25, 2010)

I've been saving up for quite a while now to buy a milling machine...

This one's been standing for sale for the last six months in a local shop; I've seriously joked with the shop owner that it was waiting for me. Well, I broke the bank, added some credit, re-negotiated pricing and discounts, and was finally able to bring it home today. As part of the package, I added a clamping kit, small vise, and a collet chuck set (that will arrive next week)







This is a nice biggish machine; 800 x 240mm table with 500mm X travel and 175mm Y travel with dovetail column. Spindle nose to table is 450mm max. There is some minor surface rust on the table top and on some other bare-metal surfaces, but all the slide ways are clean of rust, and looks like they have been scraped.

I'll make my own stand for it; I have a good amount of suitable heavy material on my scrap pile, and I can get a well-made and reasonably priced coolant tray locally.

More new machining skills to learn :big: :big:

Regards, Arnold


----------



## tel (Feb 25, 2010)

Nice one Arnold, you got a whole new learning curve in front of you now.


----------



## bearcar1 (Feb 25, 2010)

Say that is a handsome looking machine you got your hands on Arnold. You won't want to go to bed for weeks! :big: Glad to hear that you were able to 'negotiate' the cost down somewhat, even it it did include mowing the guys lawn for the next 20 years Rof} I for one can't wait to see what you're going to turn out with that bad boy. Shoot, I'm even excited, I better go back down to the shop and continue my PIA job for my friend project. (eight wheels/tires (two sets) for his 1930's vintage American Flyer trains.

Best regards

BC1
Jim


----------



## Maryak (Feb 25, 2010)

Arnold,

Good one. :bow: I hope you have many years of enjoyment from it.

Best Regards
Bob


----------



## CrewCab (Feb 25, 2010)

Good one mate ;D  ;D ............ you are going to have some serious fun now 8) plus a big tooling bill 

Enjoy, look forward to sharing your experiences 8)

CC


----------



## Deanofid (Feb 25, 2010)

Nice one, Arnold! I'll bet you'll really enjoy having separate machines for milling and turning. 

Dean


----------



## zeeprogrammer (Feb 25, 2010)

Congratulations Arnold. You're going to like having a mill.


----------



## deere_x475guy (Feb 25, 2010)

Arnold, I had one of those for 4 years. I am sure you will get a lot of use out of it.o.


----------



## cfellows (Feb 25, 2010)

Uh Oh, Arnold, your life is changed forever. You'll be scratching your head wondering how you ever got along without this dandy machine. And, there is no end to the number of parts and pieces you can buy for it.Congrats!

Chuck


----------



## GailInNM (Feb 25, 2010)

Congratulations Arnold.
It may not make you work any better for a while until you get used to having it, but it sure will make it a lot easier and faster.
Gail in NM


----------



## bentprop (Feb 25, 2010)

Good one,Arnold.I have the same machine,and it has served me well for about 5 years already.I made a power feed for the table,using a windscreen wiper motor,but that may be in for a bit of a revamp shortly.
Just as an aside,it may pay to give it a bit of a run in.Switch to the second low speed setting,and let it run for about an hour.Check that the motor doesn't get too hot.
Then drain the oil(the plug is in a quite awkward place on the back bottom of the "head".
Refill with iso 68,and you're ready to cut metal.


----------



## Twmaster (Feb 25, 2010)

What's the make and model number on that Arnold? I cannot quite read that info in your photo.


----------



## arnoldb (Feb 26, 2010)

Thank you Tel, I'm really looking forward to the new learning! - have to keep my brain cell occupied.

Thanks Jim, I managed to keep an open mind, even with the _very_ pretty young lady sitting behind the counter, but I draw the line at mowing lawns; I abhor garden work. Sounds like you're busy on an interesting PIA project 

Both Bobs  - Thanks; I intend to have this machine last me a very long time.

CC, thanks mate; the machine needs some TLC first, then I'll bore all the members with a new project ;D

Thanks Dean, and yes, I'm sure I'll love having the two separate machines for work. But I'm not putting the files away too far 

Zee, thank you; and yes, I'm pretty sure I'll like love it!

Chuck, thanks; like you said . With my budget blown, it will be a while before I can buy more tooling, so I'll just have to make things as I go along. Well... OK... I'll admit it :-[ - I actually LIKE making tooling as well 

Gail, thank you; you've hit it on the nail. you dialed that cut dead-on  I'm under no illusion that any amount of tooling will make for better results; it's all in the operator's hands and mindset. So a lot of learning for me!

Hans, thank you for the heads-up on the run-in. The oil level indicator does not show any oil in the gearbox; unless it's below level; I'll check today with a dip stick to see. If there's no oil in there, I'll first put in some cheap gearbox oil & let it run a while, then drain and flush and put in good oil. You're right about the drain plug being in an awkward place - I see a right mess coming up... Do you know how much oil it takes ? - I can't find any indication in the manual 

Mike, it's a Chinese machine with no name I can find. Model number is ZAY7045FG; looks like it is a clone of the Rong Fu RF 45 mill - Here is the South African distributed machine I have and here an Australian one

Regards, Arnold


----------



## Twmaster (Feb 26, 2010)

Thanks Arnold, Looks like I found your factory...

http://www.yuejian.com.cn/product.asp?id=411


----------



## Artie (Feb 26, 2010)

Hey Arnold, great stuff. Thats a different name but the same machine as I pilot. All round good thing! Although my gear train is a bit clunky, its a really good machine. The best mod I came up with was power feed on the x axis, although I spent 2 hours on it today and hardly used it.

Dro is next... it all costs unfortunately...

Combine it with the basic tooling and a RT and there will be no stopping you.

Cheers and enjoy...

Artie


----------



## SBWHART (Feb 26, 2010)

Nice buy Arnold 

The mill will be a great addition to your shop, and open up a whole range of machining opportunities.

Enjoy your mill and have fun.

Stew


----------



## ariz (Feb 27, 2010)

wow Arnold, very good choice on the mill!

I have a similar mill, the ZAY7025FG, smaller than yours, and I can assure you that they are great machines!

very happy for you, I wish you the best time in the shop with your new equipment


----------



## arnoldb (Mar 2, 2010)

Thanks for the link to the factory Mike 

Thanks Artie  - I'll be cobbling together an x-feed as well; once I've gotten a feel for the machine. As to an RT, I'll be cobbling together one of those as well; they are very expensive, and I have some material... And DRO..... In my dreams ;D - but one day!. Funny; this mill's gearbox is very quiet, but I've not run it under load yet, so that might change.

Stew, Thank you ;D - I'm sure I'll be having a LOT of fun!

Thanks for the feedback Ariz ;D - having seen what you can do with your mill gives me some more good feelings about having made a good choice of machine.

Well, my weekend was wasted spent behaving in a fashion more suited to someone half my age, i.e. partying, so I only started building the stand yesterday. 

I had a couple of industrial pallet shelving beams on my scrap pile, and figuring that as these were originally used to keep pallets full of milk and frozen chicken each weighing in excess of one ton stored, it would be suitable for the stand.
After lots of bandsawing and welding together, and a coat of a favourite blue shade of paint, the stand is finished. The paint should be dry enough tomorrow for me to put the mill on it:





I bought the clamping kit for the mill, but it found it's first use on the drill press; I drilled 16mm mounting holes for the mill in the stand frame before welding on the feet. Photo after the fact - just showing how the pieces of clamping kit was used on the drill press:





Just after I finished painting the stand, I received a phone call that the collet chuck has arrived. So I went and fetched it, and immediately saw that the draw-bar that came with the mill would not work for it. So I made a pit-stop for some 12mm high-tensile threaded rod. On getting home, I measured for and made up the draw-bar - here the top end of the draw bar and the chuck set:





I'd just like to point out that I got the high tensile threaded rod for the drawbar NOT because of a need for strength in tightening, but for the thread strength that would be needed for the light taps that would be needed after releasing it about one turn to tap out the chuck from the morse taper of the mill. As to tightening, I really don't think more than 1/8 of a turn with a spanner would be needed after firmly inserting the chuck in the spindle and hand-tightening the drawbar... I might be wrong though; if any members with experience of this can offer suggestions, I would be grateful.

Regards, Arnold


----------



## Omnimill (Mar 2, 2010)

Very nice Mill Arnold! Thm: Don't tell me how much it was, I'll only be sick.

Vic.


----------



## arnoldb (Mar 3, 2010)

Vic, Thanks ;D I won't tell then, except that you can get a quote in the UK where you live and nearly double that to get to what I had to pay here in Namibia 

This morning involved heavy lifting; fortunately it was fairly light work ;D :





Once the mill was on the stand, I could not resist trying it out... 
So I set up a very simple machining exercise, and went for it. Mill speed set to 720 rpm for the 12mm cutter, a bold depth of cut, and crank it and look at the chips coming off to see if my feed rate is OK. Worked a treat ! ;D
First cut made - and unfortunately no prizes to anybody that can guess what I'm making as first milling practice!:





If you guessed T-Nuts, you were spot on; I need some for mounting the vise... Not a pretty job by any means, but it should do for now:





The first disappointment with my purchase also happened. The machine is fine; the spindle runs at much less than 0.005 mm run-out according to my trusty Mitotoyo DI. The jacobs taper on MT4 to jacobs adapter runs at 0.01mm which is acceptable- sort of. But the 16mm drill chuck that came with it is a load of crap. First off, the key does not fit properly  and the run-out when chucking a known good bit of 12mm silver steel in it is 0.1mm !!  The silly chuck can also only go down to 3mm - that is Waaay too big, so I guess I'll be investing in a good 1-16mm Rohm chuck for the machine in a couple of months.... OUCH on the pocket but oh so worthwhile!

Regards, Arnold


----------



## Maryak (Mar 3, 2010)

Arnold,

I have to agree with you about some of the imported drill chucks. Don't know why but they seem to be one thing that lacks quality control and respectable accuracy.

A little tip about "T" nuts if I may. If you make them a little longer and offset the tapped hole close to one end you will, (I hope), find them more versatile as you can get up closer to the ends of the "T" slot with the hold down bolt. I find it especially useful with rotary tables and "T" slotted face plates.

Best Regards
Bob


----------



## Omnimill (Mar 4, 2010)

Nice job on the T nuts and agree about a decent German drill chuck. I bought a small Rohm but it's not as good as my second hand Albrecht: http://www.albrechtchucks.com/ :-X Oh, and nice job on the stand as well Arnold, I even like the colour!

Vic.


----------



## arnoldb (Mar 4, 2010)

Thank you Bob  - that's a great tip on the T Nuts. I'll be making more, so I'll definitely and blatantly plagiarize your suggestion ;D As to the chucks, I guess I'm lucky with my drill press then; it's chuck is actually very well made and accurate. The only thing that was not accurate on it was the MT2 to Jacobs adapter; I replaced that with a good one and now its fine... Just the reverse of the mill's problems then - they _just_ can't get it right :big:

Thanks Vic ;D. I've heard of the Albrechts ; I'll shop around and see if I can find one locally to check both pricing to compare with the Rohm. As to the stand colour, I have a lot of that colour in stock, as I love it too. Anything that needs painting and shouldn't be off-white, I slap that blue on :big: I'm pretty sure it will even find it's way onto a couple of engines in future!

This morning I noticed this bit of HRS lying around:






It looked just dandy for some machining practice, so I cleaned it up a bit in the lathe, ran a hole through the center and threaded it part-way for M12. Then into the mill it went, and after some machining it came out like this:




I shouldn't have run the hole all the way through though :

With some more holes drilled and tapped for M4, an arbor made from a bit of 16mm silver steel threaded M12 on one end, and 8mm square HSS blank toolbit introduced to the bench grinder and then the oilstone, a fly cutter for the mill was done:





I just had to try it out on a block of aluminium ;D:





Regards, Arnold


----------



## zeeprogrammer (Mar 4, 2010)

arnoldb  said:
			
		

> This morning I noticed this bit of HRS lying around:



 Rof}

I don't know why. I immediately got a picture of a of a bit of HRS (deer) in the headlights.


----------



## Artie (Mar 4, 2010)

Arnold that was the very first thinbg that I made on my machine as well. Dont they throw the chips all over? Damn mine makes a mess, though it could be just me.. ;D


----------



## arnoldb (Jun 6, 2011)

About 6 months ago, I started feeling like it would be nice to have a small lathe to accompany my Myford ML7.

I love the old girl (the ML7), she's done everything I've thrown at her - to the extent of even mild abuse; us newbies can be hard on machine tools. I'd like the ML7 to last me a very long time indeed, but using a machine will wear it, and regularly making small or even tiny parts close to the chuck is the worst for this.

There was a small 5x9 (or 6x9 or 5x10 or 6x10 ?? - well, 140x250 in mm) Chinese lathe standing in a shop here in Windhoek, and I visited a couple of times over many months to assess whether I would spend my money on it, and what it would need done to it to make it worthwhile to buy. From what I could see, a complete strip-down, new gibs all round and a lot of additional fettling to clean up poor workmanship and get rid of burrs - hence a lot of work. Finance was a consideration as well, and after a small windfall, I decided to go for it as I was sure I could do the mechanical modifications needed. When I got to the shop, it was gone  - sold a week earlier. No problem; they could order me another one at the same price... So I said "go for it" and forked over the money; in Namibia it's pay-up-front when ordering, unless you have a business and account.

Patience is a virtue... Today it was nearly two months down the line since ordering, and I received a call... "Your lathe's here - you can come and collect it. It's not red though; it's yellow". Well, for me it's to heck with the colour anyway; I'd prefer grey or light blue any time, but colours does not make a machine or machinist worth anything...

I brought this home:





And WHAT A PLEASANT SURPRISE!
According to the paper work, this one was built in March this year, and compared to the other older display lathe I wanted to buy, improved a hell of a lot. All the gibs are close fitting with none of the horrors I've seen in other posts, or indeed on the one I originally wanted to buy. In fact, this little machine somehow has a feeling of quality around it - I have not detected any burrs left on moving parts, and everything works smoothly, and that's even before I'm going to strip it down for a clean-up to remove the factory rust protectant and all of that and lubricate it properly. And it even has zero-able dials right through! 
Compared to my Chinese drill press and Milling machine, this lathe shows a vast improvement in build quality.

Its not all moonshine & roses though :big: - it has a very limited set of gearing for thread cutting - metric only and not a big range either. I'll make gear sets as I need them - or use the ML7 for screw cutting. Standard accessories only extends to a 3-jaw chuck with inner & outer jaws and a fixed tailstock center. I need a revolving tailstock center, 4-jaw chuck (go ahead and laugh, but a 4-jaw is indispensable IMHO), and a collet chuck. And a tailstock drill chuck - a hobby lathe is pretty much useless without one : - one of the reasons I bought this lathe is for drilling small holes in workpieces as the ML7 only gets up to about 800RPM and this 'un can do 3000 rpm according to specs.

Overall though, I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this "little" addition to my shop ;D

Regards, Arnold
Oh and, that spring-loaded "safety" chuck key that came with it is going to get a lesson in aerodynamics...


----------



## 1Kenny (Jun 6, 2011)

Nice one, Arnold. Its always handy to have a little lathe in the shop. 

Kenny


----------



## cfellows (Jun 6, 2011)

Nice looking little lathe, Arnold. You'll have a lot of fun with that. The bed and some of the other parts look almost like a Unimat 3.

Chuck


----------



## crab (Jun 7, 2011)

Great machines Arnold.I have a 9" southbend and a 6" atlas and use the atlas a lot more than the SB for small parts and set ups.I bought the atlas new in 1969 and have never been sorry I did.I still remember the thrill I got making that first cut.Bill


----------



## zeeprogrammer (Jul 17, 2011)

Help me out Arnold. Point me to the thread where you're making something with your new lathe!

crab...I just saw your sign-off. I am very honored.
I had to go back and review that part of my life. Thanks for that. Thanks so much. ;D


----------



## Blogwitch (Jul 17, 2011)

Arnold,

It is so nice to see you taking the next leap of faith up the model engineering ladder, you made great progress with your lathe and bench vice, and I am sure you will make every use of your new pieces of equipment.

If I could just make one suggestion for a next little project for your mill. Make yourself a vice backstop. You will find from the very start, it will be worth more than it's weight in gold, once you learn how to use it to it's full extent. I use mine almost every time I turn the mill on, not much nowadays, but when I did.

BTW, I notice that you didn't buy a standard collet chuck, but if you find you need a few extra collets that you don't possess, then Arc Euro do have a few odd ones that they have on very special offer. Go down the page a little, and if you measure your ones up and they are the same (which they should be) then at least if you do want some, they are there. The only other place that I know that sells them in sets (either metric or Imp.) are Chester UK. 

http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Clearance-Items

I used that type for many years before ER became market leaders. Now I don't use either, preferring spindle collets instead (they give a lot more throat room).

Keep up the good work


John


----------



## Ken I (Jul 17, 2011)

Arnold, congratulations on the new arrivals - looking good.

That lathe looks like a vast improvement on my Chinese "no name brand".

Your workrate puts me to shame before - I presume that's going to get worse.

Ken


----------



## arnoldb (Jul 17, 2011)

Thanks Gents 

A month+ down the line, and the little lathe cut its first metal today - at a whim, and to satisfy Carl . It still needs a proper stand and bolting down - I'm over my ears into projects at the moment, and my work life is interfering - I won't complain about that too much as I do need income :big:

Thanks John. I leant some invaluable lessons with just the lathe and the bench vise and drill press (oh, and a couple of files! ;D);  A vise backstop is high on my to-do list - as well as soft jaws for the mill vise - there's been many occasions where I needed it. Thank you for the link - in fact I took some of your earlier advice when I built the ER25 collet chuck for the lathe, and recently ordered more ER25 collets in the ranges I found most useful on the mill, as well as a bearing-based closer nut. I'll soon make a new collet chuck for the mill. The non-standard Chinese collet chuck really did it's job so far, but having been spoilt with the bearing closer nut on the lathe, I really want the ease-of-use from it. With my mill's MT4 spindle, spindle collets are a bit scarce, so I'll settle for making my own chuck  I also have a brand new set of ER11 collets and 2 closer nuts; I'm still thinking around all the variables and how to use the whole lot together in a "standardisation" of the shop... I have an idea that might be just junk - or might repay itself in the long term...

Ken, I was surprised at the level of improvement on the Chinese lathe - still need a bit of work, but compared to the one I was prepared to buy and what I received, a heck of an improvement. : Ordinary everyday graft puts a bit of a strain on my workrate at the moment... have to pay the bills first :big:

Regards, Arnold


----------

