It seems I was wrong! Thankyou for those positive replies. As for a visit, Id love to, and when an opportunity arises Ill be in touch. Just as a bit of background, my dad bought us a Lin Haun lathe and a Rong Fu Milling machine I guess about 20 years ago. I brought them with me when I migrated to Australia and have been pottering around with them ever since.

The difficulty I have experienced is that I have more hobbies than time. Work does not help either. Tooling is slowly coming together, except when you buy a set of R8 collets for the mill and they dont fit! I suppose my mill is not an R8 after all. Ive learned most about machining from the model engineering books, but often the projects suggest 230M07 steel, which I cant seem to find.

At the moment Im cleaning out the mill and I think Ill replace the bearings although they have not seen much use. How do I keep my machine in tip top condition (ie nice and shiny steel surfaces) when its use is infrequent?

cheers
Paul