[rwskinner]

I pulled the trigger on a real RongFu RF-45 3 phase. I could not find the 3 phase with Power quil feed and it will eventually end up CNC anyways.

Anything on the RF45 to look out for or common tweaks? I see lots of info on the clones but not much on the originals.

Richard

[MUDSUX]

If you don't mind me asking where did you order it from? Thanks

[pete from TN]

I am sure you will be happy with it. With the three phase motor already on it, it is gonna be a simple vector drive to full spindle control when you go cnc. I used to have A real Rong FU RF31 and while it was a nice machine I do not see what all the hubub is about when compared to the RF45 Lathemaster clone I have here. Both had kinda crummy paint jobs and the typical chinese issues... Not to bring you down or anything but some places ask a serious premium for the REAL rong fu machines and from what I have seen they are not better enough to be bragging about. The RF45 size machines as I have said many times are about the smallest mills capable of some real work... I mean cutting steel and decent feeds and speeds due to the size and weight of them. I have enjoyed owning mine and it is now CNC with a belt driven spindle and runs most of the day making me some side money. I wish I had the money when I bought it and had known of the IH machines as I would have bought one of those simply for the larger travels. Now I am just trying to get the most from my little mill and wait planning on a much larger machine down the road.

As far as issues, again the typical chinese stuff. Check your gibs carefully and make sure everything is adjusted. IF you intend to go CNC there is a good read on the IH website( or at least there was) about lapping in the ways to make it nice and smooth. My machine actually had a problem with the Z axis gib in that you would adjust the screw down and it would get snug making you think the gib was snugged down when in fact it was that the hole the adjusting screw went into was too shallow for the screw and it had a taper to it so it always felt like it was adjusted properly. It was not until I tore the machine down and really got a look at the Z slide that I realized what had been going on. You might also look at flushing the head out to make sure there is not any crap or sand in the head from the casting process. Mine was pretty clean but I would flush it and put in new grease just for good measure. Another annoyance was the fact the morons who did the paint job painted right over the seam between the column and base so when you go to adjust the tram you get a nice paint crack when you loosen the bolts unless you score the line carefully. IF you do a search for Thomas' rf45 CNC conversion you will see what I think is one of the best conversions or at least the most tidy. There are also some threads on here that show the RF45 machine had a rack and pinion on the millhead instead of a screw or something like that and when the guy did his conversion he had to remove all of that stuff and make his own custom mount for the head. Not a bad thing but more work...

In all these are some pretty nice and hearty little machines and I am sure you will be pleased with it. Good luck and be sure to post some pictures... peace

Pete

[rwskinner]

MudSux
Enco has them both on sale right now. I couldn't get my January free shipping code to work and the 10% off anything for 2 days did not work either.

They have a great deal on a single phase, power quill down feed setup but they won't have any until May. The 3 Phase was in stock and I planned on putting a VFD on it.


Pete
I looked hard at the IH Mill but I keep reading how much flex they had, and having to fill the base to get it more rigid. They actually have a decent price. The main reason I spent the extra grand is because everything I found showed that the clones had numerous issues like flex, leaks... and pretty much it looked like the Original RongFu had a much better fit and finish and fewer issues (plus 1 year warranty). I hope I didn't throw my money away !!! I have a SX3 which has totally bad machine work on the gibs and there is no amount of lapping that will fix it. I never have been able to get a really good finish without it chattering to heck.


General...
How much better is the sensorless vector VFD's versus the standard VFD. Do they actually provide that more low end torque and worth the extra hundred bucks? I run a Teco FM50 110v to 220 3p for my lathe and it does okay. I'm looking at the Automation Direct GS3 series vectorless drives right now. I like the modbus portion to. Comments?

Richard

[pete from TN]

I have not really heard any issues with flex in the IH any more than any of thes other RF45's. As far as leaks that is a common problem among many of these machines and it will drop a little gear oil from the head on your vise after you run it for awhile overnite. As I said before mine has a custom belt drive conversion on it and I do not have that problem anymore. The head of my machine is basically an empty shell now. Actually I have heard quite the opposite about the IH machines in that the guys who have them talk about them being bigger and stronger than the regular RF45's. I of course cannot tell you because I do not own one. I can tell you that while the travels of my mill are quite adequate, and I have made them even better, I could always use more real estate under the table. If I could get that table and base from the IH on my machine I would do it in a second even if it meant to have to buy another ballscrew. You can never have enough travels man....

As far as the quality, I hope you are right and the RF45 is great for you. I have seen quite a few real Rong FU machines and as I said they may be marginally better in a few areas, overall they do not justify the price difference to me. Some places advertise the RF45 mill with the stand alone for like just under $3k? It is a little much to sell a machine for nearly twice the asking price of the other mills out there even if the paint job is a little better... Again, I am not trying to bring you down here, I sincerely hope it is a great mill for you and that you build the MOTHER of all CNC rf45 builds on it so we can all watch and enjoy it. I know I love my machine and for its size and envelope it is quite capable and works great. Hell the thing is over ten years old now and I abused it for years before converting it to CNC and I am still running the stock spindle bearings at nearly three times the original speed. The thing just continues to please and I only paid like $1450.00 plus shipping for it back then. I would say I got my moneys worth and I am sure you will too... Good luck with it and peace

Pete

[rwskinner]

Pete,
Did you ever bring your pulley conversion to market or did it die?

Richard

[pete from TN]

I looked very seriously at making the belt drive conversion for sale, I took mine completely apart and had my friends at a local machine shop draw it all up and give me quotes for making small runs of them. I sourced all of the parts and figured out how much it would cost me to make them. I even contacted a couple guys who seemed to be interested in them. What it boils down to is that I think I would have to charge a little more for it than I think most people would want to pay for it. The number under $500.00 was thrown around on the forums here as an appropriate price and by the time I paid for all the machining, bought the bearings and other parts, all the hardware, and machined the head plates on my mill it started to sound like it was not gonna be worth while. I also did not seem to get the response I was hoping for on the forums for it. It is funny I was over at the machine shop my friends have here the other day to buy some more aluminum from them( I get a pretty good deal from them) and they asked me whatever happened to this project and I had to tell them that what I was hoping for just kinda fizzled out. It is a shame really because my belt drive has been working great for a long time now and I run it at like 6K all day long sometimes. If there was enough interest in them I am quite sure I could give the guys at the machine shop a call and have them whip some out but I would have to get some serious commitments from interested parties and probably get a down payment to help pay for the materials and machining labor. The other thing that kinda made me step back is the fact that a lot of people seemed to want different things for the front of the plate like provisions for a power drawbar etc....

I would love to make these as I think it is a great addition to this mill and makes it even more amazing with the CNC. My machine now cuts parts in minutes that would have taken much longer with the stock gear head let alone the noise it makes. The leaky gearboxes, the fizzing oil issues... it all goes away and you are left with smooth quiet speed..... NICE!! peace

Pete

[gd.marsh]

Yea, more 45's!

Great machines as far as size & power goes .. hope the genuine RF proves to be a real winner.
There's several conversions in progress on the zone right now that will supply you with different ideas & lots of help when you're trying to figure things out.
Just remember when you begin making mods .. WE WANT PICTURES!!!

Best of luck!

[pp7]

I got a ZX7045 (clone) from Enco and overall I've been very pleased. I think you'll enjoy your new machine.

[arizonavideo]

You don't need to thing about low speed power with any VFD you may find. the low range give you 100 RPM with a 1700 motor speed. If you slowed to 30 hz that's 50 RPM.

The high speed is what you will need and you will be lucky to get 4k from the motor so about 4k from the stock gear head.

[rwskinner]

The VFD (Automation Direct 2HP GS-3) showed up and the RF45 showed up today and I just got it unboxed and assembled. They shipped Friday and it was here today so that wasn't bad at all.

I hadn't had much time to go over it in detail but My initial impressions...

No shipping damage, motor and fan look fine considering it shipped in a cardboard box stapled to a pallet !

Really, $1000 more than the clones and they send plastic handles. Hummm, these proabably won't last long. Hopefully they last long enough until I go CNC.

So far, the castings, fit, finish look good. Tables move with ease, looks like the x and y have lots of gib adjustment, Z gib is flush so I'm not sure how much adjustment is left.

The ways "appear" to be finished nicely. I find out more later. My SX3 looked okay until I started putting blue in it and checking it. The Z on it will have to be re-machined if I ever need to use the top several inches. Dovetail is WAY off on it.

Z moves up and down easy with no jumping. My Z Nut is about 6" long. Actually it's not a nut, but a stand for the rack. It appears to be straight and mating good so we will see once it's cleaned up and adjusted.

Z Column, hopefully this massive column does have that much resonance in it once the machine is mounted. I hit the top of the column with the palm of my hand and it sits there and vibrates for a couple of seconds. I did not feel the vibration in the base or the lower part of the column. Scary.

I seriously misread the specs, I saw 1970 RPM in high gear but I did not see the part that states "if you have a 2 pole motor" and only 1500 if you have the 4P motor that came with it. Wow.

Hopefully the Automation Direct GS3 Vector Drive (0.1 to 400 hz) will spin it up okay. If the motor fries it fries but I will run it hard. I should be able to get 3000 to 3600 out of it without too many issues.

I'll be building the stand over the next couple of days but it will be slow. South Texas and we're suppose to be in the teens, un heard of here. Our high is in the low 30's for the rest of the week. My un-insulated shop was 40 degree's tonight with a 150,000 BTU heater running wide open. We will see.

Hopefully, by the weekend, I will have it torn down. cleaned up, and on the bench and wired up.

Wish me luck.
Richard

[MUDSUX]

Please post some pics! I just ordered the PM-45M from Precision Matthews. Couldn't afford a real RF45. Still wondering if I made the right choice.

[pete from TN]

Sounds like a nice machine. So it sounds like yours also has the rack head setup. That is fine for a manual mill but you will have to gut that part for CNC eventually. I dunno if you have seen this but check out this link....

RF-45 Dovetail Mill - ImageEvent

This is an RF45 machine and you can see what he did to it. He did an EXCELLENT job on that mill and I used a lot of his ideas for my own machine. You can search my build thread here on the benchtop forum. It is called " Finally getting started" Peace

Pete

[rwskinner]

We are having "Rolling Blackouts". The power company is overloaded and they are cutting power on a schedule sort of. It was 1 hour on then 20 minutes off. Later it was 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off.

I pretty much gave up on trying cut anymore material on the 4x6 saw because it was taking too long. I broke out the plasma and I get a little done here and there. The quick shutdowns weren't doing it any good so now I'm using the Oxy-Act torch.

I'm running lower on material than I thought so the base itself will be 32" Wide by 32" deep. Later I can skab on a drain pan with som 1-1/2 tubing and plate.

I have the 4 of the 4x4x.188" legs done (I was out of 1/4 wall) and I cut the 2x6 rect. tubing and I have it standing. 4 legs and 4 cross beams. I'm about to start on the 45 degree corner plates and the lower leg braces.

The 1" thick plate was not big enough so I'm out of luck there. I'll still probably have enough for directly under the mill (16"w x 28"d) and the rest can be 1/4" plate.

I'm putting two of the 2"x6"x 1/4" vertical under the mill mounting holes. I'll drill the holes all the way thru and weld a spacer in there so it can try and collapse the tubing when I tighten it. I helps keeping the bolts from working loose as well. I'll let the spacer stick up an 1" or so for coolant avoidance. I saw that in someone's stand and thought it was a good idea.

The Legs will be fill with ready mix concrete right before I weld the leveling plates on. I'll have some pipe so the adjusting studs for the feet have a nice hollow hole to be in with out messing with the cement.

I have some 4"x4"x 1/2" angle iron that I will mount rollers on. They will be welded outboard of the 4x4 legs for stability and the leveling studs will be directly under the legs.


Hopefully I can finidh up today and may sandblast it tomorrow. If I can't sandblast due to the freezing weather I'll just wire wheel it down.

Pictures in a day or two....

[jroberts1968]

Please post some pics! I just ordered the PM-45M from Precision Matthews. Couldn't afford a real RF45. Still wondering if I made the right choice.

I just received my PM45 from Precision Mathews. Have not hooked it up. We have been with rolling blackouts and some of the coldest weather I have experienced in 20 years. I have some pics though. I will be using it for my gun business. I also looked at the real RF45 but man that extra grand buys a lot of tooling.



Schnauzer on guard duty

[rwskinner]

Where are you located jroberts?

In in Victoria, TX. Cold as heck here, for S. Texas anyways.

Richard

[rwskinner]

That PM45 is a nice looking machine!!!

[jroberts1968]

Where are you located jroberts?

In in Victoria, TX. Cold as heck here, for S. Texas anyways.

Richard

Denton TX and yes every hour for 30 minutes at a time

[jroberts1968]

That PM45 is a nice looking machine!!!

Yes it looks and on inspection seems to be in excellent condition. Did not find any issues with castings or sand in any areas. I will go over it Sunday for a closer inspection and let you all know. I will say again Matt is a great guy to deal with and I plan on buying my 1127 lathe from him in a few months.....

[rwskinner]

I "used" to be your neighbor. I lived in Bridgeport for awhile. I froze my butt off there as well. Travel trailers are not designed for that type of weather, at least mine wasn't !!!

Good luck on the mill. I should have my stand finished this morning if we keep power. Insulated coveralls saved me yesterday or I would look like a pop sickle.

Richard