Hello all,

I am currently working on converting an ENCO RF45 clone that I purchased in the fall of 2013. I am pretty much following in others footsteps but I am doing a few things differently so I though I would document my endeavors here in the hopes it might be of value to someone.

First, a quick history. I purchased the mill when I was a freshman studying Mechanical Engineering Tech at Southern Poly. I used the mill for several projects during the spring of 14 but a defective spindle motor made it less than reliable so I mostly used the school’s equipment during that time.

During the summer of 14, while waiting on replacement motors, I took the opportunity to completely tear down and rebuild the mill. I replaced all the bearings, added oil groves to the ways, repositioned some of the gears in the head to reduce noise, and stripped to iron, filled and repainted.

Overall I was very impressed with the quality of the machine; the castings were crisp and sound, the fit and finish excellent. I think it is a step above the IH or Charter oak machines in term of quality, though it is a little smaller. ENCO’s customer service was excellent and we did eventually get the motor problem worked out. It turned out that I was one of the first few to purchase that particular mill model from ENCO, and while the motor was a good quality American made unit the capacitors were not sized correctly which caused the centrifugal switch contacts to fuse together. After sending me 5 motors with small caps they finally got the right size and it has run fine since.

After the rebuild I used the mill extensively for school related projects and for making and repairing equipment for the school’s Nuclear Lab which I manage. Several of these project required some complex parts and made me think more seriously about converting the mill to CNC. Finally this past summer I made some time between grading assignments, running the lab and doing homework to begin working on the design for the CNC conversion. I completed most of the design work and was able to order the axis motors and ball screws before the fall semester started.

I had to use the mill much of the Fall semester so could not make much headway on the conversion until recently, when I graduated. I now have a little more time to work on the conversion and to document it here.

I have complete CAD model and drawings of the conversion that I will be posting soon for your criticism.

I’ll get into the CNC part in the next post, but it is late so for now here are some "historical" pictures of the mill.


Fresh off the Truck (My sister does not look to happy about my new toy!)


Nice Castings and Shiny New Paint


Current State

Also, here is an album with a bunch of pictures during the rebuild. Hope you all like pictures!
https://goo.gl/photos/zY3e6AjbmZQdVFW67

More to come. Thanks for looking!

Kurt

P.S. This is my second time posting anything, anywhere. Hope it works.