[hoss2006]

The following will just catch this thread up to what I started in my other thread.

11/26/2009.
I've decided to get a big mill to handle some heavy duty milling jobs in steel. An X3 would not be much of an upgrade over the X2, it's still light duty at best when it comes to steel cutting. I don't have room in my basement shop for a kneemill or I would have bought one of the used ones from work years ago. The Rong Fu-45 is the next best thing to a kneemill. There are many clones made out there sold by many companies, I'll provide an Excel page that lists the 10 that I looked at.
The Industrial Hobbies mill is the king with much more X and Y travels than the standard RF-45 but the cost is about $1000 more. Don't think I can justify that much more money for travels I don't really need. The IH has about 30 in. X and 12 in. Y versus 22 in. X and 8 in. Y for the RF-45's.
Bet I could massage a little more out of them anyhow. There is an IH clone at Machine Tool Warehouse in Canada for about $400 less but with extra shipping costs it may be near the same,
I have an email sent for shipping costs. I want it delivered before Xmas since I have 2 weeks off to play around with it so that may change my choice. My first choice was the ZAY7045FG from Lathemaster.com but it seems thay won't have any in stock till Feb. '10, dealbreaker. A couple others have the basic mill at a similar price ($1500-1600). I'm leaning toward the Grizzly G0484 right now, It costs more but comes with a stand, X axis power feed, powered Z and a work light.
Add my Shumatech DRO and it will be ready to go, I have no plan to CNC it anytime soon.
Should know more in a week or so.
Hoss

[hoss2006]

12/05/2009
Settled on the RF-45 clone from Wholesale Tool, they call it a ZX45. Used NEWCUS for the coupon code and saved $74.75. I don't have semi access to my front door so I had to pay extra for a small truck with lift gate service, Total cost is $1727. Could have saved $150 if I went to pick it up at the terminal but the PITA factor is much less with it just being dropped in my driveway.
I picked up a hoist for my truck so that I can separate the mill into big hunks and swing them into the bed to haul around to the back of the house to the basement door. Wholesale Tool also had a stand on sale so I picked it up, I should more than enough clearance for the Z with it, I have 85 inches to the rafters and 93 inches to the ceiling in between for the motor to pass.
Discount Machine on Ebay has a real nice 6 inch vise for $104, I ordered it because it has flat sides so that I could mount it on it's side and clamp tall pieces of stock more sturdy.
Hoss

[hoss2006]

From the website today.
12/13/2009
The mill arrived on Thursday 12/10/09 by a Lift Gate Service. Some "little" truck they sent, still a 28 foot semi. Hope the neighbors on their ways to work weren't too mad he had the road blocked off. Oh well. The driver actually wanted to deliver it late the night before but I was at work, he took it home with him and dropped it off on his way back to work Thurs morning, pretty cool. It's been covered with a tarp since then plus the crate was wrapped in plastic. Was a drizzly day but I couldn't wait, had to pop it open and check it out. Looks like I'll be able to take the head off pretty easy, then it's just the column and the base with the table. 3 big chunks the bed crane should be able to handle. I didn't want to drill holes in my bed liner to mount the crane in the bed, so I bolted it to the bumper instead. The frame bolts right to the steel bumper and I added a brace underneath so that the weight is handled by the frame. Should be good enough for 250 lbs. I'll have to make an allen wrench big enough for the no doubt metric column allen bolts. Came with a nice little vice,
well nice enough for my drill press anyway.
Hoss

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBJdixLbuwk"]YouTube- Wholesale Tool ZX45 Uncrated[/ame]

[Crevice Reamer]

Hi Hoss!

That is a very nice looking mill. The adventure begins. I wish you a smooth transfer from there into the shop. Looking forward to hearing about all of your uses of it.

CR.

[QSPSB]

Wow Hoss that's a very nice looking mill there.. I can only imagine what the mill will look like in say 2 yrs from now... I'm willing to bet your going CNC this beast as well.

[whitehedr]

Super Dude...... I can't wait 'til the video of it going into the shop.

I am very excited for you.


RWW

[hoss2006]

It's on the truck!
Only 2 big pieces too. the head and all the rest.
Used my chain hoist along with the bed crane to gently tilt the mill
back onto the bed of the truck. Went back and forth between the 2
and it slowly slid up the board and into the truck.
Nice and easy.
May have nicked the paint a little.
Pulling it off the truck should be no big deal, I have several overhead beams the
chain hoist can hook onto.
That'll be after supper.
Got to 48 degrees today so I can't complain.
Hoss

[Starleper1]

And the fun begins. Bout time you get a thread going.

I'm really starting to get the fever for a bigger better faster machine.

[pete from TN]

Again, congrats on the new mill. Looks pretty nice.

As far as moving the mill I have moved this mill many times and I have always had good luck using a 10000lb ratchet strap underneath the base and up and around the millhead. Then I take another strap and wrap it around the column to hold the other strap close in and put it near the top. Then I take another strap and go underneath again and thru the top strap to use as a safety. This all has been lifted with the engine crane at the closest in ram position. It is pretty safe this way and my old stand was rather tall so I had to lift it kinda high. You can also lift the machine up and with this setup the mill stays kinda upright so you only have to lift slightly on the front by hand to level it and then slowly lower it down onto the base stand. The last time I did this I actually used a large come-a-long and attatched it to a beam in the ceiling and used a large steel square tubing to span several beams for strength. Then I lifted the machine to the needed height and down onto the stand. The machine is pretty darn heavy but not really all that bad. I usually do not remove the head to move it as it kinda balances the column vertically a bit. Good luck and BE CAREFUL..... peace

Pete

[hoss2006]

It's in da house!
Been a long day but the hard stuff is done.
Should have seen if my dad was free to lend a hand now looking back.
Too late, now the fun can begin.
Hoss

[whitehedr]

You did that by yourself? (chair)


RWW

[Jeff Davis]

Waiting to see how you are gonna do the Z, you always seem to come up with innovative designs !


Jeff

[hoss2006]

Yep RWW, all by me lonesome.
Yeah Jeff, the tilt head could make an interesting 5th axis option.
Too tired to gab more, can't wait to go back to work tomorrow so I can get some rest.
Hoss

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqPHqKBzzWs"]YouTube- ZX45 Moving Day[/ame]

[BobWarfield]

Woohoo! Big mill in da Hoss's Howse!

FWIW, the mill head is the tough piece to move around, and that's on my 2 IH mills. My brother and I never had a problem with everything else. When it came time to deal with the darned head, that was always really painful, and we were never really happy unless we had a 3rd person around.

It sits too high to use an engine hoist conveniently, and it is just flat awkward to get mated back to the base. A chain hoist would be ideal, at which point it ought to be very manageable for one person.

I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised by how it performs in comparison to most knee mills. I've run mine up against a friend's pristine Bridgeport that he bought new, and as far as we can tell, no real advantage to the Bridgie in terms of performance. Lots of advantage to a bed mill versus a knee mill for CNC.

Cheers,

BW

[hoss2006]

I took a couple measurements at work last week out of curiosity
on our smaller series 1 bridgeports, it's table is 3 inches longer than the
ZX45's but a 1/2 inch narrower. I should feel right at home.
The smaller shop hoist I plannned to build to assemble it might not get built for a while,
seems HF is backordered I guess, I'll engineer SOMETHING to get it together during Xmas break.
Time to break out the Arc welder.
Hoss

[skip20]

Looking good, Great Christmas Gift.
Haven't been on for a long time.
It's cold outside so I guess it's CNC Time inside.

Skip20

[bill south]

Hoss;
Do you have an engine hoist in the shop? Greatest purchase I ever made. I've move my ZAY a few times and taken off the head many times trying to get the slop out. Heck, I moved my bridgeport from the garage to my shop about 50 feet behind the house. Of course, the hoist just put the parts (4 bigguns - head, knee, base and table) on a trailer and we moved the bridgie and hoist to the back and reversed operations. That little tail gate hoist is cute but an engine hoist can be magic. Also folds out of the way when not in use and can be had for less than a buck fifty.
Congrats on the new mill. I'm sure it will never be Cnc's. Yeah, right!
Take Care.
Bill

[CROSSHATCH]

Nice! Looking forward to this.

[rowbare]

So have you measured it for ballscrews yet? You know you wanna! ;-)

[hoss2006]

I saw an engine crane on sale at HF but don't have enough room for it.
I think I'll use a lally column under the floor joist right next to the stand
and lift the mill then slide the stand under it.
Put a hole in the joist at the top and ran a strap thru to clip the chain hoist to,
it held just fine near the doorway.
The I-beam and lally will be more insurance, hope I don't have termites.
Hoss