Wheels under a mill drill?

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Lewayne
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Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2019 4:02 pm

Wheels under a mill drill?

Post by Lewayne »

So, I bought a round column mill drill with the geared head. (A Rong Fu 40 I suppose)

I know what everybody thinks and I've weighed it all out for my personal use and expectations. It's probably a better machine then I am a machinist anyway. I found it locally and cheap, as it has a lot of rust and grime. (so no shipping) Not abused as much as seriously neglected. build in 2003. Its been sitting in a damp environment for years unused. Of course all of Houston is a damp environment.

I'll disassemble it and clean everything and get rid of all the rust, re-lube. I'm OK with that. I'll probably paint it again as well. It'll look new when I'm through, and work again. It runs fine now though.

My question is, I want to weld up a steel stand and put drawers in it. I saw a cool stand in a photo and it had feet sticking out from each corner, a couple inches, with a steel wheel under them. Any thoughts on putting the machine on wheels like that? does that cause issues? I guess it should still have levelers to lock it down in place until one wanted to move it. Just not sure if wheels, at all, is a good idea.

One other thing, and I don't know if I would do this soon, but has anyone ordered one of those Tru-Line-8 guide rails for correcting the head movement and re-alignment issues?
jcfx
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Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 1:24 pm
Location: NY

Re: Wheels under a mill drill?

Post by jcfx »

Congrats on the mill purchase, I'm sure you'll find a myriad of things to do with it.

Build the stand to suit your workshop space considerations and work methods, better that the wheels are only used for moving rather than
actual footing, you'll get rocking if you manually crank the table axis' depending on how enthusiastic you turn the cranks.
I'm not a fan of 'wings " on any kind of stand I find I'm always glancing it with my foot as I move around the shop.
The stand that I had welded for my mill has wheels on it, but just for moving, there are leveler feet that it will ultimately stand on.

I had to look up what a Tru-Line-8 guide rails were, looking at the video I found it seems to me you'd be better off spending money
on tooling than on that widget, there was still movement of the head of the head with it installed.
spro
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Re: Wheels under a mill drill?

Post by spro »

A nice heavy metal cabinet with drawers or incorporated into a strong stand is good. It balances the heavy mill head because many heavy items are stored there. Since the Mill/Drill doesn't have a knee, everything is related to the head /table alignment. Lasers/ pointers help but should be hacked so are operated remotely. The older method was to place a conical insert into the chuck/ collet and find center to previous hole but that all changes while tightening the head.
Tom1948
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Re: Wheels under a mill drill?

Post by Tom1948 »

I havea PM 727 mill and cabinet combination. I mounted mine on a Grizzly adjustable frame with casters. Once in place you lock it down and it is very solid. The device has a larger footprint than just the cabinet so i feel it is even more stable.
spro
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Re: Wheels under a mill drill?

Post by spro »

Right on. !
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Dave_C
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Re: Wheels under a mill drill?

Post by Dave_C »

I mounted mine on a Grizzly adjustable frame with casters
I did this as well on my small Grizzly G3103 Mill. Very solid, easy to move when I want to move it.

Putting the 1,000 lb. mill on this base was a bit of a chore for on old man. Lots of cribbing, jacks and the like. Slid the base under the mill, made it fit and let it down.

Next move will be when someone buys the mill and takes it somewhere else.

After a triple by-pass and now 10 stints since the by-pass, I'm just about ready to sell everything and just do some traveling while I still can.

Dave C.
I learn something new every day! Problem is I forget two.
spro
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Re: Wheels under a mill drill?

Post by spro »

Please. Dear Dave C. It isn't that cold in here but I'm wearing full outdoor gear. It wasn't for you, man. You can leave but keep in touch with us.
spro
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Re: Wheels under a mill drill?

Post by spro »

As a side note. I found a really good base for my basement mill/drill. All I needed to do was cut the front to accept the bearing slides and drawers The base was from some earlier, long gone tech but resembled the Unisaw base. I couldn't have even that in my back yard. Between gates and fences I could not get that proper base. It would have been hauled away at a serious cost. So I had the cast legs of a traverse shaper and assembled them to heavy plate, to which bolted the m/d. They will be reunited at some point.
It is certainly stable but the downside is there isn't any room for drawers. The upside is as been posted; A base which holds heavy tooling by serious drawers.
spro
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Re: Wheels under a mill drill?

Post by spro »

Aye then, harmonics. Not rattle!
whateg0
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Re: Wheels under a mill drill?

Post by whateg0 »

I built a tube steel frame/stand for my mill that sounds like the HF version of what you have. It has served me fine, even on the casters with no other feet. I did have to put a small shim under one to stop rocking and also tilted it rearward very slightly, else the drawers would open on their own occasionally. I built mine about 2' wide, which is slightly wider than the base of the mill/drill. A friend has a square column Industrial Hobbies machine that he's converted to CNC but is otherwise similar. His has a longer table than mine does, but his stand is only as wide as the base of the mill and he has no trouble with it tipping. I think one would have to lean on the table at one extreme or the other to overcome the weight of the machine, but I still prefer to err on the side of caution.

Dave
AllenH59
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Re: Wheels under a mill drill?

Post by AllenH59 »

My mill is still sitting on the pallet 10 years later. not the best but it works fine.
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