Re: The RF-30 Mill/Drill

Hey Rick , did you realize this post was from 23 years ago ?

Hey, I started to respond to this. Don't pick on me because I had to search through 23 years of old posts to find something I felt I could add a relevant reply to. (I owned an HF RF30 for a few years.) I thought it was pretty mediocore to poor, but I did some actual work with it. I even ran it with a master holder so I could use my Kwik 200 tool holders with it. Talk about putting lipstick on a pig.

When I was shopping I read all the reviews - probably including yours and most certainly Rick's . I then shopped around and found the RF45 clone I now have . The stuff I do requires moving the head sometimes while in process , and I didn't want to dick around finding my zero after a move . The dovetail column is the biggest reason for my choice . The lipstick on my pig is the Shumatech 350 DRO (adequate but ...) and an X axis power feed . I have another* I'm considering mounting on the Y but I'm not sure it's worth the effort so ... * It was on the mill X and blew a couple of diodes so I replaced it , then repaired it when I had the time and inclination .

I had a CNCed RF45 class machine. The implementation was terrible, but the base machine looked OK. When I finally decided I needed a half decent manual milling in the shop last year I considered a Precision Mathews import in that class, but I finally decided since I was going to do a lease purchase (finance) I was going to get all the bells and whistles I wanted and something big enough to create really stupid setups and went with the South Bend SB1028F. So far I really like it for manual jobs, repairs, and an amazing number of second ops that are faster to just do manually than to program. I didn't pick the SB on reputation since it appears to be a Grizzly owned brand now. I picked it because it came with the most of what I wanted all in one package. I use it almost everyday in spite of having 5 CNC mills in the shop. For just a home or small farm shop I would certainly own an RF45. Heck, if one comes along at the right price I'll buy it anyway. LOL. I've got a buddy who has a similar PM machine, but slightly smaller and he is pretty happy with it making parts for sale on Ebay.

...I was going to get all the bells and whistles I wanted and something big enough to create really stupid setups and went with the South Bend SB1028F. ...

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I inherited an Enco version of the Grizzly G0731 in a consolidation of departmental model shops. It suffered from Enco quality, mainly in the small parts, but it was a size and style that I think would serve well in a home hobby shop. It was effectively a modernized version of my 1950's Clausing, which is very nice for small delicate work and capable of machining parts for a sawmill and log splitter. The Clausing at least disassembles into parts one person can carry down stairs.