Enco 3/8" Rong Fu Mill/Drill on sale

Lynn · 01-30-07, 03:58 PM

Sale Price: $1,079.95 ea, Save up to $579 w/Free Shipping (normal price $1,498.95) Promo code WBNRF7.

This sounds like a good deal if Rong Fu is halfway decent, but I am not sure about either.

Chris P. · 01-31-07, 01:32 PM

I have this exact same mill but sold by Grizzly. As far as I can tell they all use the same castings and parts. I think I paid around $800 about 5 years ago. I like it because it has a comparable size table and movement range as a common Bridgeport knee mill, but for far less cost. It is not, however, quite as well made in terms of backlash and adjustment and head perpendicularity to table. Realize that a big issue with a mill drill like this as opposed to a knee mill is that whereas with a knee mill you can raise and lower the table, you have to raise and lower the head of the mill/drill. This means you lose your "zero" because the head not only moves up and down but at the same time loosens up for sideways adjustment. You need to plan ahead for each chucking and take into account all the tools you will need so you can install / remove them and have enough vertical movement to clear and cut. Not a really big deal, just an annoyance. If you are not running a professional shop and just need to be able to make decent parts, I say go for it. Liike most mills, this one is supposedly easily retrofitable for CNC if you so choose in the future. In fact, a CNC version of the exact mill is sold, as is the retrofit kit.

Lynn · 01-31-07, 02:20 PM

If you click the pic, you'll see that they have 7 versions with power down feeds, cabinet/stands, 2 axis DRO and 3 axis DRO.

Aero, my assumption with most of these lower cost tools (a lot from China), is that they are probably good for the home hobbiest, but I wouldn't try to run a business with them. I wouldn't expect they would stand up to day in, day out constant use.

Lynn

Chris P. · 01-31-07, 06:10 PM

Lynn - I agree about not running a business with one of these. And I can't believe anyone would shell out that kind of money to put power downfeed and DRO on one of these. With my experience, these machines don't have the precision and repeatability to make a DRO useful past 2 decimal places. If you spend a good amount of time tweaking the table and the head before using it (and spend a lot of time with upkeep), then I can see 3 places, but the one or two DROs I've used went out to 4 places and that's what you're paying for. Personally, I'd spend the money on a non-DRO Bridgeport if I was spending that much.

My $.02.