RF 31 BENCH MILL DRILL

Pure Guesswork, but I would imagine that the RF31 was sold in UK by Warco as either the Minor, or the Major Mill/Drill . Probably Chester also sold the same machine in a different colour scheme.

(The RF25 was sold as the Warco Economy Mill/Drill)

They used to be offered, by Warco, with a choice of Metric or Imperial dials and leadscrews

At this distance of time, (approaching 20 years) I doubt if spares would be available from Importers

Arc Euro offer R8 to 3MT adaptors under their codes

For Tang tooling, 120- 010-00540, with a 7/16 UNF drawbar thread

Open, for Drawbar use 120-010-00500 (Unsuitable for Tang Tooling)

They are going to cost you around £13 each, plus P & P, I would imagine

Possibly, to accomodate the extra length, you may need a slightly extended drawbar (3/8 BSW likely)

If your 3MT tooling is M12 drawbar thread, there is enough meat in a male M12 thread to drill and tap for 3/8 BSW, to convert,

H T H

Howard

If you need a Bristol type locking lever, again, Arc Euro list them as "Alumimium Indexable Handles"

Presumably, you would want the M8 stud type, 084-013-10063. if this is too short at 60mm long, you could Loctite a piece of M8 studding into a Nut type 084-013-00063.

On the RF 25, the Quill appears to be locked by a "nut", (Part No 5-26 "Fixed Tight Collar - Thread" ) with a chamfer or concave being pulled against a similar fitting ( Part No 5-25 "Fixed Tight Collar" ) with a clearance hole, to grip it.

Part No 5-24 is merely described as "Handle Rod" and is shown as a one piece handle, integral with the thread.

So IF the internal parts are still there, all that you need to do is to ascertain the thread, (Might be Whitworth! There are BSW threads and parts on my RF25 ) and make up a suitable handle and threaded rod to pull the two parts of the clamp together.

Doesn't sound to be too much of an insuperable job.

Even if the threaded and clearance "Fixed Tight Collars" are missing, it should be easy to make up a replacement locking arrangement.

If you wanted to stick with Whitworth threads, for consistency, you could make up a BSW threaded spindle, with a short M8 male thread on one end, to Loctite into a M8 NUT type handle.

At worst, just a few hours work.

Howard

Those silly Emojis may grin, but they don't do the same for me! hence the edit

Edited By Howard Lewis on 06/11/2018 16:28:15

Taking another look at your original picture, the Quill Locking handle appears to be present. It's the chrome handle on the left, close to bottom of the head. If you meant engaging the Fine Feed, that is the knob in the centre of the three handles for the Quill vertical feed. Turn the knob clockwise and you press together the two parts of a cone clutch to lock the handle to the spindle of the worm and wheel that provides Fine Feed on the Z axis.

Howard

.

Howard: I think you may have fallen into the same trap as Neil

... see the comment by Nigel B [mgnbuk] on the first page.

MichaelG.

HI Thank you everyone for the replies and kind advice offered.

The photo I listed is a generic photo

I am hoping to have my mill home in a few days

I will post an actual photo at the first opportunity.

My quill handle is missing.

I have email the manufacturer direct , but as yet not received a reply

Thank you again

Here's the quill lock on my mill.

Martin C

Ray

Quill handle, take it you mean the quill locking lever.
Just check the two threaded clamps are in place in Martins reply next above.

You will be able to get the parts from Chester in Brownhills, Warco or any Rong Fu rebadged name over the last 30 odd years.

Do recall Graham Eng West Brom and Wolvo advertising metric or imperial along with option of MT3 or R8.

Martin, Thanks!

You have illustrated exactly what I was attempting to describe.

Ray Jones 1

Now you can see just how easy it would be to make a clamp assembly for the Quill, if you cannot source one from one of the UK Importers, such as Warco, Chester, or possibly Axminster.

One is a simple bit of turning and drill and tap, the other one is simple turning and drilling; Both needing (Catch 22) a bit of milling; or filing. And the Handle would be merely a simple turning and Die job, followed by a bit of brutality to bend the Handle. (Sod's law says it will end up at the wrong angle for you! )

Likely to be quicker and cheaper to make than buy? (About three hours in the shop, vs possibly 6 weeks to obtain from China?) When I mangled my lathe the quote was "Ex stock but with carriage and VAT" nearly £70. A gear cutter £22 and a length of Silver Steel £14. What took the time was finding that whilst I could count, the Division chart was inaccurate. And the resulting shaft was stronger than the original )

Do let us know how you get on.

Howard

Rong Fu are a Taiwanese company. I suspect Chester and Warco buy Chinese copies as they are likely cheaper.

I wouldn’t count on any of the components being interchangeable but you may get lucky, depends on how close the copies are?

I don’t know why but some folks seem to regard Taiwanese machines as being superior to Chinese. Can’t say I can see any difference but the last machine I bought came from Taiwan and seems pretty well made.

FWIW, 20 years on, my Warco Economy is a RF25, so Warco were buying from Rong Fu then.

You may be lucky and still be able to obtain spares, possibly after a delay for shipping to UK.

If not then the parts are easy to make.

Howard