Stand for RF-45 mill/drill

[Chris Fazio]

Hi folks I'm new to the forum and was wondering your opinions on making a stand for a rong fu rf-45. I was going to take 4
pieces of schedule 40 4 in. diameter pipe and weld them between two pieces of 0.5 in. plate.I will bolt the bottom plate to the
floor and the top plate to the machine.
Any thoughts on the subject will be appreciated. Thanks.

[INTERPOLATE]

I like it. You can then find your "perfect work height" saving your back. I have noticed that the stands that are offered for the import machines are way too short (for me.)

[George Hodge]

Chris,I made mine out of 2in.pipe,and angle iron. Made the front legs vertical and flared out about 4in. at the bottom. Back legs angled out and back about 4in. Mounted a crossbrace near the bottom of the back legs. 2 steel wheels at the back don't touch the floor until I use a small floor jack on the front to lift and tilt slightly.Moves very easily. Made a plywood drawer that slides on angle iron under the mill. Oh,mills setting on a piece of 3/4in.plywood. No problems with it walking around.

[Thrud]

If you leave hole in the top plates you can pour sand or concrete into the tubes to cut resonance down. Make sure you cross brace for a ridgid stand. You may want to level the stand on your concrete and anchor bolt it down and then use heavy leveling bolts to get the mill perfect.

[JasonW]

Made my stand out of "scrap" we had laying around. 4"x3"x1/4" angle iron top, with 2.5 " pipe legs. Two cross pipes fron to back about a third up for added support. Makes for a good shelf with a board across.

The thing weighed a ton, but is rock solid when bolted. Keep in mind that these things may be top heavy and tippy when the head is raised to the max and table is maxed in one direction. If you have a low ceiling like I did make sure to measure for proper clearance with the head raised to max height. My stand is about 28 " high. The bottom is open which allows for easy greasing of the Y-axis lead screw.

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[Chris Fazio]

Thank you gentleman for your replies.Thrud
raises a good point about vibration and
resonance being that steel "rings" more
than say cast iron. I'm giving some thought
to making the stand out of wood which may be
more "vibration absorbing".There is some
interesting reading about vibration dampening
using polymer concrete on a website called
phillyresins.com although the cost is
probably outrageous not to mention shipping
costs.Anyway what are your thoughts on the
use of wood for base?

[SGW]

Guy Lautard has a piece on machine stands in one of his "Machinist's Bedside Reader" books, I think the first one. He talks about two exteremes: the "lightweight stamped sheetmetal" approach and the "built-like-a-tank" approach. He built a really lightweight stand for his milling machine, an extremely heavy-duty stand for his lathe. Both work well. He says the lathe stand is way overbuilt for what it needs to do. I guess the point is, good structural design can replace bulk, if you do it right.

[Thrud]

Chris

Wood is nice for work benches - prefer maple myself. Plywood can be sheathed in sheet metal or doped with epoxies to make it oil and water proof. For machine stands - for safety reasons alone - steel is prefered.

Tubular space frame that is ridgidly cross braced to prevent buckling with mounting pads where required is all that is needed. If the machine is heaver like the Rong Fu, the stand should be anchor bolted to the floor for safety. The stand can be levelled on the pad easier than messing with the machine. This way only minor shimming should be required to get everything bang on. If you are going to be doing this hoby/trade for a while, do it right the first time. Fine Sand (best) or concrete poured in the tubular frame will dampen sympathetic vibrations.

If the stand is large enough a small crane can be mounted to facilitate placing heavy items on the machine - saving your back. Storage space can be included such as slide out racks for indexing tables and other tooling.

That's my $.04 (.02 US)

[NAMPeters]

Rerference item Machine Tool Bases on: www.caninefostercare.org/Stuff/machinery.htm Figure 1 shows the box base for the Jet16 which is half full at this point with scrap metal. Worked well in the old shop on a concrete floor and steadies things nicely in the new shop which is a cargo container. Note the bird hole for feeding. Figure 2 shows the modified base for the Atlas lathe. The box section is full of scrap iron and the cover makes for a nice shelf. Also note some of my lighter machines are movable.

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Neil Peters