Optimum MB4 - Revisit after 6 years 

Stefan: "i've hardly done anything to it. *proceeds to show modification/improvement to literally every critical part*

English humour is well know to be not understandable around the world. Only a few seconds in and I laughed. Stefan and Michael Schumacker are both notable masters of it. Well done. Always enjoyable to watch and listen to Stefan.

Stefan, thaks about the brief chat about the vices. I'm still missing a good vice for my 66 years old Schaublin SV-51 milling machine. So I have done things the other way around. I have been avoiding to use my crappy excuses of milling vices and I have learned some really interesting ways to clamp the worpiece directly on the milling table. That "review" might just have pushed me over the edge to buy a small Gerardi. The hint of buying clamping hardware as separate components is really worth every word. I bough a clamping set from Flea Bay and the quality of it is really bad. For example the flange nuts had their thread off center and also tilted whichever way. It takes a lot of tilt in a nut to make it noticeable. One more time, thanks for sharing all this information in an easy-to-digest form.

Hallo Stefan . Es ist wirklich hervorragend, dass man durch die Videos ein bisschen an deiner Erfahrung als Werkzeugmacher teilhaben kann. 👍

Great follow-up! Still a bit shocked it's been 5 years since I watched that epoxy tram video though...

I love shop and tool talk, especially hearing your take on it. Always stoked to watch what you share.

Stefan, thank you again for your most timely video. Right now my mill drill, very similar to yours, is sitting in pieces as I'm installing glass scales and decided to scrape in the ways and redo the lead screw bearings. BTW, don't worry about making videos when doing projects or mods. I much prefer a narrated picture montage. I've seen many videos of mills cutting steel. A narration is as good or better because you can concentrate on the process and steps, rather than your milling tasks. I know setups for video take a lot of effort when a picture takes a few seconds. This would allow you to post more content without having to video everything.

I feel very lucky to have come across your posts many years ago. Always nice to see another .

Awesome work Stefan! A ton of good tips. ATB, Robin

As always, I totally appreciate the sacrifices you make to bring your videos to us! I know a tremendous amount of valuable time and effort goes into these very instructive vignettes. It is all much appreciated! You are a very good and captivating teacher. Your shares uplift everyone who is fortunate enough to see them. Thank you again! :)

One of the best channels for machining on youtube, thank you for all the years of education!

Hi Stefan! I'm thinking it would be a good idea to put RF-45 somewhere in the the title so people who have the same mill but not with Optimum branding can find this video. Just a thought. Very interesting as always!

I am a simple man, I see a Stefan Gotteswinter video; I smash the like button.

Hell, I'm impressed with the multi/colored sharpie collection! ⛾⚅⚄⚃⚂⚁⚀

Excellent presentation of all your ideas for improving your mill. Brilliant mind!

Six years?! That's impossible.

Nice to be able to improve things as you go along.

As someone who loves tech, buys tech, yet never fully employs the tech. I’m in awe of your work, your knowledge, your skill.

I just bought my first milling machine here in Australia. Bare bone 45 series clone with r8 quill. What you did to yours is a bit above my paygrade at the moment but I enjoyed every minute of this video. Thank you!

Thank you for taking us along on a fantastic ride to show anything is possible 👍👍😎👍👍

I always enjoy your videos but mostly your explanations. Your tooling setups are very well conceived along with your considerations. Thank you.

Hey Stefan, just wanted to say thanks. Your quill lock was just the solution I've been looking for to make tool changes easier on my mini-mill. A chunk of aluminum and an afternoon later, and I've got a simple and very effective spindle lock. (insert shameless plug for my build video here...) I appreciate the inspiration, and everything else you offer this community. Thanks again!

thank you for uploading these videos Stefan! I always get excited when I see one of then on my feed

Great ideas on how to modify the machine to be so much better. Love the dry humor. Love the exquisite detail.

Awesome Stuff Stefan! That quill clamp is just the solution i've been dreaming of! Really like the execution on that.

Great to see the mods! Thanks for helping me dream big before I have even bought a mill! Please keep sharing Stefan.

Thanks for sharing! I ALWAYS look forward to watching your videos! :)

You inspired me to get a similar machine and I'm gathering my confidence to do mods of my own soon. Thank you for your effort in making these video that share so much of your knowledge. Great work

Thank you that was very good freaking awesome As an artist as an engineer as a Craftsman I love my work wood metal I'd love to hear another people enjoy it

It's always helpful to see the reasoning behind thoughtful modifications and habits. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Stephen. The angular contact bearing is exactly what I need for my lathe lead screw which has a similar design of roller thrust bearings. I have shimmed it up but it still has a bit of slop. All the best! Eddie

the paths your mind follows to solve problems are scarry brilliant!! poppy

Hi greetings from New Zealand love your content.... Just missing your overseas brother... hope we get to see TOT again soon.... Have your heard from him....

The narrated slide show worked well for me! Very interesting.

Man you are a genius... I love your work, your channel and I jus can dream with a home work shop like yours... Grettings from Colombia

Very much enjoyed this look at your mill. I only wish I could purchase as nice a machine here in the USA with all of your modifications already completed. That would be the machine I would like a lot. Thank you so much for your time and knowledge, I always learn so much from your videos, and will be waiting for your return. Take Care and Stay Safe. Bob

Your level of precision & perfection is inspiring to me. I am beginning to do small updates & upgrades to my lesser equipment with this kind of video presentation as inspiration. My biggest problem is being clean and simultaneously being rust free. How do you balance clean & rust control? Can you make a video explaining how you control rust? Thanks so much.

This video had so much wonderful content that pertains to my mill. I have been planning on converting the spindle to a BT30 quill for a long time. Last year I bought a Denford Triton Pro CNC Mill (VMC) that has an 8 tool auto changer that uses BT30 inserts. I wanted to change over my mill so I have the same tooling for both machines. I am also going to install a spindle clamp similar to yours. I resurfaced the bottom of my spindle head by clamping a mini bench grinder in my vice and used that to surface the bottom of the head, where the clamp mounts. I also added 2 glass scales on the z axis. One on the head, where the stop nut used to be and one on the column. My 5 axis DRO adds the two values so I always have a true Z reading. I'm going to use the 5th DRO axis for the rotary table as it can also read degrees of rotation. These mill drills are really versatile and fun to mod. Thanks for the inspiration.

When i got my new milling machine same style as the mb4, The bearing were so full of chips from the factory i had to take the spindle apart and clean out the bearings before turning it on. The bearing races were scored and the company got replacements sent and the replacements were full of chips and grinding dust as well..

Danke mein herr

This machine is great... Because stefan has rebuild it completly

Hi Stefan, It’s great that you put in the time to do these great videos. You sound like you don’t have a lot of ‘spare’ time, and that makes these contributions to engineering educational…. extra special. Thank you 👏👏👏 Regards, Robert ( from Sydney, Australia).

Having this same machine I found this very interesting and as always your skills are next level.

Hey first ...thats you get when binge watching over 2 weeks . Love your exact and precize approch and machinist, and you know some quantum to👌 i read , under old tony´s video. Greets from the Netherlands Johny geerts

Thanks for the update and the great overview of your machine and its modifications. Cheers, Reuben

Excellent, thank you. I can employ many of these mods on my machine. I'm sure many of us have one of these clones in our shops.

Stefan, BRAVO!! milling the mill head was masterful!!! you are an inspiration. poppy's workshop says HI

I'm pretty shocked those mill screw mounts didn't have a belleville washer in there. And also, that the backlash wasn't much worse!

i have same milling machine from 2012, it still works great. I bouth it new directly fro China, and i have ordered it with two speed 3 phase motor and quill feed in 6 ranges as extra option plus the cooling pump and tank. I got screwed for swiveling table which was also ordered but ordinary fixed table arrived instead.

Great video, nice to see the updated mods, much more precise than from factory 🙂

It's really astonishing how much you've improved on that mill with some hand work and other modifications. I've got an old RF-40 here still that's mostly relegated to being a drill press but you've got me wondering just how nice I could make it with a little effort. Hope you are well, sir!

Voice-over + Germany + Sunday = Church bells . Also, I agree, there is not much worse than an uneven hand-cranking experience !

Excellent from start to finish, thanks.

Thanks Stefan, lots of great ideas especially the vice stop.

I arrived here around the time when you did the epoxy mill tramming, but I have still not got round to doing the same to my Sieg X3. Great content as ever.

Enjoyed…great production/discussion/demonstration

I love this kind of adjustable table. setting an angle this way is really a problem in most milling when the head can’t rotate this way like a Bridgeport.

He makes more effort to get his little mill running well than many companies do for their hundred thousand dollar CNC mills.

your glasses are very streamlined i like em

Thank you! This video offers a number of really useful tips and points to ponder.

Thanks for sharing your ideas. All if them excellent.

As usual, excellent work. I love your insights.

Thank you, I love this type of video, with so many great ideas!

very good video stefan,thanks for your time

Finally, a German with a sense of humour!

Thanks so much Stefan, your descriptions and examples about precision are awesome and enlightening. Thanks for your videos ;')

Thanks Stefan. You are freeki'n amazing! Cheers from Sweden.

"I'm not going to buy a Deckel milling machine". Lol. Times change.

It would be fun to see you construct your very own milling machine or lathe.

Thanks Stefan. As usual I learned several things from this video. Excellent.

10:00. I laughed out loud. The machine can cut itself. Story of my life. Well done.

Wow! time goes fast. feels like you just got it not too long ago

A very relaxing and easy to follow video.

Those vises are pretty damn sweet

The modification I liked most ( not shown in this video) is the power Z axis feed , I copied your design for my HM46 ( RF46) and it works like a charm !

Very well done, thank you for sharing your video and expert knowledge.

Excellent video. Thanks for sharing

Great upgrades Stefan, I only wish I knew how to scrape, something I must learn, as I have the same machine which really needs some squaring up. Interesting you noted the MT slot in the spindle, I have an MT 4 spindle with the slot, when I stripped it to fit new taper roller bearings, the central bore was full of scale and casting sand that was all dropping down into the back of the lower bearing. I had no fixed steady for my lathe therefore couldn't machine the bore, so I flap wheeled it and painted it to seal the surface. Something to look at if you ever replace the bearings. Cheers, Jon

Hi Stefan Thanks for the always intersting videos. Regarding to the Fehlmann Picomax 51: I have eactly the same opinion as you about this machine. So I have bought an older P51 one from a school for about 6k CHF. It has the CNC control cabinet and Heidenhain TNC 155 control. I also have a big Mori Seiki CNC VMC. But i must say, I mostly use the P51. It is so versatile and due to the easy CNC control, fun to work with. I can whole heartedly recommend getting a used one in good condition. You should be able to get one for under 10k CHF. Fehlmann still has all the parts etc.. Greetings from Switzerland

Well, that about says it all! Good job, as always.

Thanks Stefan, some interesting stuff in there!!

Some nice neat ideas and work on your mill. Mine has blown some circuitry somewhere and blowed if I can find the fault! I'm thinking expensive motor replacement but will strip it first and see if is faulty and repairable.

really good points pro chinese mill for hobbyists. Thanks! Think i will get one of these

My biggest gripe with my 45 is that it lacks about 50mm of Y travel which prevents the spindle from being able to reach the very edge of the table. It's not a deal-breaker, but boy would it be nice.

Out of parallel by 70 microns is decent. My 20 year Taiwan knee mill (basically 1/3 size Bridgeport) saddle was out of parallel by about 0.6mm. I’m not exaggerating, 0.6mm. It took A LOT of work to scrap it flat, to about 10 microns.

Looking good, and the mill.

Stephan where did you obtain your ISO30 spindle from please?

Very interesting. But i think you forgot to tell us why you are good looking :-) Nice video Stefan. Thanks for all the effort to make it.

Yes, Stefan, you are still good looking!

Man your videos are the best!!!

Very nice RF45 improvements!

Very informative, thank you 👍

Great video I learnt a lot as always

11 month later: I really like your new old Deckel XD

Cooles Video, immer wieder lehrreich! Wo kann man solche Nutabdeckung beschaffen? finde ich toll

Great video, inspiring stuff!

great videos. I just got two Gerardi vises. I like your setup.

5:51 Nice job. 🙂👍🏻

When you were showing the technique for attaching the vise to the table, it looked like the straps had a small foot on the long edge furthest away from the vise. Is this to put further pressure along the vises body? To ask in a different way, do the long straps have a toe that makes them sit a few degrees past 90? Sort of like the back screw in a strap clamp? I can't tell if it is a trick of the light and you did not mention it. I don't know if that's because it was so obvious or if I misunderstood what I saw

Reagarding the lead screw bearing mod… will the torque from the hand crank be transferred via the spacer to friction between the inner race and the lead screw shoulder? Have you had any problems with slip?