ROUND COLUMN MILL PART 1, (Grizzly, Wrong Foo, Harbor Freight) PRECISION HOLE DRILLING, MARC LECUYER 

I always admired the round column machines as real workhorses, with the minor disadvantage of loosing the alignment when chaning the height of the head..but you showed a good method to get around this :)

good job i have a jet round column mill and have been trying to to solve this problem I was using a laser pointer attached to mill head and shooting 20 feet across my shop at a graduated target??!!

Could you do a vidio on the way that you shimmed the colunm and how you check it for perfect 90 from table surface. Love your other work. Thanks for taken time for others. I have learned alot from u. Keep up the good work!

i remember the time i drilled my first b hole

Nice video. I just emailed to my brother because he has one of those mills. Keep up the great work. Dale d

Hello Marc, Those little mills can do some serious work if only they can be mastered... But I wouldn't melt my big mill to make 12 of those... lol Great teaching, Pierre

"or if you prefer, the A hole" Brilliant. cracked me up. thanks for the vid.

Well, always learn something looking at Marc's video. Very clear english easy to understand for foreign like me. One of my favourite without doubt.

Oh boy, I had 10 years of "longest tool" and muttered a few choice words during the times I forgot. Not the least sorry about upgrading to a knee mill... ;-)

Thankyou for posting about round column Mills. Mine is undergoing surgery and I've found a problem I hope you may be able to solve for me.... The jib strips are tapered and the screw that locates in the jib strip slot is a very poor fit with about 1.5 to 2mm end float. When moving toward the post, the jib strip moves towards the operator, making it loose. Moving the other way, it becomes tight on the Dover Tails. I am planning on a stud....tight into the tapped hole, and hopefully 2 nuts, either side of a zero backlash washer which will engage the jib strip slot. I will also replace the jib strip adjusting keys with a long allen keyed grub screw with locking nuts. Any better suggestions? Many thanks David

Late as usual; there are other ways to work within the longest tool method. By using spotting drills instead of center drills the shortest tool is made longer. Only 2 or 3 diameters of spotting drills are really necessary. Screw machine length twist drills also compress the size range compared to standard twist drills. Finally, reamer shanks can be shortened further narrowing the differences in lengths of the various tools. Use a GOOD drill chuck and it will help a lot as well.

That off-axis problem never occured to me. Very interesting. You rock.

Hi, I have the exact same mill. I'm missing the top cover and I presume the speed reference chart that is likely attached. If possible could you please send me through a photo of your speed reference chart on your and if possible the make of your mill as mine has no makers stamp any were else on the body of the mill without its top cover.

Anybody know where I can score the upper belt cover for a rong fu 25

Boy I would never buy one of them Mills when you change the z-axis and raised it that column swung side to side

It's RongFu the "Wrong Foo" in the title must be a funny(?) but I don't get the joke if it is one.

Thank You Marc for showing this and all your great series!! I've been sub'd for a while but haven't commented till now. My brother too has a newer version of this mill and we just went through the tedious tramming...interesting that his table had some grinding related irregular depths in about 3 places so it added to the "What the heck" process of tramming a column mill. I sent him your links b4 and will tell him to watch this one and Pt 2...Really Great stuff you bring!! Thanks much...never too old or smart to learn more and better ways...~PJ

Excellent video marc- as always ! I noticed that when reaming you shut the machine down before extracting the reamer - is there a reason for this or just habit? If any viewers have the tilting column (x2) type mill it is important to check the column alignment and tram at the same time as the head of this type of mill is two castings bolted together and not pinned so there is some play and it can move around on you. You can end up with the head trammed ok but the column tilted so the tool will travel off centre as you raise the head .

C'mon man, you know in your heart that it's the A holes that shoulda got rteamed ;)

great info... but isn't it about time you guys go metric?😉

Thanks for the vid Marc, I guess I do the longest tool method instinctively, I did learn from and enjoy the vid. I have a benchtop column mill, but I can tram my head, not like your machine which has no rotation on the head. Stub drills are great on my mill.

Z axis and quill axis are identical

Thank for this help. Many good ideas.I bought the Chinese mill/drill. Worse then yours and have an uncorrectable error. There is no quill the head moving downwards on a rack, which theoretically wrong. I will make a video of the modification if I ever do it. I enjoy your videos, you are the teacher for accuracy. Thanks Mark. From Montreal

Great video. I just bought one of these too. Does anyone know if the owner's manual is available?

Nice Aholes and Bholes.

I have a mill such as yours. I teamed the head in by making four washers .1 1/2" in diameter x 1/4" thick with a clearance hole in the center for the column bolts. I surface ground flat and parallel first . Then put one washer under each corner of the column making sure the area was clean. I tighten the bolts down. I put an indicator in the spindle and had the indicator swing a radius of about the width between the bolts on the column. I took a reading on the table first . I can't remember readings. If it were. .003 out l would remove the two washers on the high side and grind off .003 on the pair. Then put them back in place and check the table reading again. If that brought it in I would move on to the cross slide. Here is where it is a little trickier. If you got .005 out you would remove the two washers on the side that was high and grind..005 off Each washer separately and each washer needs to go back to exactly where it came from!! That should tram everything in. Important!! If the washers are ever removed they must go back to where they came from or it will throw everything out!! It works I did it to my machine year ago and got with in .0005" . It has stayed there . It is much more solid than shims . When I first got my machine I did use shims . Hope this helps you and maybe some of your viewers. Good Luck

Is there an explanation somewhere of how the quill handles work? I have a ZAY gear head like an RF45 i believe. It was in very neglected shape ( a lot of grime and surface rust )and I disassembled it and re painted and cleaned everything up. My only issue now is the the fine quill adjustment wheel in front works great. but the drill press handle is very tight and hard to turn a all when I try to drop the quill, like a drilling operation. What does the hand knob in the enter actually do? I see where it engages the two conical surfaces. does the big sliver part ( the part that's shaped like a flower pot on its side.)of the horizontal shaft turn, or is it pressed or keyed to the shaft? the drill press handle casting is keyed on. I had no reason to take the big silver part off the shaft, ( I thought it was pressed on),but maybe its stuck or something and I should remove it for clean up and lube.

Marc what kind of mill are you using in your shop,110,220., horsepower etc thanks. Really enjoy your teaching, Methods

Hahahha, you said A holes lol

I have had mine for a short time and I’m not a machinist. But I have worked with them in times passed. I have a large tilt machine vise mounted to my table and it works just fine. The more I use it the more I see it’s advantages. With that I can make it true. It’s not hard at all. Now with that said I’m not machining close tolerance. If I had to do close tolerance I can not see that stopping me. Now if I was doing production work it, still once it is locked down I still don’t see a problem as long as you have a way to put the piece back in the same place. In this case I make me a jig. I can do more with this because the head does move. I’m a fast learner. I have done moved the head sssooooo many times that it just come second nature to put it in the position that I need and still cut everything the same every time. I really like this machine.

While I don't have a round column mill (I have a Tree knee mill), I appreciate the problem you're describing & the video. Part 2 may answer this, but I'm not sure that I understand the switch to the drill press. Would the resulting misalignment not be dramatic enough if you were to change the Z axis on the round column mill for the second set of holes? I.e. why not a test on the round column exactly opposite of your "long-tool-method?"

Thank you for teaching us about the relationships between the A holes And B Holes. 🤣 All jokes aside as a machinist myself u have always wondered how accurate these were and this is an awesome video

I have this mill. I talked to a machinist and he told me to flycut the table with the mill head. This solves the alignment and the rough table issues common to these mills. I had to remove about 35 thousands from the table to achieve both.

Very interesting , informative and educational. Thank you for making this extremely useful video. 👏👏👍😀

is this the mill you're demonstrating? www.harborfreight.com/1-1-2-half-horsepower-heavy-duty-milling-drilling-machine-33686.html

Good afternoon sir, I just picked up this mill from a coworkers father for free! It was never used and had been sitting in the barn for years. Do you have any videos on disassembly of the head from column?i need to clean out rust grime from the column area that meets base. Where the rack sits and slide while rotating

flineman, you have "reply" disabled. You can also use a mirror at some distance, arranged so the laser spot on the target is near the mill for easier seeing and more accurate adjustments. It was not mentioned, but the laser pointer is rigidly attached to the mill head, and a target is used to replicate positioning of the head on its swivel axis. The target can be a simple vertical line on the wall.

thanks vey much for the upload!!!! But what exactly is the end mill u used in the beginning? Is it a 1 inch square end mill? Those cost 276$ from MSC is this correct?

I use ER collets in addition to the regular ones. They stick out a little under 2 inches and that extends the endmill enough that it is rare to have to move the head.

Thank you!

i was putting drill bits in collets instead of using a chuck!!! i have the same mill

Dear Marc, thank you very much Lesson: 69

Another great and informative video. Thank you. adjusting the column is straight forward, although a video on this would be welcome. I would be very interested in what could be done if the column and Quill axis were not co-linear, how could this be adjusted. cheers

I cannot believe that someone hasn't come up with a dro to solve this round column problem I think it could be done with a laser or maybe two and they are cheap these days

Fantastic as usual Marc!

Old video, I know. I'm attracted to these mill/drills due to price and size. Not that I want something cheap, but my needs, which are essentially hobby only, don't justify a large knee mill. Though I'd love a Bridgeport. Anyway, could the column on these mills be made with a key way in the column for the alignment issue??

G'day Marc thank you for your great videos on these mills, I would like your opinion on if a ZX 30 would be a good buy for milling live steam locomotive parts, from 5" to 7 1/4" gauge. I have heard that there are problems associated with rigidity especially on the Z axis. I would really like your input. Thank you regards John Kinnane Tasmania Australia

Hi marc, this is the best guide i found ever. Can you please go into depth about making the pillar exactly perpendicular, which leads to having perfectly parallel cut in relation to the material. Im still a student and was able to get a mill similar to yours but slightly smaller i thing, but i never liked it as it is not precise :/ with your help i may be able to get it going in mint condition hopefully, as i don't afford a better one. Thanks a lot marc!!

Hello I have the same machine and I was wondering if you have had problems with your spindle or the spindle bearings and if so where did you find your replacement parts ? Thank you for your great videos I'm a subscriber to your channel for a while now 👍👍👍

You have a good looking vise on that machine. Where did you get it?

Mark thanks so much for this video. I had asked you for this a little while back and was so pleased to see you had produced it. Can hardly wait for any follow-on videos on the subject. Keith

Thanks Marc I have just installed a mill like yours. So this video has come at a good time

This was a very interesting series, my friend. Many thanks.

Excellent. Thanks for sharing.

I wish I could attend your classes in person.

Great video thank you.

Fantastic! I love your videos. I have never been happy with my drill/mill and love to hear methods to tweak it's accuracy. I would love to hear any suggestions re preventing the moveable jaw upward movement. Also, whether using a laser would help with realignment when the head is moved.

Hi Marc I noticed that you stopped the mill with the reamer in the hole and then withdrew it. Is there a reason for this please? Great videos by the way . thanks Allan

as always, a very clear and teaching video! tks

هل يوجد لكم فرع في العراق

He said "A Hole" heee hee

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