Enjoyed! Good modifications to an affordable mill :)

We've missed you sir, good to see you back.

Good video Mark, I hope you are on the mend and feeling better. God know we need you around.

Great video as always. Thank you so much! Be safe and strong, my friend! Dimitris

LOL, just noticed all the Quebec license plates, cheers to a fellow Canadian!!

Very informative. Thank you.

On the protrusions from your calipers ripping your arm. I used a dremel cutoff wheel to blunt them. My cheap caliper stays on my mill. I'm rich, I have two of the cheap ones !! I like your cut washer to aid in getting back to zero, pretty simple and clever.

Mark, you are the go to guy on the mighty RF 30! it's helped me a bunch. My shop machines. Atlas 10-54 lathe, Atlas 7" shaper, LOBO brand RF 30. Champion blower and forge 21" Floor drill, and a Central (Taiwanese) 1/2" bench drill. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.

Wonderful to see you back Marc. The bonus is seeing you work on the same mill as mine, thanks.

Very good video, thanks

Amazing, thanks Marc !!!

Nice mod Marc. Some years ago I integrated a dial indicator with a 1" range to the head of my machine. The indicator is clamped to a vertical bar with a long slot so I can move the indicator up and down where I need it and them lock it in place with a wing nut.

Welcome back Marc, all the best to you and thanks for taking the time to educate some fools... have fun and take care! YOU ARE AWESOME!

Hello Marc, that was a terrific vidèo, very helpful and close to me. I have a Harbour freight mini mill on which I did many modification. one of the serious problem is that after many tests I came to yhe conclusion that the spindle is not parallel with the column. This has an effect, which is not mended by shimming, is that when I start a hole with a short center drill and I raise the head and put a regular length of drill bit in the same chuck the drill bit will land up away from the center bit's done position in three X direction. This would be the case affiliated to any mill at the mentioned problem. I bought a Rockwell of the 60s and did huge amount of work on it, it will take several videos to show those interesting problems. The small spring was a great idea I will use it. The Harbor freight will get a new fixed column. Looking forward to the continuations, thanks for this enjoyable and very useful posting. Old Bob

Welcome back Marc... great to see you again. As always, good content... not too overboard, just right.

Glad you're back, good video. Lots of good tips.

Great video Marc! Glad to see you looking well :)

great video Mr. Marc. Good to see you back at it. (class of 98 Cité)

Dear Marc, thank you very much Lesson: 71

Nice to see you back!!

I've seen the digital calipers on sale for as little as $10 USD. For that price I'd cut the I.D. measuring ears off with a dremel tool... My luck is that usually if there is something sticking out it will get me eventually. If you pick the calipers up at Harbor Freight or similar, be sure to remove them from the box and make sure the measuring blades close completely by holding the caliper up to the light before purchase. When you get home, take a stone and deburr all the sharp edges. Glad to see you again too.

Thank you! I was totally frustrated with poor facing quality due to a poorly aligned head. I’ll get to shimming tomorrow. Pete

Good to see you in action Marc, thanks for the content for us "mill drill" types, a couple of good points that I hadn't considered regarding my Craftex , cheers!

Good to see you back ! I have the same model mill & the z axis control has been a challenge. I like your solution to mount a digital scale & will incorporate it ASAP. I made use of your previous idea to attach a laser for head alignment, and it has been very handy. Thank you !

Great timing! My new to me wrong foo RF30 mill was missing the quill lock, and you have shown me exactly what is missing, along with a cool mod to go with! Very awesome thank you. I can see a DRO in my future as well now too thanks for sharing!

Thank you for sharing.

Thanks very much. I have a small knee mill and will adapt your poor man's DRO idea to it. As always, keep up the great videos! Best regards from the other side of Canada (Victoria).

Marc good to see you back I start radiation treatment tomorrow, it's a treat to see you back!

thanks for the great video. glad to see ya back.

Great use of those Mastercraft Calipers! I was thinking of doing the same thing with mine but on a drill press

Hi Marc, I appreciate all your hard work and all the information you have presented. I really like the way that you did the DRO. I am trying to figure out how to do the same thing accurately for a small lathe (a G0768). Nice job.

Useful video and glad to see you're back! Hope you're doing well.

Thanks for a good video. Always interested in modifications to these round column mills. Take care. Doug

I'm really glad to see looking so well. thanks for all you do.

Hi Mark Good to see you again

Thank you for your video on the round mill I have the same mill and it good to know about setting it up keep up the good work

great stuff. thank you

Excellent! Thanks for the idea of the poor mans DRO, that dropping backlash problem is so so annoying and seems to be no way to correct it. Your workaround is great.

Much enjoyed this video Marc! Thanks for sharing. :)

I bought one of those calipers with the exact same intention. I think I will go to the igagin dro in the end though because it will work better with the x and y dro's I want to do at a later date. Thanks for helping me understand why I always have a problem when trying to adjust z and I over shoot .

IT IS GREAT TO SEE YOU BACK! THANK YOU!, THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Marc. You can not imagine how much I needed this video! I have been trying to work out a "poor mans DRO" for my Drill Mill ever since I got the thing. I have seen other youtube videos on this subject. That said, I give THIS VIDEO 10 out of 5 STARS **********. One question, if I may: Roughly how long are the brass spacers? Knowing how good i am at colliding with inanimate objects, I plan on cutting off those inside caliper points all together. They look PAINFUL! I took your advice over a year ago on shimming the coulomb. I somehow managed to get it with in a few tenths of square with the table. (That was an all weekend en-devour). The modification to the quill lock is just the ticket! That is ON the to-do list STAT! That thing is madding. Thank you so much for posting this!

Thank you! It is very helpfull

thanks for jimmyscanal! enjoyed the vids. It really motivates me to leave alone the machines one in a while and trust the good old hand craftmanship. Loved your video as always cheers Teun

Great Video Marc! I know its been out a while.

I just discovered your channel and i subbed. Great stuff and very informative.

Hi I will be glad then a´m look at your video and I learn a lot thank you. From a weuer in Sweden

I have a Pro-Cut 30 mill almost exactly like yours. I recently had to move it to a different location in the shop. I will use your "traming" method and install the "Cheap" DRO ! I thank you very much !!

I have just discovered you channel and you have helped me so much with my blue print reading thank you so much! please keep doing this!

Thank you

As an alternate to rounding off the ends of the sharp jaws, maybe use some small platic 'caps' to cover the tips. i.e. so that the calipers can still be used if necessary to measure ID's. Thanks for doing these videos. I recently bought a used mill very much like this one and definitely need to make some changes because I am not just lazy but also cheap.:)

Hi Marc, hope you are starting to feel better! glad to see a new video from you. by the way, do you put grease or Greece on the rack of your column?😇 Peter

great fixes, it's the little problems like these that aggravate and cause me to loose train of thought in the middle of an action, I will put a handle on the Y axes stop so I don't have to go find a wrench, well done vid THANX!

Amazing DRO thank you!

Good advice, keep up the great work :)

great mods..wished there was a way to do a variable speed motor...

Hi there from Canada, love your video, I know its a few years old but I just stumbled across it after watching some winkys workshop vids. This video is exactly what I was looking for, I am considering purchasing one of these as they seem a lot beefier to their price point equivalent square column mills, but with a few easy mods are very worth the price? In Canada I am looking at King Canada PDM-30 mill/drill. for $2699. or in a square column model Busy Bee Craftex model CX601, but for $3599. thanks for posting and love the humor, cheers.

fyi when drilling hardened steel..use a carbide drill and lowest speed possiable steady pressure will take awhile

"We can see... well a lot of crap at the back of the shop" LOL There's a guy in the facebook group that has one of those mills, but his is made by Myford. (At least that is what he told me).

always great see you teach. do you have a LQ on sweeping a mill table its a job I have to do I would be interested in your insites tks Will

“Like Viagra for your handle, it helps to keep it up.” What a visual. Lol.

thanks very interesting

Better image. Nice.

Great tips Marc. All mods would equally apply to the dovetail column version of these mills too. :-) A question, do you experience "quill drop" when feeding down using the "calibrated" Z axis handwheel? I believe this is due to the rack and pinion on the quill, the feeding is pushing the lower edge of therack, but every so often it frees up and drops to engage the top of the rack tooth. Mine does it and would like to devise a solution, wondering if you any ideas? As for crap in the background, you'd totally lose the machine in the foreground in my shed! Thanks, Ray

I have thought about a mod to stiffen up the round column do you have any suggestions? Thanks for your you tube efforts!

Thanks

about the caliper id points how about taking a cut off wheel and de horn them its not like they cost more then $25

Hi Mark. I haven't seen any new videos in a while and am hoping that you are taking some time off and not unable to film new episodes.

I thought Vernier were non-electronic, dial type calipers?

Anybody know a link to put a Z axis DRO on a Gear head round column mill drill. I've seen it, but can.t fine it right now.

can you add Dimitri's channel to your video description

I did not know that digital calipers have a vernier in them. I did not count the times you said "vernier", but it was a lot... 8^) I know, picky, picky, but this is an educational channel.

At 3:44, did you notice what seems to be a crack on the right side?

Je vous souhaite de nouveau mon ami.

For the other lazy bums out there here is a link to the mentioned chan kzfaq.info

I have a grizzly round column mill. Best thing to do is not buy a round column mill.