# What is this mill?



## Redbean (Mar 23, 2017)

Go this as part of a combo purchase with some other equipment and have been using it for the last couple years. Still have no idea what is. Looked for busy bee lc-30a on line and got zip.  Would love to get some documentation for it and perhaps figure out a good selling price for it?


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## Dave Smith (Mar 23, 2017)

it looks like an updated version of my 1984 Menards 30 mill---Dave


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## Bob Korves (Mar 23, 2017)

Looks like a Busy Bee LC-30A to me...   Looks like it might have been built around May of 1980...                                                  8^)


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## Redbean (Mar 23, 2017)

Thanks for the post. It is Very close. Your lay out is what I see most.  Mine says manufactured 1980 and my vertical feed lock is on the handle shaft vise the knob. My indicator is also centered.


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## Redbean (Mar 23, 2017)

Bob Korves said:


> Looks like a Busy Bee LC-30A to me...   8^)



Funny. You wouldn't happen to know anything about it? I have done a lot of searching but have yet to find anything about this particular unit.


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## francist (Mar 23, 2017)

Well for sure it's no older than 1976 -- that's when BusyBee Tools was established. They're still in Vancouver as well as a few other provinces. Most machines are under their Craftex banner now. 

-frank


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## Bob Korves (Mar 24, 2017)

It is pretty easy to nail down.  It is an Asian import round column bench mill.  Many thousands of them were made and exported, and lots of different nameplates were put on them.  I looks like it is all there from what I can see.  If it runs it is ready for sale.  For price, perhaps ask $500 (U.S.) and take the best offer.  You can find documentation for similar machines on Grizzly and download it for free.


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## yendor (Mar 24, 2017)

It's an RF-25/30 clone.

They were made under multiple names and distributed by multiple different importers.

A great site is:

http://rick.sparber.org/ma.htm

He has a ton of tips/tricks and suggestions about these Round Column Mill/Drills


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## Whyemier (Mar 24, 2017)

Yep, Looks the same (mostly) as my RF-30.


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## Redbean (Mar 27, 2017)

Thank you everyone.


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## brino (Mar 27, 2017)

Hi @Redbean 

Yep, Busy Bee tools in Canada is the similar to Grizzly in the US.

I searched this page of online manuals:
http://www.busybeetools.com/pages/Manuals.html

Unfortunately, "LC-30A" is not in the list, but check out:

The manual for "B1977" 1 1/2 HP MILLING/DRILLING MACHINE 
busybeetools.com/content/product_manuals/B1977.pdf
it covers the MD-30B, MD30N and MD-30M versions that look very similar.

The manual for the CX604     CRAFTEX CX-SERIES 1.5 HP MILLING DRILLING MACHINE
http://busybeetools.com/content/product_manuals/CX604.pdf
also very similar.

For very specific things like the spindle taper and spindle speeds, you may need to measure them yourself.
Many companies put out many little different "tweaks" of this type mill.

-brino


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