# Lincoln Mill Drill Worth Getting ?



## barkoguru (Jan 13, 2016)

Not sure if this the correct area to ask this but I have been offered a Lincoln milling drilling machine and the seller would like me to make an offer and I have no clue to what it's worth if even if it worth getting, looks kinda like a jet, his dad purchased it new and was a hobby gun smith, added power feed and comes with some cutters and a set of collets, he also said any other tooling for it was included also but he wasn't sure what all was there, I'll try to include a couple o pics, thanks.


----------



## TomS (Jan 13, 2016)

barkoguru said:


> View attachment 119272
> View attachment 119271
> 
> 
> ...



Looks like a rebadged RF-30.  It all depends on the condition and the picture suggests it wasn't taken care of.  Not sure what the value is in Lufkin but in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas one like this, in good condition, would probably sell for $400 to $600.    

Tom S.


----------



## T Bredehoft (Jan 13, 2016)

_ in good condition, would probably sell for $400 to $600. _

Yeah, in GOOD condition. That one is in maybe $200 condition. Consider what you'd have to do to make it pretty, then wonder what kind of shape it really is in.


----------



## brino (Jan 13, 2016)

Hopefully that is mostly surface rust on the table, spindle and column, but I'd sure try to low-ball because of it , it does take some effort to clean up.

If you can see it and give it a quick once over.....
-check the table feeds turn and move the table(both x and y); of course they could be rusted too, but it does look like some dark and shiny oil spots on the dovetail ways....
-check that the motor, middle pulley shaft and spindle actually turn
-check the spindle for up/down movement
-if the table moves easy and there is power test the power feeds

Note that a full set of good condition tooling can cost as much as the machine! 
Look at the vise, collets, cutters, chuck, a clamp-down set would be useful.

Then it comes down to the value to you. What capabilities does it add to your shop? How much clean-up/repair is required? Are used machines few and far between in your area?

I bet more than a few people here have similar/identical machines, so some support should be available. 
It is also likely that a manual is available.

Oh, and be sure to get any special bits like the wrench for the collet nut.

With everything shown above and assuming it's all working, I'd be in the $300 area. But then machines can be hard to find up here.

Good Luck and let us know!

-brino


----------



## wawoodman (Jan 13, 2016)

I had one, and man, I HATED that round column.

Unless it's nearly free, I'd pass.


----------



## brino (Jan 13, 2016)

wawoodman said:


> I had one, and man, I HATED that round column.



Hey Mike, can you expand on that?
Was it difficult to get the column locked rigidly enough?
Was it chatter?

Thanks,
-brino


----------



## barkoguru (Jan 13, 2016)

brino said:


> Hopefully that is mostly surface rust on the table, spindle and column, but I'd sure try to low-ball because of it , it does take some effort to clean up.
> 
> If you can see it and give it a quick once over.....
> -check the table feeds turn and move the table(both x and y); of course they could be rusted too, but it does look like some dark and shiny oil spots on the dovetail ways....
> ...


The machine has been sitting in an unheated shed in Texas humidity untouched for years since his dad became ill and passed, surface rust and even a little moldy looking is pretty expected, I have not seen it in person but it is under power and will run and the feed works, the son knows very little about the machinery but says other than the coolest and cut and cutters in the pic there are a bunch more cutters, dies and taps, indicators and misc, and misc stuff he is supposed to get pics of, smaller lathes and mills are few and far between in this area but I don't need something that wasn't decent when it was new.


----------



## owdlvr (Jan 13, 2016)

brino said:


> Hey Mike, can you expand on that?
> Was it difficult to get the column locked rigidly enough?
> Was it chatter?
> 
> ...



Every time you move the Z axis, which would be anytime you change tools, you have to re-tram the head and re-zero your X/Y points to the work. Round-column machines are far less "mill", and really just glorified Drill-Press with a slide table.


----------



## David VanNorman (Jan 14, 2016)

If you can get it cheap and it runs at all get it . the collets an tooling is worth a bit.


----------



## pineyfolks (Jan 14, 2016)

If you have the time to clean it and fix any problems it will at least get you machining. Any mill is better than no mill until something better comes along.


----------



## turnitupper (Jan 14, 2016)

owdlvr said:


> Every time you move the Z axis, which would be anytime you change tools, you have to re-tram the head and re-zero your X/Y points to the work. Round-column machines are far less "mill", and really just glorified Drill-Press with a slide table.


Re-tram with a $5 laser pointer and a bit of JB weld. 20 seconds.
John.


----------



## great white (Jan 14, 2016)

For 300 bucks I'd be out the door so fast it would leave burn marks on the floor.

But that's here. Metal working tools just don't show up used around these parts....


----------



## roadie33 (Jan 14, 2016)

If I was closer, I would already have had it loaded and home by now.
As was said earlier,  


pineyfolks said:


> Any mill is better than no mill until something better comes along.


----------



## barkoguru (Jan 14, 2016)

great white said:


> For 300 bucks I'd be out the door so fast it would leave burn marks on the floor.
> 
> But that's here. Metal working tools just don't show up used around these parts....


Problem is I still don't know what all goes with the machine and he hasn't set a price yet, when I know what all is included I'd like to figure a ballpark figure to throw at him before I make the drive to check it all out.


----------



## wawoodman (Jan 14, 2016)

brino said:


> Hey Mike, can you expand on that?
> Was it difficult to get the column locked rigidly enough?
> Was it chatter?
> 
> ...



What owdlvr said!

But I'm always willing to learn: turnitupper, could you expand on that method of retramming?


----------



## stupoty (Jan 14, 2016)

turnitupper said:


> Re-tram with a $5 laser pointer and a bit of JB weld. 20 seconds.
> John.



I like the er collet chuck for holding everything, helps me reduce the amount of readjusting the head.

You could look at it as an ER32 collet holder and set of collets with a free milling machine if that makes you feel better 

If it was purchased new it should be in fairly good nick so long as it hasn't had any accidents which would probably be fairly obvious.  It does just look very grubby.

I've got a slightly smaller bench mill very similar and for any of it's faults it's been very hardy and given good service for the few years that I've had it.  If you do decide to upgrade I would think you wouldn't lose money on it, although they tend to be a bit more pricy hear in the UK.

I think it's the same one that chucky2009 from youtube has recently got, he's a realy good welder thats just got into lathe and mill so you can see one being properly tortured on his channel 

Stuart


----------



## Charles Spencer (Jan 14, 2016)

I'd go on Craigslist and do a search for mills and mill/drills in your area.  If the ads are old you can see what people AREN'T getting in your area.  Here's one from Houston:

http://houston.craigslist.org/tls/5358954999.html

It looks similar and was listed for $300 about a month ago.  If you're getting a fair amount of tooling that might be a good price.

Of course, as everybody else has said, condition will most definitely into it.


----------



## barkoguru (Jan 14, 2016)

Charles Spencer said:


> I'd go on Craigslist and do a search for mills and mill/drills in your area.  If the ads are old you can see what people AREN'T getting in your area.  Here's one from Houston:
> 
> http://houston.craigslist.org/tls/5358954999.html
> 
> ...


I set up a cl alert for milling machine but I just really started seriously searching for one, I'm pretty sure someone on this forum purchased that machine and the ad is just still running.


----------



## brino (Jan 14, 2016)

owdlvr said:


> Every time you move the Z axis, which would be anytime you change tools, you have to re-tram the head and re-zero your X/Y points to the work.



I have never use one of these machines, but I think I get it.....when changing tooling you sometimes need to move the head due to the length of the tooling before it goes back up into the spindle....like a drill press. On my drill press I expect to be able to change tools (say go to a larger diameter bit) with the work clamped to the table and just simply drill, change and drill again all on the same centre. However, sometimes the tooling is too long......then I need to un-clamp the table, and therefore lose rotational reference. Major bummer! 

The difference is unclamping the _head _with the mill and the _table _with my drill press.

Something you try to plan for and workaround, unless you can't then you re-centre and move along....what a PITA!
Thanks guys!
Thanks for the education. 

-brino

I suspect this info to be useful to the OP in evaluating this machine....hopefully this is not seen as a thread hijack.


----------



## barkoguru (Jan 14, 2016)

brino said:


> I suspect this info to be useful to the OP in evaluating this machine....hopefully this is not seen as a thread hijack.


All useful info and greatly appreciated, it will be very useful for future shopping  if this one doesn't pan out.


----------



## stupoty (Jan 15, 2016)

brino said:


> I have never use one of these machines, but I think I get it.....when changing tooling you sometimes need to move the head due to the length of the tooling before it goes back up into the spindle....like a drill press. On my drill press I expect to be able to change tools (say go to a larger diameter bit) with the work clamped to the table and just simply drill, change and drill again all on the same centre. However, sometimes the tooling is too long......then I need to un-clamp the table, and therefore lose rotational reference. Major bummer!
> 
> The difference is unclamping the _head _with the mill and the _table _with my drill press.
> 
> ...



Brino has described the biggest issue with a round coloum mill , hence why I don't use a drill chuck on it and all tooling goes into a collet chuck, this instantly helps with not having to adjust the height so often.

I tend to make a quick list of the order of operations for anything that is beyond a very simple part.  This helps with reducing the "ow i've got to change the height and re center on the part" issues 

The one charles linked to on craigs list has a broken down feed knob, to me thats indicitive of it having fallen over on it's face.

On the issue of tramming , i did try and play that game once, found it to be quite a futile excercise as in my case any very fine adjustment was lost as soon as you move up or down the coloum and re clamp.

I would say they have a tolerance level and generly it's best to work around and with it than try to make it go away entirely.

Basicaly they are not a bridgeport, they wont hold the tolerance of a knee mill, they are however a lot cheeper and lighter.  This should all be taken into account when looking at them and inform your choices.

If you get. Chance for a bridgeport for 300 dollars defo go for that though  althouh all the regular caviats of does it have a crack in the casting or is their large chunks milling from the slide ways etc. etc.

Stuart


----------



## yendor (Jan 15, 2016)

The tooling shown in her pic's is worth $500.00 by itself.

So I'd say go for it.

You can always clean it up and sell it without the tooling and put the funds towards a better one if you decide it not what you want.

But you'll get some experience along the way.


----------



## barkoguru (Jan 23, 2016)

Well just an update on the Lincoln mill deal, I finally got together with the son to take a look at the mill and see what was laying around that went with it, the mill itself as someone stated before is I believe a Lincoln badged RF 30, it even has rf30 in the model number, it was purchased new by the father in 2005 at a local industrial supply house, it's got surface rust and its dirty, it looks worse in the pic than it really is, he worked mostly with aluminum and hard plastic building one off target pistols, the example I saw was very impressive, the machine is wired 110 and it ran very smooth and quiet, the power feed worked fine as well, I saw about .008 backlash on both handwheels, the ways looked good and showed no signs of rust, included would be a set of r8 collets, a set of er32 collets, an r8 to er32 holder, an mt3 to er32 holder which would work on my lathe I think, a China brand 5c collet spin indexer, several boxes of drill bits, taps, dies, some new some junk I'm sure, lots of end mills cutters, dovetail cutters, but surface rust is showing so maybe good maybe not, the er collets are showing surface rust also, this has all been setting idle a couple of years, another year and most of it will be scrap I believe, there were some assorted measuring tools but most were China and very old starrett indicators I wouldn't trust, I did see a nice mitutoyo dial caliper and a decent looking newer 6 piece 0-6" outside mic set in a nice wooden box, now all that being said the guy said he thinks it's all worth about a grand, I said I'll have to do some thinking and get back with him, what say you ? I'm open to suggestions, opinions. Based on seeing it run and what's there that may or may not be usable and taking into account the local availability of used machines or lack there of, I'm thinking around 650 tops.


----------



## TomS (Jan 24, 2016)

barkoguru said:


> Well just an update on the Lincoln mill deal, I finally got together with the son to take a look at the mill and see what was laying around that went with it, the mill itself as someone stated before is I believe a Lincoln badged RF 30, it even has rf30 in the model number, it was purchased new by the father in 2005 at a local industrial supply house, it's got surface rust and its dirty, it looks worse in the pic than it really is, he worked mostly with aluminum and hard plastic building one off target pistols, the example I saw was very impressive, the machine is wired 110 and it ran very smooth and quiet, the power feed worked fine as well, I saw about .008 backlash on both handwheels, the ways looked good and showed no signs of rust, included would be a set of r8 collets, a set of er32 collets, an r8 to er32 holder, an mt3 to er32 holder which would work on my lathe I think, a China brand 5c collet spin indexer, several boxes of drill bits, taps, dies, some new some junk I'm sure, lots of end mills cutters, dovetail cutters, but surface rust is showing so maybe good maybe not, the er collets are showing surface rust also, this has all been setting idle a couple of years, another year and most of it will be scrap I believe, there were some assorted measuring tools but most were China and very old starrett indicators I wouldn't trust, I did see a nice mitutoyo dial caliper and a decent looking newer 6 piece 0-6" outside mic set in a nice wooden box, now all that being said the guy said he thinks it's all worth about a grand, I said I'll have to do some thinking and get back with him, what say you ? I'm open to suggestions, opinions. Based on seeing it run and what's there that may or may not be usable and taking into account the local availability of used machines or lack there of, I'm thinking around 650 tops.



It would be a steal at $650.  My best guess is the mill by itself is worth about $500, maybe a bit more.  The tooling has value so add another $250.  If I was in the market for a mill drill with the tooling described above I would be willing to pay $750 for the package.  Keep in mind I'm on the West coast.  Texas prices may be different.

Good luck.  I hope it works out for you.

Tom S.


----------

