Enco 105-1110/RF-30 just landed in my shop...

[TerryH]

Evening all. Well, the "I gotta have a mill" bug has bitten. Unfortunately budget and room are both a little short. I had pretty much resigned myself to a mini mill and was ready tom buy one on the recent 20%/$100 off deal on Ebay but passed to give Craig's list some more time. Not a lot of used inventory of such in my neck of the woods and when there is it's either. "It's only been sitting outside for the last few years", "It was lovingly cared for while being run 24/7/365 with zero maintenance for the last 30 years", or the opposite end of the spectrum and "It's perfect and I only want $15,000 for it."

But along came this Enco RF-30 a couple of hours away yesterday morning. I freely admit to knowing painfully little about mills but I really want to learn and don't mind putting in a little sweat equity if it's a decent machine which I believe I have found. Older gentleman selling it. He bought it in new 1996 and it's been in his garage ever since. Mostly used as a drill press on wood with very little metal work. He painted it blue as he had worked in a factory that had all green machines and he didn't want a green on at home or so was the story anyway. He told me that everything he had for it was included. Decent bit of tooling, original vice, original manual etc... He build a base to store the tooling. I drove to see it today and it ran perfectly. Very quiet and smooth. I'll do some further evaluation tomorrow but I plan to disassemble and restore it. I paid him $500 for everything. I could tell that he was parting with an old friend so hung out with him for quite a while just listening to his stories. He had taken a milling class when he first got it and he gave me his text books and his workbook from that class. He also had photos of the machine right after he built the base and painted it along with the tooling and clamping kit. Those acted as a reference for him so he could get everything back how it was supposed to be.

I'll be building a new base as part of my restoration. The thing that will bug me from now on is that he was not careful at all with his drilling so the table is marked up pretty extensively. Open to suggestions if there is anyone that has any ideas. Lots of the damage is shallow so perhaps have it surface ground would help? Anyway, I'll begin to process it's needs and my wants tomorrow. For now here's a bunch of "as found" photos to get things started. Comments as suggestions are welcome.







And the table. I realize this is just cosmetic but I hope to be able to at least make it a bit better.





Many parts of it are pretty pristine. All the tags and decals are near perfect.









And some included extras...

 

[TerryH]

These are some of the pictures he took and kept all these years...







The text books and work book from his milling class...





The original manual...



His delivery date note...



I'm looking very forward to the process. These books, photos and the story in general make this even more special to me. he asked me to send him some photos when I'm done even though he know that I'm going to paint it back that "ugly green." lol... More to come...

And thanks once again to @mikey for his help and putting up with all me stupid questions.

 

[ttabbal]

Good deal Terry! You've got a good pack of tooling to work with there.

For the table, the Bridgeport restoration book I bought has a section about table repairs. The short version is that holes are fine, but burs sticking up are a problem. They recommend a flat stone to knock them down. There's also some info about filling them in. Mine had a few as well, but the previous owner had stoned it nice and flat. I don't mind the dings as I generally plan to work with the vise. Let me know if you want more info from that. Perhaps I can scan that page for you.

 

[TerryH]

Good deal Terry! You've got a good pack of tooling to work with there.

For the table, the Bridgeport restoration book I bought has a section about table repairs. The short version is that holes are fine, but burs sticking up are a problem. They recommend a flat stone to knock them down. There's also some info about filling them in. Mine had a few as well, but the previous owner had stoned it nice and flat. I don't mind the dings as I generally plan to work with the vise. Let me know if you want more info from that. Perhaps I can scan that page for you.

Thanks! I'm pretty proud of it. Would appreciate learning anything on repairing the table.

 

[dtsh]

I'd say you got a pretty good deal. I have a HF mill/drill and I'm quite satisfied with it. I bought mine new and I can tell you I'd have been tickled to find that locally on CL for that price.

As for the dimples in the table, ignore them if you can, they look superficial and not likely to affect how well a part can be held. If you find they affect the table's flatness, you could probably clean and fill them with epoxy, but then you would have to make sure you take the epoxy down to the surface of the table afterwards and that's going to be more difficult. I would enjoy it for what it is and think of the dimples as price-reducing character.

 

[craptain]

I would be very very happy with that machine for that price, and I am sure that you will be. Overall it's in much nicer condition than mine, except for the table. And mine cost more with less tooling and extras. Congratulations.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

 

[Richard King 2]

What a good deal. I can relate to selling my "stuff" hard to part with my tools as you said "an old friend" I would suggest you either phone the old gentleman and invite him down for a visit or send him a copy of this thread. Printed pictures and all. You sound as if you will make the machines old friend very proud. Good Karma

The table has a lot of experience...character some would say. I will be happy to advise on the table repair. I suggest you buy some Vactra 2 way oil to oil it up now and then too.... Rich

 

[Dave Paine]

You got a very good deal, perhaps 1/2 of what I would see in my area.

The picture of the mill in his shop with the piece of wood explains how he got so many hiccups in the table due to not having sacrificial boards behind the pieces being drilled.

As others have mentioned, stoning to remove edges and burrs is all you need. The vise will cover the hiccups in the middle. On my milling machine I use UHMW covers on either side. If you did something similar you would rarely see the hiccups.

I love these covers. They reflect light which is desirable for the present lighting situation. They also protect the table from tooling or work hitting the table when "Murphy" pays a visit. Also much easier to clean up chips and debris with the flat surfaces.

I am not using flooded coolant. If I did I could just slide the covers to provide more space for the coolant to drain off the vise into the slots in the table.



I would consider mounting the vise without the rotary base unless you need the swivel for a project. The mill does not have a lot of Z axis capacity so the rotary base will consume some much needed travel capacity.

 

[ttabbal]

I like the idea of the covers. I might have to come up with something like that.

I've read that the swivel base can also affect rigidity. I haven't tested it, but it makes sense. I have mine oiled and stored for later.

 

[dlane]

I redid a clausing dp lately with the arc of shame on the table , I filled the holes with jb weld ,let it set up till stiff and took a utility knife blade and shaved off the extra, after hard a flat fine file did a good job of surface finish, looks good to me.