Stand for RF-45 style mill - Will it fit?

Reddinr

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I bought a Industrial Hobbies mill years ago. It is an RF-45 Clone I think, with a little bit bigger table. It is still going strong and producing parts. I have it on a huge table (like 5' x 8') I bought from Boeing Surplus. I'm running out of shop space and need to compress the mill area some. I'm thinking about just buying a Grizzly T25677 stand for it due to time limitations vs building a stand. Does anyone know the X - Y dimensions of the holes in that stand? I just want to be sure the holes in my mill will line up. There is no information I can find on the Griz. site. It says it is for the G0754/0761/0762 and those look kind of similar. I think the bases are probably the same as the one I bought. The mill I have is now called a "large 12Z bed mill" by Charter Oak. Any one know about these stands?
 
It will a lucky thing if they match up. However, just call Grizzly, They have always been very responsive to questions when I have called in the past.
 
Thanks. I always thought these things were basically the same casting, different "manufacturer" labels. I called my Grizzly about it a while back when I was first thinking about it. They couldn't tell me. They don't provide dimensions of the mounting holes on these mills (neither did IH for that matter). That always seemed like important missing information to me.
 
Griz gives the dimensions of the bases in their manuals. The G0754 is 16" W x 24" D. The G0761/0762 is 17-3/4" W x 21-5/8" D. Compare those dimensions to the dimensions of your mill's base. If the holes don't line up you can always drill new holes to match the holes in your mill.
 
Hmm. The base on mine is 16" x 28-1/4" The stand footprint is 17 x 28-3/4". I'm not even sure it will fit on this base since the top is not dimensioned and has a pan shape that might be a little smaller than the footprint. I guess I could steel rectangular tubes for spacers and deal with that. I was hoping for off the shelf. I also noticed that it is only 24" high. I have my mill at 32" High at the moment. Maybe I'll keep looking.

Next question... What are people using for a mill base for your benchtop mills?
 
My mill/drill came with a metal stand on wheels. 31" W x 31" D x 29" H. The wheels don't lock. I have not noticed my mill/drill moving when in use. The stand is made out of 2" angle iron and the top is 2x6 douglas fir. I have the mill/drill all the way to the front of the stand.

IMG_3776.JPG
 
This is my setup. I had planned to enclose it and have a full-on coolant system but never got past this point. But now the thing is just too big and I only just mist or oil or WD-40 etc. anyway.

IH_Mill_2020.jpg
 
The rolling stand underneath looks like aluminum, if that part works for you how about just changing the top. There's no getting around the table travel dimensions anyway, right?

John
 
The table frame is aluminum. Very stout aluminum. It originally came with a 4' x 8' x 1" 6061 aluminum top that I've mostly used on projects. It also had 4 x 6' linear rails on it that I have not used yet. Must have cost Boeing thousands in material and labor. Cost me ~$50 as if I recall right. I may just change the top.

But, with a smaller base I was thinking I would have room to roll other (short) equipment in underneath the table travel areas, like my small horiz. bandsaw. ... and I was thinking this table might make a good welding table by replacing the top. There we have my self-induced space problem.
 
I love that old surplus industrial stuff :encourage:

I guess if you never need to move it around you could put it on a stationary base and pack stuff underneath the table. I suspect you'll be happier fabbing one up yourself than purchasing though. One of the things I've often seen on here is people complaining about flimsy Chinese machine bases.

John
 
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