Hi, Went to Wholesale tool today in Houston and picked up my mill. Going to get started with it manual and hope to convert it to cnc by this summer, More details on my purchase in a bit. Tried to attach some pics. Dave

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=30367&stc=1&d=1169865459

Pics I hope :)

Ive been lurking on here a while and decided that I had to have a mill. Have projects waiting on this machine! Saw the IH mill and thought YES thats the one I want but then found out I couldnt get one for 3 months or so and patience is not in my vocabulary. Then saw the Lathemaster and considered driving over to baton rouge and picking it up, until I discovered that Wholesale tools had the Zay7045 available at their north houston store about 30 min from my house. Im going to weld up a stand for it this weekend and hope to start playing with it a bit. Dave

Hi,I too have been lurking for a couple of months. I have a IH mill I got from Arron before he went out of business back in Dec. I'm welding up a table for it now, just taking a break. I'm using 3/8 x 4" x 3" angle iron scrap that was given to me. I hope to finish in a couple of days. Here are some quick pics. The mill in one of the pics in under the plastic bag.

Thanks for taking the plunge...

I have been lurking around these forums for a while now. I keep bouncing between which mill to get. Every time that I have narrowed it down to an X3, I keep thinking that I should brave I-10 and get a ZAY from Lathemasters. I am in Houston, also. I had no clue that there was a supplier of the ZAYs here. The M is a little more than the FG, I am looking forward to hear what you think of it. I am really hoping that you give an idea of its cutting ability with small tools in mild steel and aluminum.



Best wishes

Congrats on the new mill!

I really like my IH mill, and have heard all the ZAY-style mills are pretty similar. Since getting it I've made a table, power feed, DRO, and powered drawbar for it. You can see all those mods here:

http://www.cnccookbook.com/CCProjects.htm

Lots can be done on these machines!

Best,

BW

Great website. How thick is that plate on your mill stand? I'm going to use 1/2" plate on mine. I want this table sturdy.

Great website. How thick is that plate on your mill stand? I'm going to use 1/2" plate on mine. I want this table sturdy.

The plate is 1/4", and the stand is way over built at that. I wouldn't spend the $$$ for 1/2".

Best,

BW

Bob I just had a look at your site and just wanted to say that the Antikythera Mechanism looks absolutely fantastic even if it is just a rendering. I never heard of it before but Im on my way to google it now and see what I can find out! :) I dont have the tools to make one from metal, but maybe (BIG Maybe!) I could eventually make one from wood. Plenty of people have made wooden clock gears and clocks. I feel a new obsession coming on. :) L8rs.

Dave sorry for butting in on the thread. New mill looks great, wish I had one. :)

Damn Bob your site rules, I,m still wiping the saliva off my keyboard after taking the HomeShop Hall of Fame tour. Davo good buy on the mill ya can,t go wrong with that purchase.

All steel for the table is scrap that was given to me. Didn't have anything thinner than 1/2" plate for the top. I didn't spend a thing for this project.:)

Hello, Thanks for all the comments and feel free to add anything :) I made my stand yesterday evening and got the mill on it and up and runnning. I will add a tray to catch coolant and a shelf underneath to hold the coolant tank later. Last night I just wanted to make it run and make some chips. I took the motor and then the gearbox off it before I lifted the main body of it up on the stand with my engine hoist. Its still heavy that way but fully assembled its too un-nerving trying to pick it up that high with the hoist to put it on the stand. I had an aluminum flange that I had cut off a 4 cyl intake manifold and clamped it to the table and milled the uneven side flat with a 1/2 in 2 flute endmill- nothing broke or went flying across the room so must be good! I bought a hold down kit from wholesale tools but its the wrong size width on the slot inserts so I need to return it. They gave me the 5/8 one and I need 1/2 in width. Dave

I made the stand with wheels on the 2 rear legs and steel feet on the front, this way I can use a floor jack to pick it up under the front lower cross bar and manuever it around the garage easily if I need to but it sits nice and stable with no movement or jiggle when Im operating it. Dave

Thanks for the kudos, guys.

Davo, looks like a nice setup. You'll want to get some nice name brand endmills--they make all the difference in how these Asian mills cut. ebay is your friend on those.

If you haven't already, tram the mill, and be on the lookout for a used Kurt vise on eBay.

Take a look at the Industrial Hobbies web site. There are tons of good tips there that will work for these mills. Now is also a good time to look at squaring the mill by shimming the column.

As I said before, I think these mills are great in what they can do.

Best,

BW

Thanks Bob

Given that Industrial Hobbies is reinventing itself, and that there are a lot of fine similar ZAY mills from many sources, I kind of wish CNCZone would retitle the Industrial Hobbies forum "ZAY" or "Rong Fu" mills. Seems like everyone would benefit from having that content all in one place.

Just an idea.

Best,

BW

Congrats on the purchase. i was tempted to buy the RF-45 clones as well until i say the IH model. it is bigger and i wanted the best bang for the buck. since i'm working in my basement a bridgeport is not an option. this mill is about as large of a peice of machinery as i want to move down the stairs.

i think the section should be called square column mills, that way it won't single out any one of them.