Authentic Rong Fu RF-20 Mill

[bevins]

IS this mill capable of being converted to CNC? I got it for nothing and would like to conver it. Any mod/kits for it out there?

Thanks,

Bob

[jalessi]

Bob,

I do not know if this company still has kits available for the RF-20 however its worth the trouble to fabricate one yourself if you need a small CNC machine.

See the links below for more details.

http://www.motiongroup.info/Pages/Retrofit.shtml

http://www.motiongroup.info/CNC/CNC_Drawings.shtml

Jeff...

[adx]

I just chucked some 34-size stepper motors directly on the end of the X and Y shafts (with couplings that mate with the existing handle drive so it's easy to put a handle back on if needed, motors loosely prevented from rotating but otherwise just hang off the shafts), and rigged up a toothed belt drive to the Z axis handle using a smaller motor. No homing, limits etc. I drive this from an existing drive system (added relays to switch between machines).

It has become so useful that I almost never use the other machine (a router), and the motors rarely come off now.

Small mills are the perfect target for retrofits because they aren't (too) hard to do and are already set up with clamping, tooling, spindle etc that are easily forgotten on a scratch build. Also even a partial job (eg just one axis, or no Z axis) can be useful. Still took a lot longer than it should have, but as I said, I use it.