I see enco has mills on sale right now. Has anyone used the Rong Fu mill? I've never seen one. They claim they come from the same plant as Jet. That doesn't mean they are the same though.

All of these machines are the same. The only design difference is in tables spec's. There is a quality difference between different between them. If you want to find out more on these machines then go to the yahooo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mill_drill/
Ray

[This message has been edited by m1carbine (edited 01-15-2002).]

I have been a machinist/tool maker, for about 25 years. I have purchased machines both large and small, American, and Chinese. Heres the way it works, there are several companies that import this stuff, ie. Jet and Grizzly (among others) those companies sort the decent machines out and sell off the rest to places like Enco. Most of this stuff can be worked with as long as you can deal with the inherent inability of these machines to hold tight tolerances and repeatability, and have the skills and experience to do set ups that make up for the short comings of the machines, that is they tend to be a bit sloppy. If they are not sloppy when you get them they will soon become that way. If you really want to buy a mill, you would be better served to shop around for a used Bridgeport. I have one that was made before I was born (1958) and It works very well, and will out last any number of Chinese mill-drills. I picked it up from a community college for $800. If you buy a Chinese machine I would go with one of the direct importers. I have seen some Grizzly equipment that looked pretty good. I work in a prototype shop for a plastic manufacturer right now, and elsewhere in the building (one of the maintenance shops) we have a new Jet lathe. The guys from that shop, frequently come down to use my 52 year old LeBlond. That pretty much tells the story. Good luck, and good shootin'

[This message has been edited by 375hnh (edited 01-15-2002).]

375 hnh who do you think is on the top of the Taiwanese heap as far as quality goes Jet or Grizzly?

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NRA Life member

I talked to the tech. dept at Enco. They said that machines like their enco brand and Harbor freight come from China. They say Jet, Grizzly , Rong Fu come from Tiawan. I've seen the Harbor Freight machines and don't want one of them. I have used a Jet machine that was pretty good, if the Rong Fu is similar to that it is probably ok. I just missed a nice Bridgport at a school auction by 30 bucks! It had a lot of tooling too.

I totaly agree with 375Hnh these macines will never live up to a bridgeport and yu can find a used bridgeport for around a few grand. Even though it's used you will have a better machine to begin with. I've been a tool maker for 12 years and used belt change bridgeports that are almost as good as new.
For a hobby gunsmith I would recomend a accra mill and accra turn mill and lathe, But these machine cost about $8,000.00 each
so i think you would be better off to find a used machine
Kerr

Is that enco or emco?

H

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Bear claw, I like the Grizzly machines as far as imports. Like I said, if you have the skill and patience, you can make most anything work. You just get more bang for your buck with the old american stuff IMO.

aHunter, These guys are refering to Enco. It's a company here in the states, based in Chicago, and Minnesota, that sells budget priced machine tools and accessories. Emco is a company from, I believe Sweden, that sells really high quality toolroom equipment

Ex-Cello is a good Bridgeport style mill. The company may be out of business but the quality will last a life time. I myself like a good, well kept Bridgeport. With a DRO (digital read out) on it. Cincinnati made some mills. As for Enco, you get what you pay for. Some thing's you should by cheap, others spend the money. In the end you will get it back. Emco makes nice small lathes and mills. You can find them in a magazine called Homeshop machinist. I have a Rung Fu saw. I am not worried about getting my money back from that. Mark