Upgrading an ENCO RF 30 Drill/Mill

When I first went into my firearms repair business venture I needed a milling machine of some sort to do sight work, scope mounting, modifications, etc, etc. As I was on a budget (and a small one at that), I chose an ENCO RF 30 Drill/Mill as my first machine. I knew at some point that it would need replacement as I suspected that its life would be short lived and it would only be fairly accurate. Well, I've used this machine now for just over fifteen years and done some very good work with it. Now, as a disclaimer, I will admit up front that I've needed to use dial indicators on all axis's in order to hold the tolerances required by my standards for the work being performed. While not terribly onerous, it still is a pain to have to shift, relocate, or otherwise mess with the indicators while performing some work.

So, fifteen years later, I'm faced with the need (or desire, if you will) to upgrade to a better machine.

As many people in this position I'm faced with the cost of the new machine. A new "Bridgeport" type milling machine, at the least cost, is approximately $3,800.00 from Harbor Freight.

Now some people could say "I'm not buying some cheap A** import machine! It won't last!"

Well, I'm here to tell you that unless you are running production work sixteen hours a day, five days a week, there is a very good chance it will last you your entire life.

Some folks might go on further to say, "It's not made in America, I won't buy it!"

Well, let me step back a moment and complicate matters further. I have also been shopping for a new lathe. The little Atlas lathe I've been using for fifteen years was pretty much gone when I got it and the passage of time hasn't made things any better. Another Clausing lathe to replace it would cost over $10,000, with delivery costs from the East Coast. A Grizzly lathe would cost me around $2,700.00 and I could drive out to pick it up. To have it delivered to my door would have been less that $250.00.

All that being said, I couldn't afford to buy two new machines, and of the two, I needed the lathe more.

I began to consider what I might do to modify my Drill/Mill to make it easier to work with.

There were two issues I had to address. The first was power feed for the X-axis. There have been many times my arm got plenty tired cranking the table back and forth. A purchase from Harbor Freight for $251.90 for an X-axis power feed (delivered) solved this problem. I was one happy camper. It installed with no problems and works just fine. The next problem was addressing how to improve accuracy and reduce the amount of work on my part. SMW Precision of Spokane Washington sells some attractively priced digital readout's for both milling machines and lathes. I ordered a three-axis linear scale unit from Ken Emmert of SMW and installed it on my Drill/Mill. The unit installed fairly easily with a few custom deviations because of my Type A personality and worked well.

However I discovered a small problem. The units turned out to be sensitive to humidity and required the scale units to be dried out with a hair dryer before using the Drill/Mill each time. Apparently my shop was more humid than I had ever envisioned.

Over the course of several months I had discussed the issue of humidity with Ken over the phone, and finally decided to upgrade to a glass scale unit. Ken was kind enough to credit me full cost of the previous scale unit and sent me a glass scale unit charging me for the difference which left me with a $700.00 purchase.

Again, the installation went fine, with some exceptions for my Type A personality. I had to modify the face plate for the Z-axis to accommodate the quill stop, make a spacer for the Z-axis scale unit, and changed the mounting brackets for both the X and Y scales. I will remind you that my Drill/Mill is over fifteen years old, and some specifications have changed during that time. SMW precision was more than accommodating for my needs and bent over backwards to meet my desires.

The end result? For less than a third of the cost of a new machine I now have a machine that is more accurate, takes the strain off the operator, and will do 90% of the work that I require without any too much skull sweat on my part. This is in contrast to my spending an additional $3,800.00 for a knee mill, another $280.00 or so for a power feed, and another $850.00 plus for a DRO, which I see as a requirement to get the accuracy I feel is necessary.

I hope this short article makes it easier for some of you other "up and coming" gunsmiths to make a decision regarding your tools of the trade.

Regards,
Eric