New toy, Fray 10-RHP milling machine

Hey guys,
It's been a while since I have been here. Just got a new Fray yesterday, and it was for sale right here in town.

It's a Fray 10-RHP, and it was in very decent shape all cosmolined up and collecting dust for some time by the looks of it. The only bad is the horizontal arm, spindle, and table feed drive gears (other than what was in the drive) are missing. All the motors and controls work, including the coolant pump.

I recently had Index regrind my spindle (they did a great job). I'm probably going to swap my spindle into the new toy. I wish I could keep both but no way can I afford that space!

Does anyone have some detailed pics of the horizontal arm? Evidently Axelson bought out some of Fray's patterns and continued making this miller as an Axelson Duplex. I posted on the Fray user group as well. Apparently I will be fabricating one. Luckily a friend (hint hint Mike C.!) is fabbing an arm for his old Van Norman, so I hope to catch a ride on that train.

Michael

I watched this one on ebay, I have always wanted a Fray, good luck with it!

That horizontal overhead arm looks a little thin to handle that much power. How do you think it will work?

Wow! I didn't see it on eBay! Got it for a good bit less. A guy who was on the fence about it showed up just as I was strapping it to the trailer. I agree gwilson. In the Axelson brochure, it does look a little anemic. I'm not sure how beefy the horizontal is. I would have to assume it is a light to mid-duty arbor at best. I'll mostly be using it to make custom aluminum pulls, legs, etc. for my furniture, so it should handle those chores nicely. The vert, head is 1 1/2 HP, and the Hor. is 1 HP. I like the fact you can run both heads at the same time. At 6400 max. RPM, it is also marginally useful to me as a complex mortiser for my furniture making. Yes, not ideal for the jobs or the machine, but I'm not trying to hold tenths with it.

Now I'm just swapping the best bits off of my other Fray, and will sell it to try to make back a wee bit of the money. I wish the table drive gears miraculously were exact matches to my little Logan lathe change gears, instead of splined! I guess I'll put a VFD on it.

Frays are kinda interesting. They have a pretty decent spindle, and the construction of the the vertical head castings is good and stout for its size.

There are some really piss-poor aspects about them though, at least some of the models.

The plate that holds the motor for the vertical head is way too flimsy, and made from aluminum. While the use of aluminum is OK, the cross section of the plate is too thin. Ours has broken several times, and has been beefed up by us.

The other thing that is a glaring defect, is that Fray used some nasty white metal to cast the motor and spindle pulleys. This stuff cracks and flakes terribly, and distorts over time. I can no longer use about half of the spindle speeds on my head (the lower speeds) due to big hunks of missing pulley.

The above said, I would never get rid of my Fray head. It cuts very smoothly, and since it is mounted on my Kempsmith miller, I can use the big miller's power feed. Long term plans I have had, has been to cast up a more substantial motor plate at some point, and to contrive replacement pulleys from some other material.

Agreed. Luckily the pulleys are pristine on this one. I'm also glad all the switch gear is good, I hate working on that stuff. Got any pics of your mounting plate beefup? Did it cut down on vibration? The other screwy thing is how the back gears always repeat the same way so that the gears wear in. If you take the gears apart without marking them, they are a nightmare to get back together, if there is much wear on them.

pieces en regalia said:

Wow! I didn't see it on eBay! Got it for a good bit less. A guy who was on the fence about it showed up just as I was strapping it to the trailer. I agree gwilson. In the Axelson brochure, it does look a little anemic. I'm not sure how beefy the horizontal is. I would have to assume it is a light to mid-duty arbor at best. I'll mostly be using it to make custom aluminum pulls, legs, etc. for my furniture, so it should handle those chores nicely. The vert, head is 1 1/2 HP, and the Hor. is 1 HP. I like the fact you can run both heads at the same time. At 6400 max. RPM, it is also marginally useful to me as a complex mortiser for my furniture making. Yes, not ideal for the jobs or the machine, but I'm not trying to hold tenths with it.

Now I'm just swapping the best bits off of my other Fray, and will sell it to try to make back a wee bit of the money. I wish the table drive gears miraculously were exact matches to my little Logan lathe change gears, instead of splined! I guess I'll put a VFD on it.

Click to expand...

did you manage to sell that Fray? and would you happen to have any leftover Fray Head parts? Going out on a limb trying to find a spindle splined drive shaft for this machine

There is a whole machine for sale on fb marketplace, $800.

sandiapaul said:

There is a whole machine for sale on fb marketplace, $800.

FRAY All Angle Milling Machine

Fray All Angle Milling Machine Model Number: 10RH Serial Number: 1673

www.facebook.com

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Funny, that’s the machine I’m looking at buying. The thing is, I’m looking for parts for that very machine because it has a damaged spindle shaft

sandiapaul said:

There is a whole machine for sale on fb marketplace, $800.

FRAY All Angle Milling Machine

Fray All Angle Milling Machine Model Number: 10RH Serial Number: 1673

www.facebook.com

Click to expand...

And if I don’t end up picking it up, Mike “Tools” has dibs on it

Sc0tt said:

And if I don’t end up picking it up, Mike “Tools” has dibs on it

Click to expand...

Oddly I have looked for one of these for...literally 40 years. And now after I have decided I'm done buying machinery one pops up near me! Good luck whoever gets it!