Thinking about a Lathe and Milling Machine

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FINE! :)

I responded to the ad. But it's also fairly old - we'll see if I get a response or if it's still valid.
 
Daleandee said:
I hope he does and that he hurries as I don't believe that deal will last too long ...
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According to Craigslist, it was posted a month ago, last updated 19 days ago. So that doesn't exactly sound promising.
 
THAT is a great deal. LOVE the KT 2H plain horizontal. About useless to ya, but a SUPER machine. Mount the head from the Bridgeport on it…

3 axis power feed AND rapid traverse. Super super rigid and accurate. It’s a Swiss clock… The war finish is just a historical bonus.

The little lathe is as nice as ever made. May not have threading.

Did I hear your truck start up and back up to the trailer? Take lots of straps… the six head drill press* is top heavy.

*AWESOME find. Those tables make the best work benches EVER. Great drill presses to, and now you have spares to give away as stocking stuffers for your friends.
 
Ted said:
According to Craigslist, it was posted a month ago, last updated 19 days ago. So that doesn't exactly sound promising.
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It may not sell as quickly as I thought considering the fact that the age of real machinist using such tools and equipment seems to be fading away. Now everyone wants CNC stuff ...
 
Where you are located is going to have a big impact on how easy it's going to be to find something. The other factor is how much space you have.

I used a Shoptask BridgeMill for about 5 years. It was pain when I needed to go back and forth between lathe and mill but if you don't have a lot of room and don't work on large pieces, they're great. I made many parts for my plane. And a few parts for other builders.

When I got a little more room I started looking for a lathe and mill. But one bad thing about the Florida Panhandle is there isn't much available. Upper midwest is where it seems everything is. I found a nice mill a mile from my old house in Northern Illinois.

After over a year of searching I bit the bullet and made the drive to Ocala for a South Bend 10L (Heavy 10). The downside to a purchase like that is you drive over 4 hours one way dragging a trailer only to find out that it's not exactly as advertised. In my case I got lucky and it was exactly as advertised. Appears to be a 60 vintage but no serial number so that's just a guess. Came with 3 and 4 jaw chucks. I made a 5C collet drawbar so I can you that to hold work as well.

I wanted a Bridgeport but just didn't have the room. Rockwell and Clausing have really nice mid-size knee mills. I kept watching for anything in the 500mi range to pop up but nothing ever did. So I ended up with a never used Grizzly 0759. I had to drive all the way up to Birmingham for it but fortunately it all fit in the back of my Explorer so I didn't have to spend 10 hours on backroads pulling the trailer. It's not a Bridgeport or a Clausing, but so far it's working well. Better than the old 3-in-1 that it replaced.
 

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That Craigslist setup in Chicago is still for sale. However, the Bridgeport is sold and getting picked up tomorrow. Bummer. I don't think it's worth the drive for the rest of the items given how much I don't need. I already have a good drill press (old Atlas), and really a proper knee/vertical mill and a lathe gets me 100% of what I need.

I'll keep searching around here...
 
donjohnston said:
The other factor is how much space you have.
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I'm very fortunate in that regard. My shop is pretty large and, while it's pretty full as well, I can make room for those tools.
 
Uh… that 2H will do a boatload more than the B-port was EVER capable of doing. Worth a serious lowball.

I used to have a spare vert head for one… Still, find ANY vert mill head and adapt to it, then you have the convenience of a vert. And the capability of a horiz.
 
Tools said:
Uh… that 2H will do a boatload more than the B-port was EVER capable of doing. Worth a serious lowball.

I used to have a spare vert head for one… Still, find ANY vert mill head and adapt to it, then you have the convenience of a vert. And the capability of a horiz.
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So explain to me where I would want/use a horizontal mill. I see a lot more of them for sale and honestly don’t understand what I’d use it for, despite being a mechanical engineer.
 
It’s just a spindle orientation. Less convenient, but flatly can do ANYTHING a vert mill can do.

For the stuff you generally think about having usually considered a vert mill, you’ll need a right angle plate to hold work.

You need to bore into the end of a pipe (so you can precisely fit a fitting of some kind), well, a vert mill is usually unable unless it’s a pretty short pipe. I’ve done this a lot.

A big old shop made flycutter makes short work of flattening something pretty large, where a 1” endmill on a vert takes a dozen passes. Most verts can’t handle a big old fly cutter.

They’re a pain, but CRAZY capable for a fraction of the price. Power feed in ALL THREE axis is super nice, as is rapid traverse. That’ll spoil ya in a minute.
 
Thanks, Tools, that description helps and gets me thinking.

So, how would you go about converting a horizontal mill to a vertical? (or adapting that vertical head if that's the more accurate way to put it)
 
There are adapters that merely slide onto the overarms, and the head bolts to that.

Not the easiest thing on the planet to make, but completely doable. Finding them commercially is hit and miss…. I’ve got one that adapts a b-port to a brown and sharp horiz… which unfortunately does you no good! If I can find it, a picture would do you a world of good.
 
Thanks, all good points.

I'm going to think about this some more and see what that Craigslist guy has to say tomorrow, as well as what the "Just come take it" price would be. Might make it worth the trip since I've got the equipment to haul it all away.

So, now let's look at something different. There's a guy in Rolla MO (not far from here) with 4 mills he's trying to offload. Prices are cheap, moving sale. Here's one:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115580726520?hash=item1ae925ecf8:g:I4UAAOSwY4ljPYFk

All 4 are basically described the same - not usable today, was going to do a CNC conversion, ready to retrofit. If you check the guy's other items you can see what else there is. Two Hurcos and two Trees.

So, let's say I don't care about the CNC aspect (because I don't). Are these candidates for converting to manual? Or are they basically very large paperweights?
 
Oh man…. Tempting but probably paperweights.

First, ball screw lead screws aren’t suitable for manual machines… that alone kinda shuts it all down.

Now, if CHEAP enough, like can get money back in scrap, just the head fitted to the horiz mill MAY be workable. We are quickly approaching the normal sorts of messes I get myself into…

I love this stuff almost as much as flying machines!
 
Thanks, that’s what I had figured. I got enough to do that I don’t need to buy something just to scrap, so probably not for me.

More looking…
 
Tools said:
You guys are missing the point…

AND you can buy thousands of pounds worth of TOOLS! Woo hoo!
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Also and...all the tools you can make with your machine tools. I think between making tools and all other projects, I'm about 50/50 on the lathe so far.

ElPaso Pilot said:
Hmmm...

I would like to file a complaint with the local FSDO.
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Ha. Hard to get more "owner-produced" than that!
 
I've had a few conversations with that CraigsList ad in Chicago. If the Bridgeport was still available, I'd make the trip. But for what's left, it's not worth it (although the pricing still is good).
 
I've been doing some more searching over the weekend. It seems most of the places selling this equipment are companies, so more ads will be M-F rather than on the weekend, which makes sense.

I think I'm leaning towards a standard Bridgeport mill that everybody is familiar with if I can find one that I'm satisfied with. Everyone knows the things. It just seems like the easy button, and I'm not finding much else around besides Bridgeports anyway.

For a lathe, it seems like there are a lot more options and I tend to feel like this one is a bit harder. I measured some of the things I would want to do work on. Realistically, I think that an 8-9" swing lathe probably could do about 90% of what I'd want to do. However there are some things where having a larger lathe would be nice (reducing weight on connecting rods come to mind). Bed length I think I could basically do fine with anything. But I'm also seeing larger sized lathes (say in the 13-15" swing) and I wouldn't use that size most of the time, but I could see times when it would be useful.

So one question regarding a lathe - does a large swing lathe tend to become problematic for working with smaller items?
 
Ted said:
I've been doing some more searching over the weekend. It seems most of the places selling this equipment are companies, so more ads will be M-F rather than on the weekend, which makes sense.

I think I'm leaning towards a standard Bridgeport mill that everybody is familiar with if I can find one that I'm satisfied with. Everyone knows the things. It just seems like the easy button, and I'm not finding much else around besides Bridgeports anyway.

For a lathe, it seems like there are a lot more options and I tend to feel like this one is a bit harder. I measured some of the things I would want to do work on. Realistically, I think that an 8-9" swing lathe probably could do about 90% of what I'd want to do. However there are some things where having a larger lathe would be nice (reducing weight on connecting rods come to mind). Bed length I think I could basically do fine with anything. But I'm also seeing larger sized lathes (say in the 13-15" swing) and I wouldn't use that size most of the time, but I could see times when it would be useful.

So one question regarding a lathe - does a large swing lathe tend to become problematic for working with smaller items?
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You can run into RPM limitations on bigger machines.

My thought on lathe is go as big as you can (within reason). The one I have in the shop at the moment is a 14" swing and I'll be damned if everything I want to turn on it isn't 14.1" :D
I've never found my 14" too large for even tiny parts.
Anything under 16" should be fine for what you want to do, bigger than that and you're probably looking at overkill.
 
Justin Brady said:
You can run into RPM limitations on bigger machines.

My thought on lathe is go as big as you can (within reason). The one I have in the shop at the moment is a 14" swing and I'll be damned if everything I want to turn on it isn't 14.1" :D
I've never found my 14" too large for even tiny parts.
Anything under 16" should be fine for what you want to do, bigger than that and you're probably looking at overkill.
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Thanks, that’s more or less exactly what I was thinking but I wanted to get some input first.
 
Ted said:
So one question regarding a lathe - does a large swing lathe tend to become problematic for working with smaller items?
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Mine's a 14" swing x 6' bed, and I made these little 1/4" thumbscrews on it:

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Actually all the work I've done on it has been pretty small. I was fortunate to get several chucks with it, one of which being a little 6" that accommodates small parts nicely. One thing to consider is that different companies used different threads on the spindle, so backplates can be hard to find for less common makes like hendey. Of course if you have the lathe and one chuck, you can always make more.
 
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I've got a tentative deal on a Bridgeport, planning to pick it up tomorrow. More details after I get it. Also have a VFD on the way to hook it up. With any luck, I'll get it running this weekend, we'll see.

Any recommended reference guides I should pick up, and recommendations on tools I should get for it? Obviously end mills.
 
Clamp kit and good vise.

Good dial or digital micrometer.

Chip brushes for clearing swarf.

Anti fatigue mat on which to stand.

GOOD shop light.


Oh, CONGRATULATIONS!
 
The tools I use all the time are a basic set of endmills and a set of collets to hold them. You'll also want a drill chuck to turn your mill into the ultimate drill press. I mentioned a good vise earlier, you'll need a set of parallels to effectively use it. You'll need a dial test indicator and a means of holding it in the head to square the head and the vise to the table.

Like everything else, but probably moreso in this case, youtube is your friend.
 
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What a hoss. How are the ways in the center vs the end of travel?
 
Do not cheap out on a vise... Spend the $ for a Kurt or if you feel froggy, then an Orange.
 
A drop deck trailer? Cheating….

I do put my machines on 4x4 feet so I can pallet Jack around the shop until they get comfortable.

Then of course the plan is to remove, jack hammer out the floor, pour a proper pad and foundation, level, grout…. Which has never happened. I get used to the extra height!

Now congrats?!!
 
Tools said:
A drop deck trailer? Cheating….

I do put my machines on 4x4 feet so I can pallet Jack around the shop until they get comfortable.

Then of course the plan is to remove, jack hammer out the floor, pour a proper pad and foundation, level, grout…. Which has never happened. I get used to the extra height!

Now congrats?!!
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Could have used that while moving a 600lbs gun safe this past weekend, lol. Luckily the 10ft-long ramp and a lightly-sloped driveway worked just fine for loading/unloading from a standard utility trailer.
 
Ok, here's what I got.

This is a Bridgeport Series II Special mill. According to @Mtns2Skies and Google, this is basically the standard Series I Bridgeport that everyone knows and loves on steroids. It's bigger, heavier, has more features, more capable, and was supposed to be a higher quality unit (from an already high quality unit), mostly for shops who needed them for bigger jobs.

Really, this is more than what I need. But that's also Ted doing Ted things, and I got it for a very good price. At some point it was used with a CNC attachment which is now defunct (or at least essentially so). It's also still fully manual. I need to spend time going through some things.

The first thing is to go through, figure out WTF everything is, and give it a good cleaning and lubrication. The bed itself is really in pretty good shape, but it, too, needs a cleaning. Any general suggestions on cleaning and lubrication I'd be appreciative of.

I need to spend time figuring out what all of the different levers and buttons and stuff does. My VFD showed up today. The motor I'm a bit unsure of some things relating to. It has a sticker on it that says "Wired 460V". The placard on the motor has 220V specs and 460V specs. I really don't know how to tell the difference from a practical standpoint. Obviously, I don't want to blow up the motor. Any tips there would be appreciated as well.

The location in the shop is not permanent, but while I clean it, that seems like a good place for it to be.

I'm excited! :)
 
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