Checking Mill not under power?

[hman]

I am trying to figure out if it has been repainted. If they did, it was a decent job. Hard to tell in pictures.

If it was ever repainted, for sure it wasn't recently, and definitely not a "lipstick on a pig" job for the sake of a quick sale. Both photos show areas where the paint job has worn away or been chipped off. I'll go +1 on others' comments and suggestions. Jet has a good reputation for machinery, though IMHO they do list for inordinately high prices.

An examination of the table surface will let you know if it's been abused, or used by indifferent jerks. Then do as careful an examination of the gib surfaces as you can. Also give the table a "shake" test, to check for worn or misadjusted gibs. You can check for spindle smoothness by manually moving the belts. And -worst case scenario- if the motor is shot, it shouldn't be too expensive to replace it. Maybe bring along a multimeter, to check the motor windings.

Best of luck! If that mill is what it appears to be, you'll have a great deal. Also ask about how much tooling might be included!

 

[T Bredehoft]

Witihout personal knowlege I'd say yes, with the probable removal of the motor, or swivel the ram 90º and then swing the head and motor down. but then it's no longer centrally balanced.

Update.
Silly me, hadn't thought about dropping the knee, of course that's the way to go.

 

[Hozzie]

Witihout personal knowlege I'd say yes, with the probable removal of the motor, or swivel the ram 90º and then swing the head and motor down. but then it's no longer centrally balanced.

Yeah, if it does, the motor doesn't have to be removed from the others I have seen. You just lower the knee as low as it will go and then the head rotates 180 degrees and you move the knee back up and support the head with a block of wood. I am just not sure if this particular model head is meant to go around 180 degrees in the vertical position.

 

[markba633csi]

I'm sure the articulation of the head is just like a Bridgeport
As far a clones go you could do far worse than Jet
-Mark

 

[Hozzie]

Well, I drove over this morning. It was well taken care of, but had been used a lot. I didn’t see any flaking left on the ways, both axis had about 35 thousandths backlash although the DRO worked well. He did move it to power and I was able to run it. Was in general good but had a little noise above 2000 rpm.

In the end I decided to pass on it. Just little things overall that I felt like could become bigger issues later.

Thanks for everyone’s input.