Mysterious Milling Machine

[Skowinski]

This popped up on the local Craigslist. Looks like it has a fair bit of tooling, could probably be had for $500 or so, and from the pics isn't beat up, maybe little use. It's advertised as a "Progress CTV 500 Milling Machine". Tried searching the interwebs for information on these, but no luck, and it's obviously Asian made, somewhere there. Does anyone know about these things - should I go look at it, or laugh and log off Craigslist?

 

[Robert LaLonde]

Its a bit odd looking isn't it. Looks like a square column with a round column head. I think you should go look at it just so you can tell us all how that works out.

 

[Terrywerm]

It looks a lot like a drill press head mounted on a column and x-y table. It would probably work great as a heavy drill press and for some light milling. It might be worth a look if the price is right, but I would not be willing to give a whole lot for it since I know that it would not be up to the task for many of my projects.

 

[Dave Paine]

I also do not know anything about this machine. I would ask what type of taper is in the quill and whether the quill has a drawbar. If it is based on a drill press head, it may have MT2 or MT3 and no drawbar which would be fine for drilling, but I would not want to do any milling without a drawbar.

 

[markba633csi]

Looks like the head moves up and down but the motor doesn't. Probably little useful travel since there is some type of sliding coupling involved. Put a vise on it and there goes most of the room..
Like Terry said, a glorified drill press, but possibly a bit better than a round column machine
Mark

 

[bl00]

Lathes.co.uk says it's a (mostly) copy of the Vernon jig borer: http://www.lathes.co.uk/vernon/page2.html

You can still buy a version of it here: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/mini-MILLING-MACHINE_240513802.html

 

[RJSakowski]

It is an odd looking duck. It has the x-y table of a mill and a faqirly sturdy column but doesn't seem to have the fine feed that a mill/drill has. It looks like R8 tooling but hard to tell for sure. The motor is a 3/4hp input, probably 1/2 hp out which is fairly light for a mill. The tools shown in the tool box, last picture in the ad, look more like junk.

You might try searching on Elliott Progress. Elliott appears to make some industrial machines and this may be an attempt at a low end entry into the market for them.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

Hi Skowinski,
the mill drills are useful for light milling, but mostly for drilling
just about anytime you have a dual purpose machine, you'll have deficiency in one or both of the purposes- in my experience
the square column is a plus, but the overall construction limits use to only relatively small parts
if you have nothing and want/need something, it will do many jobs if you are patient and careful

 

[Billh50]

here's a pic with the head lowered.

 

[Skowinski]

Thanks very much everyone. I was rather suspicious about this thing already, and it sounds like I'd be best to leave it alone.