New to Me: Index 845 Vertical Mill

I have had a few 845's over the years and the main mill in my shop now is an 845. Its 2700 lbs with that gearbox power feed and it makes a bridgeport look like a barbie doll. You have a hell of a machine. If some one has not had the spindle reground to R-8 do yourself a favor and send the spindle to Index and have it done. Its well worth the $250 for the time and money you will save in tooling! Not to mention your bearings willtake less of a pounding from trying to knock the tooling out of the spindle. The B&S #9 really locks in tight and you have to donkey punch the drawbar to get the tooling out.


Thanks jamie!!
She's a heavyweight for sure!!
i'm glad i didn't get serious about finding a mill until a few months back.
i probably would have gotten a BP, not that anything is wrong with a BP...i'm just glad i held out for the INDEX.

this unit has the NMTB-30, a little better than the R8, you can't easily twist the NMTB30 because it has 2 locking dogs on the tool holder.
the toolholder gently comes out without a fuss, no more than a little shake of the drawbar. It's a real pleasure!!
thanks for reading and commenting!!

mike:))
 
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Sorry I didnt see that it had the 30 taper. thats a very good machine..... Large handwheels and dials and the 6" of quil travel make thos machines very nice to work with.
 
Hi,

Sorry to re-open an old thread, but I am about to take possession of an Index 845 (weather permitting). Given that I live in the machinery desert of the southern portion of the central time zone, I feel lucky to have found one within a reasonable traveling distance (around 80 miles).

Like yours, my new acquisition has an NMTB-30 spindle and comes to me with about a dozen tool holders, including a nice Jacobs chuck, a older bridgeport-style boring bar and, again like yours, some fairly huge end mill holders. Mine is S/N 14246, a little bit newer than yours.

I was wondering if you were ever able to find a place to download the user's and/or parts manuals? I found the TM-9-3417-213-14 Army PDF on the web, and although it's quite helpful, it is for the Wells-Index 747VS, not the Index 845. As I'm sure you know, there are differences between the two models, some of which are substantial, like the old gearbox style power feed on the 845 compared with the Servo style on the 747VS.

The mill was under power when I went to look at it and I was able to see that the power feed works properly on the X axis. The seller told me that it originally also had Y axis feed, driven from the same feed unit, but when it quit working some years ago (decades?), the Y axis feed parts were removed and subsequently lost. I'd like to better understand how the feed controls work and how practical it might be to restore the Y axis feed.

Any assistance you can offer will be greatly appreciated,

Tenaya
 
All you have to do is make a draw bar adapter to fit the CAT 30 holder that would have 1/2-13 thread in it and stick out the same length as a NMTB 30 holder has.

EDIT- Ouch! old thread!!!

The gear box on the 845 is the same gear box as they used on the older 645 mill like I have.
The only draw back I have is it's not variable speed! I screw up and threw away the 3-phase motor that was on the feed box and replaced with 1-phase motor. Had I thought about it more, I could have put a VFD on the feed motor that would allow variable speed. But I didn't.
I did put a VFD on the spindle motor and that has been nice!

Get a hold of Well-Index and obtain a manual for your mill. About $50.
 
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