# Picking up a Gorton 3-34 universal mill ...



## FOMOGO (May 15, 2018)

Spending the night at my sons place, and heading down to Colorado Springs area in the morning to load up 8000# of loveliness. 600 miles round trip, but I've been looking for something like this for a while, and the price was right. will post some pics when I get her home. Mike

  Same mill, but the one I'm getting also has the vertical head.


----------



## ACHiPo (May 15, 2018)

Sweet.  Pics or it didn’t’t Happen!


----------



## markba633csi (May 15, 2018)

Holy cow! That's a big boy


----------



## tertiaryjim (May 15, 2018)

Have seen some nice machines sell really cheap.
Those are the ones that are big and manual so hobby shops cant support the amps to run them or don't want to
deal with such weight or size.  Most working shops are selling them off to update equipment.
Perhaps I have the amperage available but no room. 
Am seriously envious.
Good job!


----------



## Janderso (May 15, 2018)

You are a better man than I sir. Well done. Pics and more pics please.


----------



## Firestopper (May 15, 2018)

Congrats Mike,
Have a safe journey and we're looking forward to seeing the "beast". A friend of mine has a Gorton mill he purchased from a university auction, Its a well built machine.

Paco


----------



## f350ca (May 15, 2018)

Nice machine Mike.
As the saying goes, Go Big or Go Home

Greg


----------



## brino (May 15, 2018)

That looks like a great mill Mike.
Congratulations!

So many questions....
What year?
What spindle taper?
What size motor?

I can't wait for some pictures.
-brino


----------



## Silverbullet (May 15, 2018)

I bet she's a honey, gortons are tanks , made to use forever .  Hope she's good an tight in the right way. Smooth as silk in many ways. Am I drooling on this , well maybe I absolutely love big mills and machinery for metal. Best of luck , be careful moving her and the driving too. Little protection prayer going up too.


----------



## benmychree (May 15, 2018)

From what I see from the catalog page, it is not a "universal" mill; it does not appear to have a swiveling table; that would make it a "plain" horizontal milling machine, but very nice!


----------



## Mitch Alsup (May 15, 2018)

benmychree said:


> From what I see from the catalog page, it is not a "universal" mill; it does not appear to have a swiveling table; that would make it a "plain" horizontal milling machine, but very nice!



He said in P#1 that he is also getting the vertical milling attachment.

So what is the difference between a horizontal+vertical mill and a universal mill?


----------



## benmychree (May 15, 2018)

a universal milling machine is one that is equipped to cut spirals; the table screw shaft drives the dividing head through gearing, and the table swivels to match the spiral angle.


----------



## Mitch Alsup (May 15, 2018)

benmychree said:


> a universal milling machine is one that is equipped to cut spirals; the table screw shaft drives the dividing head through gearing, and the table swivels to match the spiral angle.



Nice.


----------



## FOMOGO (May 16, 2018)

Got home with the mill at 9pm this evening. Covered over 600miles altogether, through the Eisenhower tunnel at over 11k ft twice, and twice over Rabbit Ears pass, at close to 10k. Burned up about $180 in gas, and had to replace one trailer tire. My old Ford did well pulling around 12k pounds. Loading took a couple of hrs, that mill is seriously heavy. Tried to get the front raised a little with a six foot spud bar, and I could swear I heard the mill chuckling at me. My 12k winch finally prevailed, but it was a struggle. Came with 5ea. horizontal arbors with a ton of spacers, and 8ea. 50 taper tool holders along with some other tooling I haven't had time to look at yet. also got a 300gal. diesel tank and stand for free as he needed to get the storage unit emptied out. John, I believe you are correct on the universal part. The vertical head feature is pretty cool, you loosen four bolts and the whole head swings off to the side to allow use of the horizontal arbors. All in all, a splendid adventure,
and I got to hold my granddaughter again. Will get some better pics in the next day or two, but here are a few from the trip. Mike


----------



## BROCKWOOD (May 16, 2018)

Nice score & perfect excuse to hold your grandbaby!


----------



## hman (May 16, 2018)

... or maybe holding the grandbaby was a good excuse to drive out for the mill ...


----------



## FOMOGO (May 16, 2018)

Got a little time today to go through the arbors and tool holders, and get some better pics. Brino, the main spindle motor is 10hp-2 speed. The drive motor for X-Y-Z is 3hp, and the flood coolant pump is 1/4hp. Year of manufacture appears to be 1964. Going to have to up the ante on my 5hp RPC, I have two more 5hp 3phase motors I can piggy back on. I just went in and took a look at the BP, and it now looks kind of puny in comparison to the the Gorton. I think this is going to be a very versital machine, and will get a lot of use once I get the shop finished up this summer. Thanks for following along. Mike


----------



## BROCKWOOD (May 16, 2018)

Impresive!


----------



## mksj (May 16, 2018)

Now that is an incredible piece of iron/machine, I hope you have the space and the foundation to hold that machine. Really sweet and looking good.
Mark


----------



## BROCKWOOD (May 16, 2018)

The foundation is a good topic. I figure with only 4 points of contact, there would be 2000 pounds each. Most concrete is good for 3000 per square ft. What is the correct way?


----------



## FOMOGO (May 17, 2018)

mksj said:


> Now that is an incredible piece of iron/machine, I hope you have the space and the foundation to hold that machine. Really sweet and looking good.
> Mark



  Thanks Mark. I have 2100 sf on the main floor in the new space, 300 of which is dedicated to my lathes and mills in a separated area. The floor in that space is 6" thick, 4000psi mix, and has an 18" grid of #4 re-bar. Should be more than adequate. Getting ready to apply densifier, and sealer in half of the shop next week, and should be moving the machines in next month some time. It looks like it's going to be a little crowded in there, but I think it will all work out. Cheers, Mike


----------



## Pobby (Aug 28, 2018)

I have the same machine just not the universal do you have a service manual or an owners manual for it?


----------



## FOMOGO (Aug 28, 2018)

Mine is identical to yours. I was mistaken on the universal part. I found a reprint of the factory manual on E-Bay from a guy who provides them for several different machines. Haven't had a chance to go through it in detail yet, but at a glance it seemed good. Here is the site  https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gorton-2-2...hash=item58f670810a:g:tBoAAOxyRhBS6ZKv:sc:USP 
 Really looking forward to using it, but it's pretty low on the list at the moment. Have you had yours running yet? Cheers, Mike


----------



## Pobby (Aug 29, 2018)




----------



## Pobby (Aug 29, 2018)

Yea I had it up and running in a week off of my 1 phase 220 in the shop going to a 20 hp rotary phase converter runs like a dream. It came with a huge rotary table and I was able to barter a sweet heavy duty divided head for it. Love this thing I sold my bridgeport to get it and glad I did. The only down side is no quill but I've grown fond of just using the power z for it (was a learning process broke a few smaller bits) definitely keep it at the lowest feed speed and engage and dis-engage it to peck drill. I really want to find the slotting head for it and I'm still trying to figure out the vertical head on it I'm not sure if you can rotate it a little or if you're stuck only being able to set it at 90 degrees for the bolt pattern. I pulled it apart and hit it with a good bath of pb breaker but haven't had a chance to pull it back apart to see if it's just seized in place. If it is stuck to 90s I'll probably try to modify it to be adjustable or atleast drill it to put the head at a 45 to the table.


----------



## FOMOGO (Aug 29, 2018)

Mine has a 360 deg indexing ring on the head. I'm thinking it should adjust to any position you want. Will have to get the manual out and see if it says anything about it. Mike


----------



## Pobby (Aug 29, 2018)

Great to know mine doesn't have an indexing ring I guess it was an option mine didn't come with, looks like I'll be modifying.


----------



## Pobby (Aug 29, 2018)

Can you get some pics of your head and indexing ring for me?


----------

