Assembling a Boxed Vertical/Horizontal Milling Machine

[Ulma Doctor]

I got a great deal today from a member and good friend, TAWP Tool.
the hook was that it was in pieces

After haggling him down to a final price of free for the mill ,
he sucker punched me with other shiny (new) objects that deftly confused my senses ,
namely a new DRO w/glass scales ,manuals and assorted new parts, a new 5" vise w/swivel base, a NMTB30 horizontal arbor, and lastly a servo table feed- all ready for installation...

So, after lightening my wallet (and almost breaking my thumb reaching into my pocket to get the money before the fool realized i was taking him , but good!

he then verbally abused me for awhile , while he helped load the "free" mill
with friends like him, one needs few enemies!!!
here is what i got..... yep a truck, full-o -parts
or what i like to call a Boxed VHM


during the inspection i saw that the was a lot of cast iron that need some scraping #metalscraping

below is the bottom side of the top ram pivot.
it is very much like a lathe compound, but a bit larger in size

then i scraped the (heavily voided) base, and assembled to test fit and function.

the interface is now improved from previous factory scraping ! #handscraping

then, i inspected the table/knee interface and scraped 10 passes on both sides to achieve parallelism to .002" at this point.
i then scraped in the gibs.

sadly, there is a large void (2mm deep) in the way ,pictured top left.
not a very good casting, atypical of Taiwanese machines in my experience.
there was wear noticed


here is a picture of the partially assembled machine.


i'll be scraping the vertical head/ram interface when i got to reassemble the vertical spindle.

More to come,
Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel !!!

 

[Terrywerm]

Nice find, Mike. In no time you'll have it painted and looking like new!

I just procured a horizontal mill myself, but haven't picked it up or taken any photos yet. I have not been able to figure out who the manufacturer was, but it has had the head from a Fray mill adapted to fit the end of the overarm so that it also has vertical mill capabilities. I wasn't interested in the vertical capabilities, and was thinking that I might just sell the Fray head, but we'll see what happens when I get it home. The Fray head does have a back gear whereas my Clausing 8520 does not, so it might be worth keeping around. It will have to come apart into pieces too, just to get it into the basement.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

Nice find, Mike. In no time you'll have it painted and looking like new!
I just procured a horizontal mill myself, but haven't picked it up or taken any photos yet. I have not been able to figure out who the manufacturer was, but it has had the head from a Fray mill adapted to fit the end of the overarm so that it also has vertical mill capabilities. I wasn't interested in the vertical capabilities, and was thinking that I might just sell the Fray head, but we'll see what happens when I get it home. The Fray head does have a back gear whereas my Clausing 8520 does not, so it might be worth keeping around. It will have to come apart into pieces too, just to get it into the basement.

Hi Terrywerm,
thank you very much.

it never is a bad thing to have milling options
i hope the trip into the basement goes well
i'd love to see the photos of the new mill!

 

[Terrywerm]

Hey, Mike. Mid-sized machine, taken apart, should be no problem going down into the basement. As for photos, I am planning on posting some, hoping somebody can help me identify it. I just have to get it hauled home, first.

 

[Charles Spencer]

I just can't figure where this part went.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

I just can't figure where this part went.

Hi Charles,
this dolly was supporting the main casting when it was disassembled at it's last home!
there was one other perk to the mill, there was a low boy base with casters included!
the mill is resting on the low boy base right now!
thanks for reading!

 

[markba633csi]

Mike you can stop collecting combo mills now. You're like a black hole, sucking up all cool machinery in the state!
Mark

 

[chips&more]

You have the worst case of toolitis I have ever heard of! And the only medication or relief from the disease is to buy more! PG&E will need to start up another power plant just to feed your shop! You will need to pour a thicker slab of concrete to support all that stuff. Or else your house is going to sink over to China. I could keep going with this but I have a case of toolitis myself, not as bad, but still got it! So I need to go get medicated now.

 

[eeler1]

uh oh, looks like the mills are trying to keep up with the lathes. I see an escalating competition between the two.

 

[Bob Korves]

Hey Mike! You'd better do something nice for Alexis! Anyone who puts up with you is a keeper!

I did not see this post until it came up on the weekly "most popular topics" email reminder. I figured I would have seen it in the forums I subscribe to. I looked at the forum listed on the post and it said it is in the 'Ulma Doctor' forum. (???) How did you rate that? How do I subscribe to it? I want my own forum too, though it might not be as much fun as this one...