Bridgeport J head made into drill press

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They should have included a Harbor Freight X/Y vise to go with the "Drill Press". :) What an odd contraption, but it likely works great as a drill press, other than flex in the table you get with any drill press.
 
ThunderDog, I have been keeping my eyes on everything on CL and FB Marketplace. I saw the Gorton and like it's size and price doesn't seem bad but my shop is the back half of a one car garage with a Model T in the other half, so the Gorton would take up some real estate. The other two look bigger than the Gorton. Been looking at some of the small benchtop horizontal mills like the one I previously posted from an unknown maker. He is up in Baltimore area and I'm going to try and see it on Sunday. There is also a really nice looking Atlas in Westchester, PA for $750 with some tooling. There is also a pretty cool Pratt & Whitney in Winchester but it uses an odd collet that is expensive and hard to find. I'm in no hurry since I have access to a vertical at The Foundery in Baltimore. In fact, I'm taking a metal cutting class there tomorrow night. If you are not familiar with them, check out www.foundery.com.
 
DiscoDan said:
ThunderDog, I have been keeping my eyes on everything on CL and FB Marketplace. I saw the Gorton and like it's size and price doesn't seem bad but my shop is the back half of a one car garage with a Model T in the other half, so the Gorton would take up some real estate. The other two look bigger than the Gorton. Been looking at some of the small benchtop horizontal mills like the one I previously posted from an unknown maker. He is up in Baltimore area and I'm going to try and see it on Sunday. There is also a really nice looking Atlas in Westchester, PA for $750 with some tooling. There is also a pretty cool Pratt & Whitney in Winchester but it uses an odd collet that is expensive and hard to find. I'm in no hurry since I have access to a vertical at The Foundery in Baltimore. In fact, I'm taking a metal cutting class there tomorrow night. If you are not familiar with them, check out www.foundery.com.
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10-4 on the space limitations. I fight that same type of battle and I'm fairly certain that I'm losing that war.:black eye:
I glanced at that Atlas post not too long ago. I can't recall, but wasn't it missing the arbor? Still, $750 isn't too bad.
Huh, the foundery.com looks like alot of fun. I'd be interested in that CNC Milling class.

Can I just add one thing. Having owned an Atlas mill(my story here) and a benchtop Jefferson mill(that story here), they are in no league to a proper milling machine. Don't let that sound like I'm being pompous or something dumb like that. I just share that thought to save others who may be on the fence in their decision making process.
My reasons for that statement:
I became very frustrated with the limitations of cutting depth, speed, and work envelope of the Atlas.
The Jefferson mill was in the same category, even after I converted it to a vertical milling machine.
They're good machines when used within their limitations.
 
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ThinderDog, where are you located? Would love to see your workshop. I am in Arnold, about 10 minutes from the Bay Bridge. I work across from the aquarium downtown.

I'm headed out to Essex tomorrow to buy a chunk of aluminum to start fabbing two new quick change levers for my Craftsman lathe. That's part of the reason I am taking the metal cutting class tomorrow. I have also taken their lathe, milling and welding classes, so I have access to those machines on an hourly rate basis.
 
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