Diamond B12 Realistic Expectations?

I had to do some filing on my slots too, not a lot, mostly the sides towards the ends of the table.
Glad you got it working, one limitation of these machines is the small amount of Z travel, only about 8 inches. A low profile vise is essential.
Mark S.
 
Hanermo, I have the original vertical head attachment. I'm able to run the mill either way. Thank you for your replies, I appreciate the help. I don't have a low profile vise but have absolutely noticed the limited Z movement. I bought a chuck and arbor to use for drilling and quickly realized there will be limited use for drilling. Milling shouldn't be a problem... I will run some milling tests this weekend to see how it runs.
 
It may seem like a disadvantage having to swap handles on the Y and Z axes, but there's been many times not having a handle
on one of them saved me from doing something stupid and wrecking a part I was making. Maybe the Diamond folks in their wisdom
engineered it that way on purpose intending the machine be used by beginners/trainees to do repetitive jobs, I don't know. It is a very sturdy mill
and able to remove a fair amount of metal. I'm pretty happy with mine.
Mark S.
 
Palmgren made a low profile 4" vise that is a nice match for a Diamond B12
 
I managed to make a few chips this morning. I ran a 1/2" end mill in my vertical attachment on some brass and was very pleased. I milled three sides and they were square to each other or at least as good as my square. I have a question on the milling attachment, mine appears to be original and there doesn't appear to be any grease fittings or oiler holes in it except at the very top there appears to be a vent. Does anyone know how or where to lubricate these little vertical heads? I can tear it down but that seems counter productive. As always, I appreciate the help.

Thank you
 
I think the gears are accessible when you remove it- then you can grease it
M
 
Chainsaw, I have the sister to your B-12, dated 1947. Not sure of the original lube instructions for the vertical gearhead, but I pulled the right hand cover, washed all the parts, carefully noting their relationship to each other, re-assembled and packed the gearbox with a light slump factor general purpose grease. It ran cool, with initially a small amount of grease extruding from the drawbar bore, input and output shafts for a few minutes and now probably a hundred hours later, it's running quiet and cool. Just like wheel bearings, grease packing is old school but works for hundreds of thousands of miles.
I experienced difficulty, like you, with too large a vise. For work with the horizontal shaft I couldn't get very close to the cutters without too much tool shank hangout. So I pretty much use old school T nuts with strongbacks for holdown on horizontal jobs, and the mill vise on the vertical head jobs.
Take what I say with a grain of salt however, I have been called many things, but never a "machinist'. Paul

mill 007.JPG
 
I had to fix a machine with totally trashed t slots from the prev owner using hex bolts as holddowns......the slots were completely bevelled ,and would not have had any thickness if T slotted..........so i ran a dovetail cutter along to clean them up ,and use T bolts with a bevel to match.....nuts actually,because nuts can be made much wider to spread load.
 
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