My first knee mill

[jwmay]

After a long day of travel, I have arrived home with something I hope will brings many years of good service. It came from a high school auction where it was one of just two milling machines. They had 13 SB 9A's, which I expect I will regret not trying to buy at least one for years to come. Anyways, here's my day in pictures.Somehow I messed up the picture size, for which I apologize. I'll get it right next time. I am going to try to document my progress while getting this little mill clean and functional. I'm pretty happy about it. Although this means when this thread is finished, I'll have to sell my other mill. SWMBO has spoken. Ha! Plus there's not really enough room for two in my shop...mills that is.

 

[FOMOGO]

Congrats on the new family member. Cheers, Mike

 

[Weldingrod1]

When you.have the table off, you will find there is a huge hole in the back of the knee casting. Glue a sheet of something over that to keep swarf out of the knee gears!

I found some weird automotive boot thing that fit over my knee screw and caught on the inside of the knee casting; does a good job of keeping crud out and still allows full knee travel.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

 

[jwmay]

Well with any luck, there won't be cause to remove the table. But I did find that hole this morning while cleaning the chips out of the knee. As I worked on it though, I came to the conclusion that barring some broken thing, this mill probably won't get anything but cleaned, oiled, and put in service. It would be nice to have shiny surfaces, and fresh paint. But I don't think I have it in me this year. I've got to build a mobile base for it, clean the head, and do something about a missing power feed unit. After that, I hope to be using it.

 

[jwmay]

Just some pics. I spent a couple hours yesterday morning scraping gunk of with a razor blade. The mill had a Rockwell pana-vise mounted to it, which sold separately. But as you can see, the vise left its mark. I'm pretty torn about not making the table grey again, but I'm dying to get the head trammed and fire it up.

 

[jwmay]

Playing with the camera a little. But it's looking better everyday.

 

[jwmay]

Well no pictures today. Just some information in hopes of some suggestions.

First, the quill won't fully extend. It stops a bit short. I feel like I could force it, but am hesitant to inadvertently scratch, scar, of break something. Any ideas?
Secondly, the missing power feed is fine. I know I'll never find a working original. But the PO stuck a handwheel on that side which I believe belongs on a little lathe. I'm torn between ignoring it, buying a servo power feed, and making some kind of cap, or painstakingly trying to make realistic replacements of dial and handwheel by copying the left side unit. What would you do?
Lastly for now, the motor leads are toast, and I believe the windings are open. It's a dual voltage single phase motor. Again, what would you do? Three phase and VFD? The motor shaft is over 4" long. Looks expensive. Lol

 

[jwmay]

Nothin eh? New job is keeping me out of the shop anyways.
I'm going to print the manual from downloads. Seems like I read somewhere the quill bearings are supposed to have grease. I want to be sure about that.
I'll move it out of the way for now. I have other projects that have to be finished before I move ahead with this anyhow.

 

[38super]

I'm running 120VAC, no probs. Power feeds are well covered in this forum, bought mine for $250 ea. Same 150in/lb item is now $150.

 

[Just for fun]

Congrats on your new mill.