My ‘new’ Select 1/2V Milling Machine

[WEL0058]

Well this is my first post in this forum. Have been posting in the Clausing forum...

Bought my first mill this weekend which followed me home on Saturday. Been looking for a ‘A1S’ style milling machine for over a year now to complement my Clausing 100 mk 3 lathe. A week ago this mill was only posted on Washington DC CL for 27 minutes when I found it. Contacted the seller immediately and she agree to give me first shot. The mill is a 1979 Select Machine Tool model 1/2V 7x30” knee mill made in Taiwan with a lot of tooling.

Bought a HF 1T shop crane and a HF 8T air/hydraulic jack. Modified with five foot 2” x 3/16” square tubing the extend the reach and height. My brother and I drove up with his truck and small landscaping trailer. Lifting the 900 lb mill and moving it to loading dock was no trouble. Took an hour getting the mill down onto the trailer. Bolted 2x4x6 boards to mill base and slide mill down 30 degree onto trailer.

The knee raises and lowers smoothly. Lock all the travels and check for backlash with very little movement. Lead screws are adjustable split nuts. Forgot to take any pictures moving it. Have the original owner manual with all recorded QC measurements and inspector stamps. The document S/N match mill number. The quality of this 40 year milling machine was definitely not targeted for the home hobbyist market.

It may be a month or two before I get around the mill.
Select Machine Tool, Model: 1/2V, S/N:64620, MfgDate: 1979

*** Long term ToDo plan ***
1. Fab rolling base with casters and leveling pads
2. Remove/Clean: Bed, Saddle, Knee, Spindle?, Touch up paint
3. ?Convert to 1-Stroke Oiler?
4. Install 3 or 4-axis DRO TouchDRO
- Scales? Glass or magnetic. (I’m using iGaging Absolute+ on my lathe)
5. X-Axis PowerFeed. Servo(USA) or Align(TW)
6. Convert 1 HP 1P Motor to 1.5 or 2 HP 3P VFD
7. Column Riser Block?

*** Additional Tooling ***
1. Quality Kurt-style precision vise. 4” or 5”
2. Precision drill chuck
3. Quality Parallels Set 6” x 1/8”
4. 1/2” Clamping Set
5. Maybe another set of 123 blocks?
6. Indexer?

Does one know the actual manufacture is for the ‘Select’ milling machine? Poa Chuan Machinery (TW), Kao Fong (TW), ???

Bob G.

 

[Aukai]

OH, my neck, great score

 

[ShagDog]

Nice score. I wish I could find one of those as a companion to my Select Lathe.

 

[WEL0058]

Nice score. I wish I could find one of those as a companion to my Select Lathe.

Shag,

Did not know of 'Select Machine Tool' exist until this mill came up on Craigslist. While Googling 'Select' notice they also offered different imported lathe's. SMT seem to want to offer a Taiwan-quality product back in 70's. Was surprised they where importing mills back in the 60's - the 'OB' model.

Bob G.

 

[ShagDog]

Bob, I am in the same boat. Never heard of Select until I bought mine a few months ago.

 

[DavidR8]

Sweet find with lots of tooling, well done!

 

[WEL0058]

Redirecting milling threads from my Clausing lathe 'My Clausing 100 Mk 3 Serial#5396' thread.

SCORE! That is great! With tooling to boot! Good for you. Looks to be in good shape.
Now the tunnel really opens up for you to fall in. What's next DRO? LOL.
Ask me how I know!

Hi Mike,

A DRO would be on the short list after getting the mill cleaned up and back together. Perfect opportunity using the mill to machine the brackets for DRO. No more cave man mill with grinders, hand files and table saws.

Bob g.

 

[WEL0058]

Bob, I am in the same boat. Never heard of Select until I bought mine a few months ago.

So what do you feel about the quality of your lathe? Did it have a hard life? Do you have the original paper work/ manual?

Sweet find with lots of tooling, well done!

The tooling is what sealed the deal.

So what does everyone think this deal was worth? Just curious. I will go into details after hearing some quotes.

 

[DavidR8]

I live in a machinery desert so that would probably fetch $2-3K

 

[ShagDog]

So what do you feel about the quality of your lathe? Did it have a hard life? Do you have the original paper work/ manual?


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I think it is of very good quality. Don't think it had too hard a life. Ways are hardened, and the wear on them is not bad, as far as I can tell. I do have the original part list and an original brochure consisting of 1 page back and front. Wish I had the manual. I did have an issue with the gears on the spindle that was rectified; and I am working on what I hope is a minor issue with the QCGB. Here are some light reading links to threads concerning my lathe on this forum.

Select Lathe Model 816B

Have an opportunity to buy one of these lathes. Looks very tempting to me. Anyone familiar with this lathe, please comment on it. Edit: I ended up buying the lathe. See update below.

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Chuck Weight?

I have a lathe that I bought used with an 8" swing and a 1 1/2-8 spindle. The chucks that came with it are 5"(3 jaw) and 6" (4 jaw). They are older chuck that are in the range of about 7 lbs and 9 lbs apiece. I purchased a new chinese 5" with a backplate I fit to it. The chuck is very nice in...

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Slotted Lead Screw Question

I have an older (1979?) Taiwan 8x16 lathe. It has one screw that drives the carriage. The screw is slotted. The cross feed is powered as you will see in the 2 levers in a photo. The other lever on right engages the half nuts. I thought that the slot in the lead screw was to allow the carriage...

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Norton Style Gearbox Issue

I have a Select 816b lathe that has what appears to be a Norton style gear box. I have trouble with the 2 tumblers falling out of the holes when running at the faster feed speeds. No problem on the slower ones. The left one is more problematic, again, at higher speeds. The longitudinal feed and...

www.hobby-machinist.com