Opinions on this Horizontal Mill

[Susan_in_SF]

As many of you have already read in my previous posts, I have a one car garage. I decided, for the sake of space, to focus more on metalworking than woodworking. So, my full size vintage 1460 Delta lathe will be sold this weekend. I hopefully will have more space soon. I have a column mill drill, and this guy on craigslist has a kind of small, but not really, horizontal mill for sale. It was from his business that closed last year. He says I can have it for $500. I am concerned about the inability to test it, and the rarity of this machine where it is impossible to find an instruction manual for it. The name on the front says "Multi Miller," and the table travels right to left only 6". I think most of what I make will be small. It apparently was made in the 1940's to be powerful yet compact enough to use on ships in the military. The seller also that the table has an automatic feed option. I was interested in a horizontal mill for its rigidity and metal hogging abilities. It has a 230v motor on it. I have an extra inverter duty 2hp 120v motor i can replace it with for my 120v garage(I rent). The machine's footprint is 32"x24", and it uses (according to the seller) ISO 40 toolholders. Below are pics. Oh, and I was concerned with the headache of paying someone to transport this 1500 lb machine. The last guy dropped my surface grinder. Any honest yet friendly feedback is appreciated, including I may not even need this. The plumbing pipes near the top were made for coolant, btw. If this were a little benchtop Atlas, I would have no hesitation getting it.
Thanks,
Susan

 

[Dredb]

Depends on the size of work you plan to do. It looks like a decent machine but if you don't have much space it may be better to hold out for a vertical mill.
EDIT... OK, I see you already have a vertical mill. I should have explained that the small horizontal has limitations as to the size of the workpiece, daylight and slide travel. I like (medium size) horizontal mills but I always seem to finish up with a Bridgeport head fitted to them.

 

[benmychree]

That machine was made for production work; lots of small parts, I'd steer clear of it, I do not think you would be happy with it, the small travels would especially limit its use. Also it appears that it has (only) hand lever feed on the table, and likely only a small range of adjustment laterally be moving the spindle in and out. Run, do not walk to the nearest exit!

 

[machinejack]

It's like my AMMCO 7" shaper it's cute, fun to play with, but mostly unusable. Sounds like you are hurting for space. Save your money and space for something useful. You need a lathe.

 

[ericc]

I would recommend against this mill, unless you have a specific use for it. For example, it would be difficult to mill a pocket with it. Also, a really short stroke. Multiple pass cuts are also problematic. This would use a horizontal cutter to make the cut in one pass. This mill would be good for making 30 slotted blocks for simple lathe toolholders, but you would have to have the correct cutter, which would be too expensive for a one time use.

 

[Susan_in_SF]

Thank you guys! I will follow your advise and walk away from this machine. I really appreciate all you guys shared .

 

[Susan_in_SF]

It's like my AMMCO 7" shaper it's cute, fun to play with, but mostly unusable. Sounds like you are hurting for space. Save your money and space for something useful. You need a lathe.

I got my South Bend 9A. Here is a pic. I need to clean it up, but I definitely have no buyer's remorse on the South Bend.

 

[Charles Spencer]

I dunno, I think I'd offer $350 for the horizontal mill, and maybe go up to $4-450 depending on the tooling. It looks like it's in pretty good shape.

No doubts on the South Bend 9A. I love mine.

 

[chips&more]

If you have limited space. Then sorry, IMHO this is not the milling machine for you. I would look for a more “universal” type milling machine. Capable of doing more vertical and horizontal milling, angle milling and so on. Like a Bridgeport or similar package. And have handles on it and not levers…Dave

 

[Silverbullet]

From reading your post I think you Will like the mill for its hogging abilities . That it will do and if your planning on using it for even cutting gears it could be dedicated to that. I had plans or still hope to do that with my small atlas horizontal mill. But I also have a new HF mill drill and an old enco knee mill the mini type . Plans is all I have at this point. Sat up in bed today doing some leather working when I finished up the hand sewing and set back I got savere pain only being up a few hours.