Saving a Gorton....hopefully

A

akreuzer

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A good friend of mine shut their business down for new endeavors back in December of 2017...they are finally getting to selling off/scraping some of their equipment. I am a maker/hobbyist whatever you want to call me. So, when he offered me this Gorton "tracer" my wheels got turning and between myself and a good friend we felt up for the challenge. But now I have to move it. And guessing the weight seems to be a bit of an issue. From what I have found depending on the year and model etc. the weight varies quite a bit 2200-4500 based on google searches. So when working with a shipper these are things they want to know.

So on to the machine....what I know is this.

-fully operational in 2017 and has sat since
-upper pully moves freely
-table moves freely with little to no play
-serial number is 43034 (as seen in the photo)
-it looks rough....really rough I know....hoping that some love can undo the last 3 years of sitting so any suggestions/tips are welcome!

Questions.....is this an I-22 or a MasterMill....or something else?
any guess on weight? any suggestions on moving? where im picking up has a loading dock....where im dropping off does not.

one shipper already quoted about 1400 to pick up and drop off.
 

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Never should have gotten rid of my Mastermill.

“makes a Bridgeport look like silly putty” ;)

John
 
@Liljoebrshooter here is where I get hung up....don't get me wrong I have done a ton of "googling" with little success of an exact match.

I see things like a 2-30 with similar push buttons on the face but with different pulley systems and head plates

I see things like an 0-16 where the upper pully looks similar but no buttons

I guess I'm wondering is this a mill with an add on tracer? was that a thing? or was this an early 1 off? I will be picking it up from Racine, WI so what are the possibilities?
 
With the extra tracer components and the general size of the machine, I would guess 4000lb+. I have a Gorton 3-34 horizontal mill with a vertical head attachment, and it weighs in around 8500lbs. The tracer was definitely a thing, usually see them on a somewhat smaller machine than that one. Should make you a very nice machine with a little TLC. Hope it all works out for you, and welcome to the forum. Mike
 
From what I have seen none of these things look alike. Every picture I see of the 1-22 is different than mine.
The 2-30 machine is huge.
It is kinda hard to say from the pictures.
Joe
 
Another thing I have read is that these could be ordered with about any option you wanted from the factory.

Joe
 
@akreuzer

Welcome to the group!

That looks like an amazingly sturdy mill. I bet that rust is just light surface rust that can be dealt with easily.

I have done a little poking around too.
Wow there are a lot of slightly different models.

I did NOT see anything identical to that one.
You have probably already found all these references, but they are what I found useful.
Here's a link to the Vintage Machinery photo index page: http://vintagemachinery.org/mfgindex/detail.aspx?id=2136&tab=4
They have a bunch of documents here: http://vintagemachinery.org/mfgindex/detail.aspx?id=2136&tab=3
lathes.co.uk page is here: http://www.lathes.co.uk/gorton-1963/
This one: http://gorton-machine.org/machines/index.html is apparently run be a descendant of George Gorton. It has many pictures and manuals and also a serial number index, however it looks like serial 43023 is before 1967, when their list starts...

One other thing: be sure to get any tooling that you can with the machine!
One reference showed some of these as having B&S #9 spindle. Those can be difficult to find.

Best of luck with the move.
Be safe!
-brino

EDIT: Hey I just noticed the plastic ketchup and mustard squeeze bottles in your photo above....I use those for lube oil too!
 
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I found another Gorton serial number reference here:
https://www.hobby-machinist.com/resources/1544-gorton-serial-numbers-pdf.294/
in our downloads section (free download for donating members).

It shows some serial numbers by year and production location.

The latest ones I see are:
serial number 32203 for a machine made a Gleason Works in Rochester NY in 1958.
serial number 25252 for a machine made at Gorton Machine Co. in Racine WI in 1948.

No wait, here's some serial numbers near the same range:
1599229074832.png

1599229156913.png

1599229195257.png

...but I am not sure that helps to narrow down the model......sorry!

-brino
 
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