Tree mill

[AR. Hillbilly]

I’m going to look at a big old Tree milling machine. It’s 3phase which I don’t have. I don’t know what all it has but he said boxes full of cutters. I believe he inherited this from his G-paw and he doesn’t know much more than I. It’s 20 miles from home. How do I load this on my trailer. I have a small Ford tractor with a loader and a cherry picker. I know nothing about mills.

 

[BaronJ]

We need pictures !

 

[AR. Hillbilly]

I hope to go see it this afternoon. I’ll get pics. Not sure how to post pics yet.

 

[BaronJ]

Click on the "Attach Files" button below, then select the file/picture on your computer.

 

[Bob Korves]

Tree mills are very good, quality machines. There is less parts support for them than for more common mills like Bridgeports. Make quite sure it is all there and it all works properly, or be ready to hunt for parts or fabricate them yourself.

 

[markba633csi]

I have heard Tree mills are good- I don't know if they are imports or US made

 

[Bob Korves]

Tree mills were USA made. They were built at least as well as the good older Bridgeports were, and have some nice features that are different than other mills have. Very good machines. Only down side, not so many made, and no current parts support that I know of, so make sure you get one that does not need proprietary parts that you cannot make or find used.

 

[Chipper5783]

If it is the regular size machine, not too big - then it will be most of #3000 . If it is a beefier machine, then it can be a lot heavier - a pretty typical industrial shop would have machines twice that weight, and that would not be considered a big machine. All these machines are crazy top heavy, with a pretty small footprint (for the amount of weight present) - move and handle with care! The power is not a big deal. It is likely 5HP or less (3 HP is very common - especially on older machines) and 3 phase is easy to sort out - several good options - which way to go depends on what you want to do.

Will your "small" tractor pick it up? That depends on your definition of "small".

It sounds like you may be able to get it cheap. Don't be afraid to splurge a bit on hiring some help for the move (like a small deck truck with a picker).

Let us know how you make out. David

 

[projectnut]

Tree mills were originally built in Franklin Wisconsin. The company was bought by Eagle Machine Works in 2009 and production of CNC machines was moved to Michigan. Over the years they made several different manual and CNC model mills. The company I worked for had about a dozen manual machines and several CNC models as well. They are (in my opinion) better machines than Bridgeport's. They are heavier built and (again in my opinion) easier to operate. Most all have a power X and Y feed, with the power Z feed being optional.

My first choice for a vertical mill was a Tree 2UVR. I used one at work for over 10 years and loved it. I looked for over 2 years to find the right machine, but all that came to the market were either way over priced or worn to the point they would be expensive to rebuild. They are great for those of us who are height challenged. They have a unique collet system that allows the collets to be inserted, and tightened without the need of a drawbar. That being said the collets are unique to the machine and far less common and more expensive than the Bridgeport R8 collets. There is still tooling available, but again due to the lesser number of machines in service it is a bit more expensive.