Wrong place, right time

[neksmerj]

Some people have all the luck. A good mate of mine is getting back into the light engineering game.

I've been chasing a mill for some months now, and finally settled on the Sieg super X3, a Bridgeport would have been the ants pants, but way out of my league.

An excited phone call from my mate, had me paying him a visit. "Come and see what I've got".

You guessed it, a bloody genuine Bridgeport mill, about 3/4 size, and an Arboga, a Swedish geared mill/drill. Both in perfect nick. Both with a wheel barrow full of tooling.

The Bridgeport was around $3000 including delivery from Seaford to Preston, and the Arboga around $500. I'm spewing, not really, just in the wrong place at the right time.

With respect to the Arboga, do you know where an instruction manual can be obtained. It's a lovely little machine, a machine that would easily fit in the corner of the living room.

Ken

[nadroj]

Some manuals here: http://www.hhrobertsmachinery.com/Support/Manual_machine_Parts_Lists/manual_machine_parts_lists.html

Jordan

[Graziano]

I have a mate who uses his Arboga as a lever press to fit bearings....and no, it's not for sale. At the local auctions an old, but stored for 20+ years Bridgeport by Adcock & Shipley with all cast brass badges and plates and a slotter attachment on the rear went for $2000 it was a very well made unit.

http://www.woodworkforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=152479&stc=1&d=1289217326


http://www.woodworkforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=152478&stc=1&d=1289217326

http://www.woodworkforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=152477&stc=1&d=1289217326

[Greg Q]

Ken, the Arboga is very well made. Some background can be had on lathes (http://www.lathes.co.uk)

I have a mate who owns two...both have morse taper #3 spindles, but no drawbar. As a consequence the tooling is held captive in the taper by a threaded collar. A cheap MT3 ER32 collet chuck and collets is just about all you'd need for tooling. Maybe a drill chuck on a standard MT3 arbor as well.

The design of the round column is such that the head retains is register when you elevate it, and the x-y table is high quality, although with straight gibs. The quill can be operated like a drill press, but also has a fine feed worm drive feed. That is a high-class feature only found on a very few mills.