Thread: Show us your mill

Originally Posted by Gary S

Equal parts fascination with the technology and mind numbing frustration when it doesnt work.

That pretty well sum's up most people's experience's, - but good on him for learning at his age. It will be a slow, hard slog but "perserverance" will definitely the way to go about it.

He'd be looking to get that nice FP4 of his "all CNC'ed up" would'nt he?

Originally Posted by Gary S

Couple more

The shafts and gears for the dividing head are a bit different, they use a tri-lobe instead of a keyway or spline, not sure how easy that would be to make, glad I'm not missing any

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Sadly Gary, the attachments wont open. I removed the variator handwheel assembly on my '62 13 and discovered a Schaublin tri-lobe. A tricky thing to try and replicate. I won't be trying.

Thanks for the photos. I reckon they will be as close as I'll get to seeing those treasures.

BT

I just spend 5 minutes dribbling over the box of goodies photo. ISO 30 collets! I notice the bayoneting nosepiece for Morse taper reduction bushes. Plenty of E collets. Lucky b....

Hey you never know Bob, didn't think I'd ever find the vertical head and downfeed control for the Nichols and hey presto I find them within a couple of months of getting the mill, and I NEVER win raffles .
Not sure what went wrong with the last lot of pics but I'll try again.
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They certainly boxed up that high speed head compared to the previous model.

Yep the other one I have is the same as yours, personally I prefer the styling of the rounded one. I'm thinking about making an adapter to fit the other high speed head, so that I can mount it on the head of the all angle Gambin mill. I'll try and post some picks of the Gambin tomorrow.

I've wondered about the vintage of my HS head. The shape is somewhat different to the head featured in the 1961 13 catalogue and I saw a late model thirteen on PM with my type head affixed. Maybe some transitional hybrid. My mill came from the Aeronautical Research Laboratories in Salisbury S.A. I think a bit of mix and match went on. The serial numbers on my standard head and mill body don't match. The optical micrometers that came with the metric machine are imperial....

BT

Last up we have Big Bertha herself, probably my favorite mill .
Gambin 1M universal mill, made in France. Not sure about the vintage but I would say early sixtees, I've seen a bunch of pictures of Gambins on the web but this is the only one I've ever seen with the round bars for the horizontal support bracket, It must have been an early one as the others use a solid dovetailed top that slides out.
It has a couple of unusual features apart from the all angle head, the drive is engaged by stepping down on the bar at the front of the machine and stopped by stepping on it again, the spindle has a mechanical brake so it stops very quickly too and makes it easy for tool changing (no second spanner or dropping it in to low range ala the Schaublin).
Makes a handy emergency stop too, no reaching for the off button . The feed dials are quite complex (compared to friction dials or ones that use a clamp screw anyway), They are spring loaded and sit on a large diameter fine tooth spline. To zero the dial you pull it back and turn the dial so the 0 is roughly at the top, The opposing zero mark is on a ring that can be unlocked and turned around till it matches up with the dial 0. Very expensive way of doing it but they work very nicely, I've wondered if it's a way of getting rid of the backlash calculation on the dial ?.
As you can see from the pics the head sits on an 8" diameter round ram and can be moved forward or back about 10" using the hand wheel and locked in place with the big castellated bolts on the side.
I got a Gambin sales brochure on ebay France which dates about 1914, they were using the same universal head design then so it's quite an old idea, I'll take some photos of it later and post them.
Auto feed, stops, and rapids on all axis. The red handled lever changes travel direction and pulling back on it engages the clutch for the rapid travel, the more you pull back the faster it goes, so you can speed up to a job then slow it down as you get close, when you let go of the handle it's in feeding speed. As you can probably tell, I love this machine . Just wish I had some more room so that I can restore her and move it in to the shed .
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Originally Posted by Gary S

. Just wish I had some more room so that I can restore her and move it in to the shed .

Stop it you're breakin' my heart.
Seriously, thanks for sharing.

Beautiful. Another testament to the ingenuity of man.

Schaublin's 53 must have been French inspired.

Take care of the Jielde lamps fitted to the mill. They fetch around 600 - 700 dollars on Ebay. Saw heaps of overpriced beaters in Paris with the base screwed to a disc brake rotor to serve as a table lamp.

BT

Wow
Really really nice nice collection of mills Gary, thanks for sharing.

Dave

Wow I had a look on ebay for those Jielde worklights. Looks like the Paris yuppies are keen on them. Still, at least I now know they are available if I wreck one so thanks for that Bob.
Yep the Gambin is very similar to the Schaublin 53, both have plusses and minuses with their design. The 53 can get closer to the work for cutting racks etc due to the head being to the side of the ram, but I think the 1M would be a little bit more rigid as the head is held on both sides, both great machines though.
Is there a picture of your V head in any of the threads Bob ?. Ive got a couple of sales brochures with two different heads, the one like mine and a longer one that could take a W20 collet at the opposite end to the 30INT.

Not sure about Des going to CNC Glen , but he is having a lot of fun with the FP4, loves it.

Originally Posted by Gary S

Wow I had a look on ebay for those Jielde worklights. Looks like the Paris yuppies are keen on them. Still, at least I now know they are available if I wreck one so thanks for that Bob.
Yep the Gambin is very similar to the Schaublin 53, both have plusses and minuses with their design. The 53 can get closer to the work for cutting racks etc due to the head being to the side of the ram, but I think the 1M would be a little bit more rigid as the head is held on both sides, both great machines though.
Is there a picture of your V head in any of the threads Bob ?. Ive got a couple of sales brochures with two different heads, the one like mine and a longer one that could take a W20 collet at the opposite end to the 30INT.

Not sure about Des going to CNC Glen , but he is having a lot of fun with the FP4, loves it.

Here is the mill with the standard head fitted. It doesn't take W20 collets but does accommodate the similar sized P20 collet. These collets have an internal M12 thread, allowing their retention with the standard draw bar. My thirteen came with a set of imperial P20s. The largest diameter is 1/2". Handy space savers. Sadly, rare as hen's teeth. I've been keeping an eye out for a set for Phillip " Metalman" 's 13.

BT

Originally Posted by Gary S

As you can probably tell, I love this machine . Just wish I had some more room so that I can restore her and move it in to the shed .

Hi Gary,

Now, that's a seriously nice machine...

I would be more than happy to store it for you... (probably join the queue, I suspect)

Regards
Ray

Thanks for the offer Ray, very generous of you . I'll keep you in mind if I need a baby sitter .

You're likely right about the P20 collets in the head Bob, the W20 draw tube would be too big for the spindle bore. I'd assumed they were W20s because thats what the dividing head and the 102 lathe takes. Yet another set of collets the user has to fork out for

Your mill looks nice, bit cleaner than mine . What are the two ball handles for ?, larger one next to the V head and a smaller one to the right of the main table. Thought the top one could be for the sensitive drill but it looks to be behind the head.

Here's a pic from my older sales brochure, is that the same as yours ?
I took some pics from the old Gambin brochure too.
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