Thread: thoughts on this mill

Andre,
you can do just about anything on horizontal mill that you can do on a vertical one (that's all I have, BTW) and then some - BUT: when you use endmills or similar, you have to look over or around the workpiece. Often that's really awkward and uncomfortable. You also need lighting from behind the machine at about spindle height. Some people use a mirror on the column to see what's going on, I get too confused seeing a mirri image (and when I tried, kept turning the handles the wrong way).
A vertical head is a nice addition - and I'm building an adapter for one for mine.
For bearings you can either use angular contact or taper roller bearings. How much you spend on those is up to you. Wheel bearings are cheap and work - for precision bearings, the sky is the limit.... Nothing stopping you using wheel bearings to start off with and upgrade later.
On the other hand, keep your eyes open, vertical heads do come up second-hand and often not expensive.

Joe

I would grab it for that price, as said above the cutters are worth a bit of money themselves.
As for moving it, can you borrow a pallet jack?

You will still be able to use end mills in it like a vertical mill, you just need to buy a collet chuck. It is a bit more awkward to use it that way as you need to look from the back, but will do the job fine.

I would say you will make your money back easy if you ever decide to sell it latter on.
Lets face it any mill is better than no mill.

Dave

well i have a mill drill but i will check it out any way.and i dont know any one with a pallet jack.

Hi Welder,
Do you know what the taper is?
If the vice and cutters are any good you are well on your way to $420. If the taper is "normal" they maybe useful on your "next machine" as well. I'd say you'll be able to do more on that mill than any other mill you are going to get for $420.

Stuart

p.s. wow I type slow lol

The spindle is a 40 international taper

Hi All,

Isn't that one the same as the Bridgeport Horizontal Mills, if you could find a Bridgeport vertical head, with quill feed, it would be a nice solid machine for the money.

Regards
Ray

Doing a little reading about A&S machines, I came across this one:
Page Title
How about that!!!!????
A complete machine shop in one....

Joe

Hi Welder,

You need a Bridgeport M head, which will fit the Adcock & Shipley 1es

It looks like this..



Fitted to the A&S it goes on via an adaptor plate..



The Bridgeport M heads come up on US ebay..

Regards
Ray

Originally Posted by jhovel

Doing a little reading about A&S machines, I came across this one:
Page Title
How about that!!!!????
A complete machine shop in one....

Joe

Hi Joe,

Nice one, and it only takes 3 men in white coats to operate it, although figuring out how to operate it, might put you in the company of men in white coats a bit quicker..

Regards
Ray

Would it be worth selling my Rf 32 mill drill to buy this

I just had a thought, does anyone have any idea how controllable "hydraulic table feed" is? Am I right in thinking the ram acts directly on the table with no leadscrew? Sure it would be great for Hoz milling but not being able to position the X axis could be more limiting than not having a vertical spindle? Though maybe its controllable enough that a DRO would get you around not having a leadscrew?

Stuart

Originally Posted by welder

Would it be worth selling my Rf 32 mill drill to buy this

Don't know the answer to that one.

This is a nice solid mill for $400, but to make it really useful, and add the vertical head is going to take time and money, when it's done you'd have a very good quality mill much better than the RF32. But you'd probably want to keep the RF32 while you are doing the upgrade and restoration on this one. I'd estimate that you might easily spend $1000+ on a Bridgeport Head and VFD's, and could take up to a year, by the time you found a head, and did all the necessary work to install it. You could of course use it as a straight horizontal mill in the meantime.

Tricky choice..

On the hydraulic X axis feed, The Bridgeport 1ES looks like the table has provision for a lead screw? I wonder how hard it would be to change?

Regards
Ray

i told my friend who buys things at auctions to keep an eye out for a cheap mill. and he has got a job to clear out a workshop so i am going to have a look latter in the week hopefully. i think their are mills lathes and other workshop equipment. and i think he will give them to me for scrap price.

Originally Posted by welder

i really WANT the mill but i probably wont get it as its 3 phase so i would need two vfds to run it(one for the coolant) and i have no use for it and it weights 750kg so it will cost a bit to move it. he has some other goodies to i just missed out on the tool cutter grinder

H&F sell single phase coolant pumps that you can use to swap out the 3phase one. they are pretty much the same you just need to make sure the PCD (bolt circle) on the flange mount is the same

they cost a bit over $100 from memory

EDIT: GET THAT MILL FOR $400!!!!!!!!!!! AND KEEP YOUR MILL DRILL!!!!!!!!!!!