"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
In article ,
George Ricketts wrote:
I sure hope there's no pedalling necessary...
What would be the main things to look at when judging the condition of a
mill??

I don't know the brand, so I'll just have to put in general
things about horizontal mills.

The table is in pretty good condition apparetly, so what else would I
look
for??

Backlash in the feed screws (some is normal, but if you can turn
a half-turn between forward and reverse feeding without moving the
table, you'll need to replace the leadscrew and the nut on that axis.

Slop in the gibs, allowing the table to rotate a bit while
trying to reverse direction of travel.

Play in the spindle bearings -- leads to chatter and ugly work.

What is the taper in the spindle? Some types are harder to find
than others. My Nichols mill has a 40-taper spindle nose. This is a
good solid taper. Some have Morse tapers, some B&S, some (mostly
vertical mills) have R8 collets, and some use very hard to find tapers.

Motor style. Most are three-phase motors, in which case you
will either need to replace the motor, make a rotary converter, or get a
VFD. Single phase makes it harder to reverse the spindle quickly.

Do you have an arbor with it, with all the spacers to fill it
up? Do you have *multiple* arbors with different sizes? 1" is probably
the most useful, but 7/8" and others can be needed to fit certain
milling cutters.

Is the support arm present? It (usually) comes over the arbor,
then comes down and serves as a bearing mount for the far end of the
arbor, to minimize flex and chatter.

Can you *move* it? My Nichols weighs about 1100 pounds.

What kind of feed on the table? Most have leadscrews, but some
(like the Nichols) are so-called "production" hand mills, and are fed by
a lever. This is nice for repeat operations, feeding between stops, and
for certain other operations. My Nichols has both leadscrew and lever
feed. Some have lever only. Another version of the Nichols has
compressed air feed for automatic operation.

A horizontal mill will be more rigid than the typical vertical
mill of the same size, but more awkward for some operations, and a lot
better for others.

If it has power feed -- do all the feed speeds work? Do they
make a lot of strange noises? Internal gears may be hard to find
replacements for.

I'm sure that others will toss in lots of other things,
including things which I have forgotten.

Good Luck,
DoN.
--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---


Cheers for that Don - it really helps a lot

I should probably have said this in the original message, but the the
machine comes with a single arbor (not sure what diameter) and a single new
3/8 mill and spacers with which to position it. From this I assume it also
comes with the overarm, else the arbor would be kinda useless...
Also, the motor is a single phase, which I thought would be pretty standard
on such a small mill?

Now this may be showing my lack of knowledge, but if there was a fair amount
of lateral play in the gibs, aren't they usually adjustable? Or is this only
the case with certain machines?

Last question(s) - What is the typical way to mount end mills in a
horizontal? Just with a set of collets as in a vertical? How difficult would
it be to make up a set of collets with a mini-lathe if the taper was a
strange one? The trickiest part I can foresee would be the contraction
slits....dremel cutoff wheel perhaps??

Thanks again for the help,

George