DoN. Nichols wrote:
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.

I have a book (1915) that shows the Whitney Hand Miller, the machine that
W.H. Nichols bought the rights to, as an overhead belt driven machine. It is
remarkably similar to the 1950's Nichols Hand Miller. Finally got a correct
Nichols Arbor, BTW, and would like to recommend Howard at Mal Machinery in
Bristol, CT, as a good guy to do business with.