You can lower your basement floor--no foolin. Depending on the type of
floor, may not be as much work as you think, even if concrete. Now,
concrete w/ rebar can be a pita, but abrasive saws can make short work of
that also.
If you take the head off, you can dig out *just the footprint* of the mill,
set the base/frame in place, *then* put the head on--that way you have much
less digging to do.

There are Burke horizontal/vertical mills, often w/ small Bridgeport heads,
pretty small table. Really cute, two motors. A guy by me has one for about
$2K.

Oh, holes thru the ceiling are not unheard of! Mebbe she can use another
island!
--
Mr. P.V.'d
formerly Droll Troll
"Max Krippler" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 23:28:42 -0600, Jon Elson
wrote:

I just measured the ceiling space in the basement, and unless my wife
can put up with having TWO islands in the kitchen, I can't fit it in
there. This is killing me, but I guess I'll have to settle for
something less-- like a mill/drill.

I'm sure that beauty will go to some deserving soul... Oh well...
-


I've finally found a really sharp Bridgeport Mill in Los Angeles (it
seems like most of them are in the midwest or back east) and I was
wondering how to tell if it has the "chrome ways" that seemed to be a
desireable option?

This thing comes with so many options (3axis DRO, 3axis powerfeeds,
pneumatic drawbar, Kurt vice, micro-drop lube spray, etc, etc.) that
I'm tempted to get it anyway, but the family selling it didn't know if
Dad bought the "chromed ways" option. How important is it to get the
chrome ways on a Bridgeport? I drove out there to see it and the
machine is in perfect shape and has almost zero backlash, but if you
guys can educate me about the 'chrome' I would love to hear about it.

Maybe you can tell by seeing the pictures? Here is the eBay ad
listing number: 7590917948

Sure looks Chromed to me. If not, it shows no signs of wear, at least
on the exposed Y ways in the photo. But, the bright color sure looks
like chrome. Note that the way surfaces that face the chromed way
is NOT chromed, but bare cast iron. That probably creates a lower
wear combination.

Jon