Ecnerwal wrote:

Local machine shop is selling off a Milwaukee Model H vertical mill, 50
taper, described as in good condition and running at a shockingly
reasonable price (half a kilobuck.)

Run towards, run away from? Capacities? How big is the three phase
likely to be (found an H horizontal that mentioned 5HP, which might be a
bit difficult to get running on local power - or how easy/hard is motor
swapping on these?) Looks elderly and massive and rigid (and hard to
move and possibly hard to power...

Shop still isn't done so I'm probably better off waiting for another
anyway, but I do like to know which ones I should be looking out for.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by

5HP shouldn't be too difficult to power. Driveswarehouse.com lists a 5HP
VFD with 240V single phase input for $599 new, I'm sure you can find a
used one a lot less. As Iggy noted, 50 taper machines are pretty big.