OK, I got the mill home and dissembled. Apparently for the last few years,
( decades) it was used for 1 job only, making a slot. Table moves easy, as
does the cross slide, but that was it. I don't think the Knee had moved
since the last century, and the rise/fall head felt like it was welded in
place. It took a lot of sweat and a few cans of WD40 to get things loose.
And why in Gods name did Nichols put 1 screw for the gib on the head on the
inside so you need to remove the head to get to the screw. (it is in the
manual, but I missed it the first hounded times)
I put the pictures on my site,
http://www.westcanalcrafts.com/nichols_mill.html ,
Now comes the fun, making it run again.

gary

In article ,
Gary Owens wrote:
OK, I got the mill home and dissembled. Apparently for the last few years,
( decades) it was used for 1 job only, making a slot. Table moves easy, as
does the cross slide, but that was it. I don't think the Knee had moved
since the last century, and the rise/fall head felt like it was welded in
place. It took a lot of sweat and a few cans of WD40 to get things loose.
And why in Gods name did Nichols put 1 screw for the gib on the head on the
inside so you need to remove the head to get to the screw. (it is in the
manual, but I missed it the first hounded times)
I put the pictures on my site,
http://www.westcanalcrafts.com/nichols_mill.html ,
Now comes the fun, making it run again.

O.K. Comments time:

1) I had never even thought of moving it in other than an upright
posture. I hope you had no problems with that.

2) It appears that you have the overarm, but not the outboard bearing
mount which goes on the end of the arm.

3) It appears that, in addition to the pneumatic cylinders for
moving the table, you also have the rack and pinion drive. But
you appear to not have the lever which connects to the pinion
shaft.

While you can drive it using the same crank which is used for
the Y-axis and Z-axis leadscrews, you can't get enough leverage
for that.

You'll have to make a lever about as long as the one for raising
and lower the head. (I had to make the head elevating one one
for mine, but had the one for the lever feed on X-axis.) You'll
need to put a "banjo" on the end, bored with a a taper to match
that on the shaft (behind the square drive and the threaded
section), and make a nut to screw onto it to pull the taper down
tight. You'll need the ability to loosen it, because, with the
vise on the table, you can't swing it through the full travel
range without loosening the lever arm and repositioning it. My
most recent use of the lever feed on my Nichols was when using a
slab milling cutter to remove material from the underside of two
insert tooling items for the lathe, to reduce the height from
3/4" to the 5/8" needed to fit my BXA series quick-change
toolpost on the lathe. It did an amazing bit of metal removal
for those rather tough tool shanks.

4) If you get a vertical head, you will need to make an adaptor
ring similar to mine, because yours, too, does not have the ring
as a standard part of the machine. Nor does it have the
mounting surface on the head for the standard ring. (For that,
either of us would have to get another horizontal head and swap
them out.

5) Also, if you get the later set of five-step pulleys, you'll
have to make a reducing bushing with internal and external keys.
I see that you do have the same pulleys that mine came with
originally -- except that I hope that yours does not have a
chunk of cast iron missing out of the rim of one of the largest
pulleys.

6) The drum switch looks similar to mine. Where was yours mounted?
Mine is on the side of the base casting, below the ways for the
vertical travel of the head. There is a box on the other side
of the base casting with a magnetic starter with heater coils to
protect the motor from destruction if one phase is lost.

Enjoy,
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 ---

On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 02:49:01 GMT, "Gary Owens"
wrote:

OK, I got the mill home and dissembled. Apparently for the last few years,
( decades) it was used for 1 job only, making a slot. Table moves easy, as
does the cross slide, but that was it. I don't think the Knee had moved
since the last century, and the rise/fall head felt like it was welded in
place. It took a lot of sweat and a few cans of WD40 to get things loose.
And why in Gods name did Nichols put 1 screw for the gib on the head on the
inside so you need to remove the head to get to the screw. (it is in the
manual, but I missed it the first hounded times)
I put the pictures on my site,
http://www.westcanalcrafts.com/nichols_mill.html ,
Now comes the fun, making it run again.

gary


Very nice site btw..good layout.

Ive got another one for sale as well. Might be a bit cleaner, and more
complete

http://home.lightspeed.net/~gunner/annex/BONIC1.jpg
http://home.lightspeed.net/~gunner/annex/BONIC2.jpg

Located in Santa Ana California. I own it, have it in storage, but
would like to sell it.

Gunner

"Considering the events of recent years,
the world has a long way to go to regain
its credibility and reputation with the US."
unknown

"Gunner" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 02:49:01 GMT, "Gary Owens"
wrote:

OK, I got the mill home and dissembled. Apparently for the last few
years,
( decades) it was used for 1 job only, making a slot. Table moves easy,
as
does the cross slide, but that was it. I don't think the Knee had moved
since the last century, and the rise/fall head felt like it was welded in
place. It took a lot of sweat and a few cans of WD40 to get things
loose.
And why in Gods name did Nichols put 1 screw for the gib on the head on
the
inside so you need to remove the head to get to the screw. (it is in the
manual, but I missed it the first hounded times)
I put the pictures on my site,
http://www.westcanalcrafts.com/nichols_mill.html ,
Now comes the fun, making it run again.

gary


Very nice site btw..good layout.

Ive got another one for sale as well. Might be a bit cleaner, and more
complete

http://home.lightspeed.net/~gunner/annex/BONIC1.jpg
http://home.lightspeed.net/~gunner/annex/BONIC2.jpg

Located in Santa Ana California. I own it, have it in storage, but
would like to sell it.


Gunner,

Wondering what is the maximum blade dia that will fit in the arbor with the
overarm in place on these.

Also, how much stroke in the _Y_ axis and do you suppose could a person
concievably fit say 1/4thick x 4in wide x 12 ft long aluminum rectangular
barstock in parallel to the arbor and use this machine to cut said 12 ft
bars in half (or into smaller pieces) by stroking the head up and down ?

--

SVL

years ago we used to cutoff ar15 trigger guard extrusions on one of these,
hell we still have three of them in the shop for production.
we built a wooden guide that bolted to the table and used a 4" vise parallel
to the arbor to clamp the extrusion. the stop was on the vise jaw. used
either a 3" or 4" x 1/8 saw to cut off with. we stroked the spindle up and
down.
the only downfall is one time the operator slide the stock forward and slide
his index finger into the cutter requiring about 4 stitches. but if you had
a guard to keep from hitting the cutter you might be ok.

"PrecisionMachinisT" wrote in message
...

"Gunner" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 02:49:01 GMT, "Gary Owens"
wrote:

OK, I got the mill home and dissembled. Apparently for the last few
years,
( decades) it was used for 1 job only, making a slot. Table moves easy,
as
does the cross slide, but that was it. I don't think the Knee had moved
since the last century, and the rise/fall head felt like it was welded
in
place. It took a lot of sweat and a few cans of WD40 to get things
loose.
And why in Gods name did Nichols put 1 screw for the gib on the head on
the
inside so you need to remove the head to get to the screw. (it is in the
manual, but I missed it the first hounded times)
I put the pictures on my site,
http://www.westcanalcrafts.com/nichols_mill.html ,
Now comes the fun, making it run again.

gary


Very nice site btw..good layout.

Ive got another one for sale as well. Might be a bit cleaner, and more
complete

http://home.lightspeed.net/~gunner/annex/BONIC1.jpg
http://home.lightspeed.net/~gunner/annex/BONIC2.jpg

Located in Santa Ana California. I own it, have it in storage, but
would like to sell it.


Gunner,

Wondering what is the maximum blade dia that will fit in the arbor with
the
overarm in place on these.

Also, how much stroke in the _Y_ axis and do you suppose could a person
concievably fit say 1/4thick x 4in wide x 12 ft long aluminum rectangular
barstock in parallel to the arbor and use this machine to cut said 12 ft
bars in half (or into smaller pieces) by stroking the head up and down ?

--

SVL

In article ,
Gunner wrote:
On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 02:49:01 GMT, "Gary Owens"
wrote:

OK, I got the mill home and dissembled. Apparently for the last few years,
( decades) it was used for 1 job only, making a slot. Table moves easy, as

[ ... ]

Ive got another one for sale as well. Might be a bit cleaner, and more
complete

http://home.lightspeed.net/~gunner/annex/BONIC1.jpg
http://home.lightspeed.net/~gunner/annex/BONIC2.jpg

Located in Santa Ana California. I own it, have it in storage, but
would like to sell it.

O.K. That one has the overarm bearing, and (apparently) has the
X-axis feed lever for when you take off the pneumatic feeds. (The angled
arm which is below the saddle, and appears to be pointing directly at
the back of the switch box.

It also has the newer head, with the mount ring for the head
already installed.

I can't tell from the angle of the two photos whether it has the
lever for the vertical head travel.

And -- it apparently has a coolant pump fitted, but it does not
have the scoop which guides the used coolant back to the pump. (Then
again, I don't have that one either.) (But -- it does appear to have an
alternative coolant recycling system, based on the hose on the
right-hand end of the bed.

But -- it is too far away (I'm on the East Coast), and I don't
have room for another.

Enjoy,
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 ---

In article ,
PrecisionMachinisT wrote:

"Gunner" wrote in message
.. .

[ ... ]

Ive got another one for sale as well. Might be a bit cleaner, and more
complete

http://home.lightspeed.net/~gunner/annex/BONIC1.jpg
http://home.lightspeed.net/~gunner/annex/BONIC2.jpg

Located in Santa Ana California. I own it, have it in storage, but
would like to sell it.


Gunner,

Wondering what is the maximum blade dia that will fit in the arbor with the
overarm in place on these.

I believe that a 6" blade can be fitted. I've got one, but have
not yet tried to install it, for lack of a real need for it at the
moment.

Also, how much stroke in the _Y_ axis

I'm not actually sure. The X-axis is a 10" maximum stroke,
though limited to about 4" with the lever feed and the standard pinion
gear. At a guess, the Y-axis stroke would be around 4 inches, though
you can position the cut through a wider range by choice and positioning
of spacers on the arbor.

and do you suppose could a person
concievably fit say 1/4thick x 4in wide x 12 ft long aluminum rectangular
barstock in parallel to the arbor and use this machine to cut said 12 ft
bars in half (or into smaller pieces) by stroking the head up and down ?

Certainly not in half, as the machine column (and things mounted
onto it) would block the travel. Smaller pieces are possible, however
after checking how much you can stick the workpiece past the table edge
before you hit something. On mine, the first thing that you would hit
would be the drum switch, which is mounted below the moving head. At a
guess, you might be able to get as much as a foot (if you relocate the
drum switch), but you are unlikely to get more than that. By the time
you get to two feet, you will have the workpiece hit the spindle pulley,
I suspect. And even with the old machines with swappable pulleys, you
would need the larger pulley on the spindle side of the pair to get a
slow enough speed for a 6" blade.

Best to measure the machine which you are considering buying
before committing to it.

Enjoy,
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 ---

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
In article ,
PrecisionMachinisT wrote:

"Gunner" wrote in message
.. .

[ ... ]

Ive got another one for sale as well. Might be a bit cleaner, and more
complete

http://home.lightspeed.net/~gunner/annex/BONIC1.jpg
http://home.lightspeed.net/~gunner/annex/BONIC2.jpg

Located in Santa Ana California. I own it, have it in storage, but
would like to sell it.


Gunner,

Wondering what is the maximum blade dia that will fit in the arbor with
the
overarm in place on these.

I believe that a 6" blade can be fitted. I've got one, but have
not yet tried to install it, for lack of a real need for it at the
moment.

Also, how much stroke in the _Y_ axis

I'm not actually sure. The X-axis is a 10" maximum stroke,
though limited to about 4" with the lever feed and the standard pinion
gear. At a guess, the Y-axis stroke would be around 4 inches, though
you can position the cut through a wider range by choice and positioning
of spacers on the arbor.

and do you suppose could a person
concievably fit say 1/4thick x 4in wide x 12 ft long aluminum rectangular
barstock in parallel to the arbor and use this machine to cut said 12 ft
bars in half (or into smaller pieces) by stroking the head up and down ?

Certainly not in half, as the machine column (and things mounted
onto it) would block the travel. Smaller pieces are possible, however
after checking how much you can stick the workpiece past the table edge
before you hit something. On mine, the first thing that you would hit
would be the drum switch, which is mounted below the moving head. At a
guess, you might be able to get as much as a foot (if you relocate the
drum switch), but you are unlikely to get more than that. By the time
you get to two feet, you will have the workpiece hit the spindle pulley,
I suspect. And even with the old machines with swappable pulleys, you
would need the larger pulley on the spindle side of the pair to get a
slow enough speed for a 6" blade.

Best to measure the machine which you are considering buying
before committing to it.

Enjoy,
DoN.

DoN,

Thanks for the info....looking at some of the photos it had appeared to me
as though work could possibly be passed directly under the spindle for an
indefinate length, sadly, I guess not...

Still considering it though....IIRC, the max length I need to cutoff is only
8in ( plus a bit of excess for machining allowance )--it would be nice if I
were able to fully automate the process.

--

SVL

On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 12:11:29 -0700, "PrecisionMachinisT"
wrote:


"Gunner" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 02:49:01 GMT, "Gary Owens"
wrote:

OK, I got the mill home and dissembled. Apparently for the last few
years,
( decades) it was used for 1 job only, making a slot. Table moves easy,
as
does the cross slide, but that was it. I don't think the Knee had moved
since the last century, and the rise/fall head felt like it was welded in
place. It took a lot of sweat and a few cans of WD40 to get things
loose.
And why in Gods name did Nichols put 1 screw for the gib on the head on
the
inside so you need to remove the head to get to the screw. (it is in the
manual, but I missed it the first hounded times)
I put the pictures on my site,
http://www.westcanalcrafts.com/nichols_mill.html ,
Now comes the fun, making it run again.

gary


Very nice site btw..good layout.

Ive got another one for sale as well. Might be a bit cleaner, and more
complete

http://home.lightspeed.net/~gunner/annex/BONIC1.jpg
http://home.lightspeed.net/~gunner/annex/BONIC2.jpg

Located in Santa Ana California. I own it, have it in storage, but
would like to sell it.


Gunner,

Wondering what is the maximum blade dia that will fit in the arbor with the
overarm in place on these.

Ill measure..but IRRC..a 6" blade will clear. Just.

Also, how much stroke in the _Y_ axis and do you suppose could a person
concievably fit say 1/4thick x 4in wide x 12 ft long aluminum rectangular
barstock in parallel to the arbor and use this machine to cut said 12 ft
bars in half (or into smaller pieces) by stroking the head up and down ?

No idea.

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire.
Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us)
off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give
them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the **** out of you
for torturing the cat." Gunner

In article ,
PrecisionMachinisT wrote:

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
In article ,
PrecisionMachinisT wrote:

"Gunner" wrote in message
.. .

[ ... ]

and do you suppose could a person
concievably fit say 1/4thick x 4in wide x 12 ft long aluminum rectangular
barstock in parallel to the arbor and use this machine to cut said 12 ft
bars in half (or into smaller pieces) by stroking the head up and down ?

Certainly not in half, as the machine column (and things mounted
onto it) would block the travel. Smaller pieces are possible, however
after checking how much you can stick the workpiece past the table edge
before you hit something. On mine, the first thing that you would hit
would be the drum switch, which is mounted below the moving head. At a
guess, you might be able to get as much as a foot (if you relocate the
drum switch), but you are unlikely to get more than that. By the time
you get to two feet, you will have the workpiece hit the spindle pulley,
I suspect. And even with the old machines with swappable pulleys, you
would need the larger pulley on the spindle side of the pair to get a
slow enough speed for a 6" blade.

[ ... ]

Thanks for the info....looking at some of the photos it had appeared to me
as though work could possibly be passed directly under the spindle for an
indefinate length, sadly, I guess not...

Still considering it though....IIRC, the max length I need to cutoff is only
8in ( plus a bit of excess for machining allowance )--it would be nice if I
were able to fully automate the process.

8 inches should be doable -- as long as you put the blade near
the outer end of the arbor. You would need a support for the outboard
end of the stock, of course.

But how thick would the workpiece be? With a 6" diameter blade,
you would have about a 2" diameter spacer on the 1" arbor (maybe a
little smaller, but not much), and a larger diameter for the bearings
(if you go into the area where the head moves up and down), so a
thickness of 2" or greater would probably not be practical. And this is
assuming that the workpiece is mounted with its longer dimension (of
width vs height) vertical. If you make it horizontal, instead, you will
need to use the X-axis lever feed to cut the workpiece, and it will have
to be short enough to bypass the column.

I suspect that a 1/8" thick by 6" wheel could do a really nice
job cutting off lengths of heat-sink extrusion, with proper fixturing.

Enjoy,
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 ---

On 14 Jul 2005 18:18:02 -0400, (DoN. Nichols)
wrote:

In article ,
PrecisionMachinisT wrote:

"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
In article ,
PrecisionMachinisT wrote:

"Gunner" wrote in message
.. .

[ ... ]

and do you suppose could a person
concievably fit say 1/4thick x 4in wide x 12 ft long aluminum rectangular
barstock in parallel to the arbor and use this machine to cut said 12 ft
bars in half (or into smaller pieces) by stroking the head up and down ?

Certainly not in half, as the machine column (and things mounted
onto it) would block the travel. Smaller pieces are possible, however
after checking how much you can stick the workpiece past the table edge
before you hit something. On mine, the first thing that you would hit
would be the drum switch, which is mounted below the moving head. At a
guess, you might be able to get as much as a foot (if you relocate the
drum switch), but you are unlikely to get more than that. By the time
you get to two feet, you will have the workpiece hit the spindle pulley,
I suspect. And even with the old machines with swappable pulleys, you
would need the larger pulley on the spindle side of the pair to get a
slow enough speed for a 6" blade.

[ ... ]

Thanks for the info....looking at some of the photos it had appeared to me
as though work could possibly be passed directly under the spindle for an
indefinate length, sadly, I guess not...

Still considering it though....IIRC, the max length I need to cutoff is only
8in ( plus a bit of excess for machining allowance )--it would be nice if I
were able to fully automate the process.

8 inches should be doable -- as long as you put the blade near
the outer end of the arbor. You would need a support for the outboard
end of the stock, of course.

But how thick would the workpiece be? With a 6" diameter blade,
you would have about a 2" diameter spacer on the 1" arbor (maybe a
little smaller, but not much), and a larger diameter for the bearings
(if you go into the area where the head moves up and down), so a
thickness of 2" or greater would probably not be practical. And this is
assuming that the workpiece is mounted with its longer dimension (of
width vs height) vertical. If you make it horizontal, instead, you will
need to use the X-axis lever feed to cut the workpiece, and it will have
to be short enough to bypass the column.

I suspect that a 1/8" thick by 6" wheel could do a really nice
job cutting off lengths of heat-sink extrusion, with proper fixturing.

Enjoy,
DoN.
Im sure I could be talked into providing just such a cutter as well
G

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire.
Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us)
off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give
them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the **** out of you
for torturing the cat." Gunner