New Toy - Horizontal Mill

[theperfessor]

I picked up a used but in good shape Rockwell Horizontal Milling Machine for a fair price and got it moved into the shop Monday. It had been stored outside for a while which was no problem but the cover blew off last weekend and it got a little rain on it. I had other things to do Tuesday so yesterday morning I started working on it. A little steel wool took off the light surface rust on the few places that had it. I spent the rest of the day cleaning it off with kerosene and a soft wire brush, lubing and adjusting all the gibs, bedways, drive screws, etc. It cleaned up pretty well. All the markings on the dials is sharp and easy to read.

I still need to adjust the backlash in the lead screws and replace a couple of small parts - the cup oilers are broken off and I want to replace the drain plugs with a pipe-taper to tubing adapter for flood coolant use. There is no "tray" along the back to funnel cutting fluid to the end pockets but there are holes already there and it won't be a lot of work to make one from a piece of aluminum bar.

Right now it's got a three phase 1.5 hp motor, but I'm thinking of replacing that with a single phase 220 VAC motor. I have a roto-phase to create three phase from single (I can't get three phase where I am right now) and it's about at capacity with my lathe and vertical mill. On the other hand, I have a 1 ph 220 VAC outlet about 6' away for my TIG and MIG welders, so I could just put the right plug on and plug it into the wall when I needed to use it.

It has power feed in the X axis. The machine uses a #30 milling machine taper shank with a drawbar that comes out of the back of the machine through the main drive spindle. I got a 1-1/2" arbor, a couple of saw type cutters, and all the spacers, a 3/8" endmill holder, plus a new T-nut clamping kit in the deal.

Although I'm sure I'll find a lot of things to do with this, I got it primarily to cut the handle slots in my bullet molds and the screwdriver slots in the pivot and stop screws.

Next Monday I hope to move in two used K. O. Lee tool and cutter grinders that I also purchased. I'm planning to cherry pick the best pieces and then sell for parts or just scrap out the rest. I'm hoping to be able to use these to sharpen endmills and cutters and make contour/profile tools to cut mold cavities.

There is also a Rockwell vertical mill available that I might be just to clean up and resell to somebody. I don't need it or have room for it but it would make a nice little machine for somebody else. It is the same basic size and configuration as the one in the pictures below but the motor and spindle are integral with the overarm.

Anyway, just wanted to post some machine shop porn.

[Doc Highwall]

Nice toy perfessor! What is the first project?

[arjacobson]

NICE! I have always liked horizontal mills after working with them at the white farm(oliver) tractor factory in Charles city Iowa. I have been looking for a smaller one myself....I do have my eye on a very small barker mill:)

[W.R.Buchanan]

Perfessor: Cool little mill, I'd like to have a small horizontal mill for doing screw slotting and similar work. I always wanted a Barker hand mill but one never crossed my path. They are very useful for doing this type of work when you don't want to tie up a bigger machine to do second op work. I had a Clausing Vertical once but sold it after I completely took it apart and cleaned and painted everything. got $2k for it when done.

If you have a 3 phase motor that is bigger than the motor you are trying to run you can make a nifty phase converter. A 3 phase motor will run just fine on single phase power ,,,it just won't start.

Some guys wrap a rope around the motor in the direction it needs to turn and pull, and this is enough to get the motor to run.

2 of the single phase hot leads run two of the motor phases and those are tee'd off of for 2 of your 3 phase outputs. The third phase is generated by the motor and is connected directly to the unpowered phase. thus 3 phases.

I run both of my Hardinge Manual Lathes with one of these machines. Mine has a 5hp Baldor motor for the generator, and there is a small single phase 110V motor that is used to spin the big motor up to speed before the magnetic contactor is engaged. see pic.

Single phase motors are much more expensive than 3 phase motors, if you can build the phase convertor with stuff laying around then you won't have to mod your mill.

A 5 hp motor is ideal to run up to 3 hp machines.

Randy

[akajun]

Great score, on a number of things.

If you would be willng to ship that Vertical Rockwell mill, I would be interested in it.

[theperfessor]

I'm second in line for the vertical mill, will know within a week if the other buyer is interested. If not, I'll definitely buy it, clean it up, and sell it. Probably put it up for auction here. I'll post to this thread if I do to give all interested parties advance notice. But it may not happen, so don't jump the gun on this.

[John Taylor]

I have been running three machines on one old 5 HP 3 phase motor ( converter) for over ten years. I do run into a problem if I have all three going at the same time, circuit breaker is only 20 amps. 3 phase runs fine on single at 2/3 power.

[theperfessor]

I've got a 15 hp Rotophase. It will start 7.5 hp and run 15 total. My lathe is 7.5 hp and my vertical mill is 5 hp. I could hook in my new mill and run all three if I wanted since it is only 1.5 hp.

Before I decide what to do I'm going to run a temporary extension wire off my three phase box at my lathe to my mill and see if the motor works. If it does, then I'll probably run a permanent three phase line to a breaker box and put in a couple of 3 phase plugs in a utility box(es). I've got to have three phase for the drive motor on the K.O. Lee tool grinders I'm getting. They already have the proper three phase plug on them anyway.

If the motor is a dud, I'll just replace it with a single phase motor and plug it into my welder socket and run three phase to my tool grinder when I need to.

Edit to add: The table is 6-1/2" x 24", which is big enough with enough travel to easily cut two pairs of molds at a time, maybe four pair if I use two cutters on the arbor. We'll see. My 5 cavity molds are 3.6" long. The idea is that I can let this thing run (to the feed stop) while I'm using one other machine. Other than get a 4" machinist's vise for general utility work, the first thing I'll probably do is make a fixture to hold mold blocks.

[Bent Ramrod]

They had a horizontal mill up at the Community College where I took Machine Shop classes. Nobody was interested in using it; they'd rather stand in line waiting to get on the vertical mills.

I found the thing was great for half-octagoning barrels. You could leave that classy (and expensive looking) "tulip" on the breech end of the barrel ahead of the shank if you set the stops right. A good dividing head with a reasonably accurate chuck, a tailstock rest set down for the barrel taper, and something to rest the center of the barrel on while the cutter was operating and you were in business. The machine didn't have enough travel for a full octagon, but I like half-octagons better anyway.

When I got bored with that, I did one barrel with "Rigby Flats" and another with integral Weaver-type scope bases. Had the mill all to myself; I could leave setups there for weeks.

You've got a great addition to your shop! I'm envious.