Milling Machine Advice Needed

[Just1Mor]

So my parents neibor is selling a rockwell virticle milling maching because of a divorce and i have been able to talk him down to 300.00 for it.

There is some play in the table knobs but not much. It also has the auto mill feature.

Do you think it would be worth it?

[deltaenterprizes]

Yep, go for it.

[dragonrider]

Is this a stand alone type of machine like a Bridgeport or a table top type? Probable doesn't matter at $300 it sounds like a bargan, grab it.

[No_1]

For that price grab it up. If you don't like it sell it and buy some boolit stuff.

[fishhawk]

no! wait! i want it! your nuts not to grab it at that price. steve k

[theperfessor]

We had one in our shop at school. Don't know if yours is the same model but unlike a Bridgeport type the head was mounted on a round bar. You could pivot head and bar left and right but no adjustment forward and backward. Never could get it trammed in right as it wasn't square. It was Ok but got replaced as soon as they let me run the shop. If it is ok in that respect then it's worth it but if not you will probably get aggravated with it sooner rather than later.

[Just1Mor]

not sure what is meant by bridge top but the table is what looks to move in a tri axis direction. left, right, forward, aft, rotaion clock/counter clockwise.

[Dutchman]

Is this it?

http://www.lathes.co.uk/rockwellmillers/

Heck no it's not worth $300. I'll give him $350 in a heartbeat.

6.5" x 24" table?

It's not a real heavy mill. It would benefit from filling the base cabinet with wheel weight ingots to give it some additional weight. It's a light duty mill but it's sure as heck worth $300 even if it's dirty and grimy. 780 pounds...

I have worked with one a couple times.


Dutch

[JDFuchs]

go for it. Just be sure you think through transport and storage for it first!! Ive already spent more then $350 on each for a bridgeport that is not yet in my garage.

[JIMinPHX]

If you don't want it, I do. A buddy of mine has one of those. It's a cute little machine that works well for small parts.

[theperfessor]

The picture looks just like the one we took out of service. The head is mounted on a round rod. You can move it in and out a rotate it at an angle left and right but it lacks any adjustment to angle it forward or backwards. A Bridgeport head gives you two adjustments to angle the head, the Rockwell only has one. Don't know whether the head wasn't machined perpendicular to the central axis of the rod or the main casting holes that allow you to clamp the rod in place were not square to the column.

When milling a flat surface in multiple passes there was always a series of steps that we couldn't get rid of.

Not saying they're all that way or that you can't do good work with one, just saying I got frustrated trying to mill flat surfaces or bore holes perpendicular to table top.

Rockwell also makes a horizontal mill using same base casting, we have one of those and it's OK. Maybe we just got a bad one but there was no way to straighten it out without doing a lot of work to rebore the holes in main casting. We couldn't do it and the cost to tear down machine and have local shop do it was more than it was worth.

[theperfessor]

An added note. Ours is in storage pending a move to a new building next year. We will have several older machine tools that will go up for auction then. I will be glad to post notice here with a true statement of good and bad points of each item.

But be warned - if the equipment was in really good shape we wouldn't be selling it. But everybody has different requirements and some machines could be real nice if you were willing to take on a "project".

[JIMinPHX]

The older Bridgeport "M" heads had a round shaft behind the headstock like that machine does. You can see a picture of a nicely restored M-head here - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bridgeport_mill/?yguid=316942706

It is possible to regrind the head joint on that type of mill if it is out of square, but that is no small task.

The little Rockwell mill that my buddy has lines up very well & does not need any tweaking. I don't remember if it takes standard R-8 tooling or not. I do remember that he needed to get a 3/8" tie down clamp set for it because the standard half inch sets for Bridgeports would not fit in his table slots. It's a cute little machine. You can move it in a pick up truck. It takes up a lot less space than a Bridgeport & my buddy makes good parts on his.

[theperfessor]

Ours does use standard R8 tooling with the typical drawbar. And a good one is better than a lot of the little drill-mills on the market. Would be great hobby mill if it was accurate. But because ours is out of square when we would indicate the center of a hole the center point would "drift" out of line as you raise the knee up and down and flat surfaces cut with a flycutter or face mill weren't parallel to table top.

[Just1Mor]

Is this it?

http://www.lathes.co.uk/rockwellmillers/

Heck no it's not worth $300. I'll give him $350 in a heartbeat.

6.5" x 24" table?

It's not a real heavy mill. It would benefit from filling the base cabinet with wheel weight ingots to give it some additional weight. It's a light duty mill but it's sure as heck worth $300 even if it's dirty and grimy. 780 pounds...

I have worked with one a couple times.


Dutch


Thats pretty close, the table lock is on the other side and the auto milling feature is on the right side as well. but thats damn close.