Does anyone know what this is?

Hi

I recently acquired this and wondered if anyone knew what it was originally for?

Thanks

Steve

Looks like (the remains of?) a small horizontal milling machine, possibly home-made?

That's a very nice little horizontal mill!

Pete

Looks as though it has been setup as a lathe ?

Looks like the spindle is fixed and the table is raised and lowered by the vertical threaded rod.

I gather from reading Tony Griffiths' excellent lathes.co.uk site that a round overarm was not uncommon on small millers in the 1940s and earlier. I agree with George that the support bracket and its bearing are missing, as is the arbor which would carry the cutter.

The thread and nut sticking out from the spindle are a bit of a puzzle. On the early Centec millers this was a MT2 taper. The arbor also had an MT2 taper, and was held in the spindle by a drawbar. It seems possible that what we can see is a Morse taper fitting, mounted in the end of a hollow spindle.

With a bit of fangling this could be a very useful piece of kit.

George

It was advertised as a horizontal mill from a barn find and also suspected top be home made but I wasn't sure - cost me 70 quid!

The whole assembly is dirty but in very good condition and I wondered if it would withstand the speeds to be a small surface grinder? I still need to add a motor and could manufacture a spindle to suit.

From a horizontal mill perspective if anyone can direct me to some drawings or pictures of the missing top attachment I would appreciate it as I may make these and get it working.

Once I get it cleaned up/refurbished I will post some pictures and from a home made perspective I will probably Mic up the components and put some drawing together.

Any further suggestions on useful applications for this piece of kit would be most welcome

Thanks!

Edited By Steve Gibson on 05/04/2017 15:51:19

You may get some idea of use from this Sharp mill Here

Brilliant Thank you!

I have a Sharp universal Milling Machine and it looks pretty similar.

Looks a bit like a copy of a Flexispeed

Workshop made from bits to make something for a particular purpose?

It looks like there is only a stub arbor fitted to cut something clamped in that 'jig'?

Clues might be:

No dial scales on long or cross travel.

Mixture of metals.

Extra bracketry added for table rise and fall.

No name.

No flats for the crude-looking, but effective, overarm clamping.

It looks to be well enough engineered for what it is. Guessing a belt drives from the bottom shaft to the arbor?

I would think if would do a good turn for someone, if sorted with an arbor support and might even be rigid enough for a small vertical head of some description (powered drill?). Good enough for light duties.

All guesses, but my take on it thus far.

Any thoughts on speed and accuracy of this type of equipment for surface grinding with the right motor?

I'll bet that spindle won't take surface grinding speeds, but that's no reason not to find a way of attaching a grinding head.

Accuracy will be OK but not up to the fine feed adjustment of a true surface grinder.

Surface grinding loads are small compared to milling so rigidity etc. shouldn't be a problem.

Neil

Ok Thanks, it will be an interesting experiment to see what I can achieve - poor mans surface grinder ;p