A diamond in the rough..

A few months ago I received a phone call from a fellow member here, I do not care to say who, he can divulge who he is if he wishes, saying he had a small mill I could have, not having a mill currently and having wanted one for sometime I of course said yes, knowing nothing of condition or even the maker, the price was certainly right! So finally last weekend I made the trip down to pick it up. What I found was quite literally a diamond in the rough. It was partially disassembled, but all the major parts seemed to be there including the frequently missing over arm support, I was pleased to see quite a bit of flaking left on the knee, always a good sign. Included were a few arbors and end mills with the ever so hard to get b&s taper. We loaded it up along with some other assorted "junk" which I was quite pleased to get and I was off, my engine hoist and pallet jack made offloading and "rigging" this little mill in to the shop a breeze. There are no power feed parts though I see evidence that one may have once been fitted, but that's ok, and there is no motor, however I can do without power feed for now, and motors are not hard to come by, I pulled the spindle and its bearings, the hearings seem to have got some water in them at some point and are pretty much dunzo, but they are common Timken taper bearings and a new set can be had for around 60$, so they will be ordered soon, unfortunately I was unable to find any in stock at work. The grease fittings all seem jammed up with old grease, but thankfully we have a large stock at work so they will all be replaced with fresh ones. The paint is ok, just dirty so I won't be painting it and instead focus on cleaning it and getting it running again making some chips.

I've been unable to find much info on these machines, other than a few sales brochures and what others have had to say, they seem to be a pretty good quality little mill from what I can see. If anyone has a parts list or a manual I'd be happy to have one or both, but I won't hold my breath, all in all parts seem pretty standard and being a simple little machine I can puzzle it back together.

I found a date of 1943 on one of the spindle bearings, yet no war board tag or evidence of one ever being there, this leads me to believe that diamond tool co. Was using surplus war production parts and the machine would have been build and sold in the post war period.

A few photos for your viewing pleasure.

rusty old tools said:

What I found was quite literally a diamond in the rough.

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Perhaps more than you yet know.

Lemme put it this way:

- A "Diamond" mill is what a Hardinge T /U or a Whitney wudda been if either had a decent set of balls,

- or what a Burke B-100-4 wudda been if they'd had put more money into the machine than they did distilled cheapness.

About as good as small-but-not-"micro" US-made horizontals get, IOW.
The few better ones were European. 'merica mostly did BIGGER mills.

Fix 'er up. Eat a Bee Pee a day just to keep the grins coming.



PS: You'll have a HARD time finding a Master, Century, or Lima integrally geared-head motor of the sort they liked.

Figure about a 2 HP 3-P + decent VFD, ELSE a 1, 1 1/2, or 2 HP 180 Volt Dee Cee motor + KB-Penta DC drive in Nema 4 enclosure.

For either, a first-stage belted up with PolyVee/MicroVee AKA 'serpentine' belting that supports tight-wrap on the smaller pulley, the last stage as wotever was OEM, Vee or flat belting, and you should be good to go.

H&H Industrial still stocks B&S 7 and 9 collets in sets and singles, the rest one can find, used-but-good with patience, thereafter mount straight-tailed ER or TG system.. wotever. IOW tooling-up is just NOT a barrier.

No parts list etc etc, but some close up pics here http://www.lathes.co.uk/diamond/

Looks chunky.... That overarm support is properly designed, and attaches in the right way to the arbor support.

It should be capable of chewing up metal with the (reasonably) big boys. I have a similar sized mill that is lighter-built, and with overarm support it will do plenty of work. That one would be considerably heavier-duty.

JST said:

I have a similar sized mill that is lighter-built, and with overarm support it will do plenty of work. That one would be considerably heavier-duty.

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Diamond's ways are about double those on a Burke numba 4, leadscrews and nuts mebbe half a size up, handwheels spaced-out further so they don't have the annoying pinch zone, more than ONE tee-slot on a longer table, 9 B&S way stronger than the Hardinge collet.. etc.

Lotta 'goodness' in 'em for a small space and power footprint.

And remember those 'grease" fittings on the ways etc. do NOT use grease they are for way oil.Spindle bearings would be the only possible exception.

There is one of these mills for sale on Craigslist.
( Not affiliated with the seller.)


Milling Machine

I also have a Diamond B-12. I don't use it very much, but it is nice when I want it. Very heavy for the compact size.

If you need pictures or details on putting it back together I may be able to help.

JohnEvans said:

And remember those 'grease" fittings on the ways etc. do NOT use grease they are for way oil.Spindle bearings would be the only possible exception.

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Lube chart on the machine calls for grease on everything but the ways which is kind of supprising, not sure where to get the "gargoyle" grease called for, however I'm sure any good quality grease will do, will probably use the red synthetic stuff, doesn't seem to dry up like the lithium grease does, I intend to only use in the spindle bearings and knee gears, I'll be using mobile vactra medium way oil on the screws and ways of course. If anyone has a recomendation on a paticular grease let me know, certainly don't want to mess up this sweet little mill or have to be replacing the spindle bearings again, kinda pricy but I guess it could be worse, certainly not the most expensive bearings made.

Good to hear I've got a good machine, I've nearly purchased a few diamond mills in the past but decided to hold out for one reason or another, so I'm familiar with the brand and their reputation as a quality machine, there seems to be quite a few of them floating around here in California, I wonder why they never took off or became more popular, perhaps the company was mismanaged? Or perhaps they were just a bit too old of a design for most folks at that time. I'd love to find a vertical head that will fit it, might end up making one some day.

I would use way oil for everything but the spindle, and grease in the spindle only if it is some kind of roller/ball bearing (and if thats bronze bushed, spindle oil). Some of those old "greases" where very liquid- another Nichols owner tracked down the grease which the factory manual specified for sliding surfaces, turns out it was more like steam cylinder oil than a modern bearing grease. Nichols machines were designed for coolant so I suspect the liquid grease stayed around longer than conventional way oil.

Modern grease on knee innards will collect chips like a magnet and will be an unholy mess to clean out- my Nichols prev owner did that.

rusty old tools said:

Lube chart on the machine calls for grease on everything but the ways which is kind of supprising, not sure where to get the "gargoyle" grease called for,

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What Greg said. I remember the general class as 'cup grease'. Really soft stuff, and about the same consistency as Brylcreem or glycerin liquid 'oil soap'.

IF rolling-element bearings, a tiny tube of Kluber's best, needled into only about a third of the open space, and you can faggeddabouddit - for a dozen years or so. During which you pump NO more ordinary grease into the cavities AROUND the bearings, where it just lays about, useless as Hell, rots, and hardens.

Whatever ELSE Kluber accomplishes - or NOT - their greases are about fifty to a hundred percent longer-lived than any of the less-costly ones.

Everywhere else that 'grease' was called for will be quite happy with modern Vactra Way oil and its tackifiers.

Not as if this was a high-speed punch-press, after all - most of it is low wear, slow wear, thread & nut or slow-moving sliding fits.

Agree with Monarchist, Kluber is about unbeatable. We use several types and grades in the rotary tables we produce at work.

After over two years working there though, I have yet to determine what all the different types are. We get the stuff directly from Germany, and the labels, packing material, etc., are all in Deutsch.

The type we use the most of comes in a standard tube, is a pale yellowish compound, pretty soft, and has what I think is a pleasant odor. We employ it in all the bearings, along with the worm and worm gear. Seen tables come in from places like John Deere and GE that have been used hard, and for 15 to 20 years. Components are still usually in great shape.

Dang that klubers grease is some pricy stuff! I'll see about getting a small tube, don't think I'll need much, the spindle is Timken taper roller bearing equipped so will be happy with the grease, I'll go ahead and stick to the vactra then on all else, the lathes seem to like it just fine, though I think grease would be OK on the knee gears I will stick with the vactra there as well, I don't think there will be many chips making it up in to there, even if I had compressed air in my home shop I'd dare not use it on my machine tools, as it is someone evidently has at one point, I see a bunch of chips up inside there, I haven't pulled it apart yet, I need to grab some solvent that won't eat off the paint.

rusty old tools said:

Dang that klubers grease is some pricy stuff! I'll see about getting a small tube, don't think I'll need much, the spindle is Timken taper roller bearing equipped so will be happy with the grease,

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That's the point. Smallest tube they sell lasts a long time if used as greases are meant to be used.

If you read what the BEARING makers tell you, all they want is a PORTION of the roller and race area 'charged' with a good grease.

They do not want all air displaced and grease packed in solid, most especially if the cavity it is installed in is also packed to the walls. As does happen when an external Alemite-Zerk is pumped away at until grease forces its way past the seals in all places it possibly can so do.

That's fine for a ball joint on a fossilized Ford F-100.

NOT so fine for precision spindle bearings. Look around, find it so noted.