Help me place a value on a B&S Number 2 Heavy Horizontal Mill

My shop is FULL! I'm trying to come up with a new layout for the machines and I started wondering if I still needed the B&S mill taking up prime floor space. The planer has taken over all of the jobs the Horizontal was handling and with two other Bridgeports and a Moore Jig Borer I'm pretty well set up to do most of the jobs I do.

The determining factor for keeping the machine would be the amount of money it would bring in if sold. Too little and I will just move it over to the secondary machine room and save it for the odd job that only it can do.

Right now the machine is under power and running well.
It's probably a 1956 year model Brown and Sharpe # 2 Heavy Universal Mill with a lot of accessories.

• Vertical Head
• 2 Over Arm Supports
• Lots of NMTB 50 holders
• Tail stock
• Geared dividing head with a chuck
• Lots of gears for driving the head
• Three, hole plates
• Tons of cutting and slitting saws
• Three arbors
• and more

The machine is three phase and has three motors. 5 HP main Spindle Motor, Table Movement Motor and Coolant Pump.

The Vertical Head is stored on the side of the machine and moved into position via the crane mounted to the top of the column.

This machine was originally the property of Adam, ABOM79, and moved from Florida to Texas. When I bought it, it needed work as the oil passages were clogged and the table feeds were not working.

I have changed all the oiling meters and cleaned out the entire knee oiling system by drilling out the oil passages plugs and cleaning them all out. The table oiler is via pump on the knee transmission and that was all cleaned and reassembled also. I also replaced all the oil sight glasses and everything is working well now.

When I received the machine I knew the table feeds did not work and it was thought that there was solenoid that needed to be converted to 220 from 440. After looking into the problem I found that there was not a solenoid and it was a problem with the transmission. I removed the transmission, repaired it and cleaned out that part of the machine also... Now there is regular and fast travel speed on all three axis. Here is a the PM thread where I discussed the work done. http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...ting-feed-brown-sharpe-no-2-universal-282955/

Adam started giving the mill a paint job when he had it. He found that a needle gun made short work of the old paint and did about half of the machine. If I keep it someday I will finish what he started but right now that day is far in the future. What you see in the video is its current condition.

The mill is about an hour out of Houston and I can load it on a trailer if needed....

Now all I need is a value so I can make my plans

As usual, unless you can find somebody close by who really wants it VERY badly for some reason, it's not worth more than scrap value to the general public. With all that work, keep it and use it.

Sadly, I agree with Mike. I would likely snap up an old B&S such as yours if it were closer, and I had the room. The attachments, tooling, etc. make it one hell of a good deal. Prob. is, there are fewer and fewer folks who know how to really operate them, and even less who care to learn.

Of course, the real issue is what it lacks: a CRT screen and buttons. In todays world, that automatically means it is only worth what the recyclers will give you.

I am reminded of the usefulness of a decent old horizontal, and where we are today in the machining world by a job I will be finishing up tomorrow at work. Got a block of mild steel about 14" long, by 2 3/4" square. I need to plow a step 20MM deep by 80MM wide the entire length. The two CNC mils are loaded with other jobs, so I have had to use the Birdport. Even with sharp roughers, the task can only be described as onerous.

All I can think about as I crank the stupid table back and forth (no power feed), is how quick it would be to take the block to the Shop, slap it on the GEMCO 24" shaper, and hog it off. Just for nostalgia sake, could clamp it in the Kempsmith No. 1 Plain too and do the same thing with a slabbing mill, just a little slower.

I second Mike. Even if you find somebody nearby who would love the machine, I doubt you could get more than $800-1200 for it.
And, think about twice before declaring that you can do all the jobs with the other machines you have in the shop. True, if you need to fish-mouth pipes at an angle, you could do with one of the Bridgeports. But how long would take you to tram back the head to acceptable perpendicularity vs. the setup time on your horizontal mill?

Moreover, even ignoring the fact that it is not possible to compare it to any Bridgeport in terms of rigidity, it's really nice to have some overlap of functions among the machines in a shop: you could never know what urgent (and possibly more lucrative) job could come your way while you have another of the machines set up for another job.

Not to mention that the difference in cost of fixing a broken machine in few days vs. being able to take your time would likely exceed by far what you're likely to get from selling this B&S.

Paolo

" I need to plow a step 20MM deep by 80MM wide the entire length. The two CNC mils are loaded with other jobs, so I have had to use the Birdport."

Better yet, set up three at a time on the table with three cutters and gang mill them all in one pass.

IF I didn't have a planer with a 32" x 8' long bed siting just across from the mill this would not even be glimmer in my mind..

As it is almost any job I do can be just as easily done on the planer, with the exception of blind slots. The vertical head makes those a snap, ntmb 50 tooling and all axis power feeds work wonders for those...

jdleach said:

I am reminded of the usefulness of a decent old horizontal, and where we are today in the machining world by a job I will be finishing up tomorrow at work. Got a block of mild steel about 14" long, by 2 3/4" square. I need to plow a step 20MM deep by 80MM wide the entire length.

Click to expand...

Curious minds would like to know how you plan on doing this, seeing as 2-3/4" comes to 70mm, you said the block was square, the cut the entire length..... somewhere I suspect an inch-metric conversion has gone awry.....

WRT the mill, I agree with Mike C as well, keep it. It's all very well having a planer, I have one too, but I'm not parting with my horizontal mill. In fact the most likely next machine to get the boot would be my B/port even though it *does* have power X feed. My radial arm drill is much better for drilling holes. I have a spare B/port J head that I'd love to fit to the overarm of the horizontal mill. 3 axis geared power feeds....

PDW

PDW said:

Curious minds would like to know how you plan on doing this, seeing as 2-3/4" comes to 70mm, you said the block was square, the cut the entire length..... somewhere I suspect an inch-metric conversion has gone awry.....

WRT the mill, I agree with Mike C as well, keep it. It's all very well having a planer, I have one too, but I'm not parting with my horizontal mill. In fact the most likely next machine to get the boot would be my B/port even though it *does* have power X feed. My radial arm drill is much better for drilling holes. I have a spare B/port J head that I'd love to fit to the overarm of the horizontal mill. 3 axis geared power feeds....

PDW

Click to expand...

Doh! It was 114MM square, or about 4 1/2".

Personally I'd kick out one Bridgeport instead......

I try to be in the "one of everything/two of nothing" camp, but fall into temptation on a regular basis.


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svs said:

Personally I'd kick out one Bridgeport instead......

I try to be in the "one of everything/two of nothing" camp, but fall into temptation on a regular basis.


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Click to expand...

One of them is a standard Bridgeport and the other is a CNC Bridgeport Boss. Each is pretty usefull to me..

When the vertical head is on the horizontal mill I have a big grin on my face as it moves some metal with little effort and the power feeds in all axis is just sugar on top However the Boss will move the same amount of material, with a few more passes, while I'm doing something else.

Right now my pressing need is a heat treating oven. That's going to run about 2500.00 IF I can swing it another way the B&S is safe with a home in the secondary machine room. If I can't I may have to sell off the accessories and tooling to others for their machines.

Ouch, that does complicate matters.


Does your wife have any appliances she doesn't use every day? Dish washer perhaps...
You have a couch in the shop, right???


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svs said:

Ouch, that does complicate matters.


Does your wife have any appliances she doesn't use every day? Dish washer perhaps...
You have a couch in the shop, right???


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

I already have my eye on her car....

The mill has found a new home, about an hour north of here.. Spend the morning loading up all the tooling and accessories, a full pickup bed load ..

When I brought the machine to the shop I used an old John Deere tractor to lift it off the trailer. My friend just bought one of the orange tractors, about the same size, so I borrowed it for loading.. I was shocked to find the new tractor could barely lift it an inch off the ground..... Had to use my tractor to help lift it high enough to back the trailer under the machine.

All ended well with the machine in a shop that will use it and a new heat treating oven in my shop....

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swatkins said:

The mill has found a new home, about an hour north of here.. Spend the morning loading up all the tooling and accessories, a full pickup bed load ..

When I brought the machine to the shop I used an old John Deere tractor to lift it off the trailer. My friend just bought one of the orange tractors, about the same size, so I borrowed it for loading.. I was shocked to find the new tractor could barely lift it an inch off the ground..... Had to use my tractor to help lift it high enough to back the trailer under the machine.

All ended well with the machine in a shop that will use it and a new heat treating oven in my shop....

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

My 78 year old farmer friend decided to hang it up so he had a sale and sold every piece of equipment he had, all the tractors, gator, other farm, everything. So now about 4 months later he wants another tractor. He goes down to the tractor co. and buys an orange one about the same size as his Deer that had the loader. He is not a happy camper, that orange tractor brand new is about half the tractor the Deer is.