Old mill, Rockford Milling co any info?

Anybody sitting on info about this old mill I got? Google gave me nothing, would like to add photo but don’t now how?

Try here: Rockford Milling Machines USA

Tom B.

What model number? I have a 2B universal. In addition to Tony's web site, there is a short paragraph in Cope's milling machine book -- company formed in 1910, became Sunstrand in 1926, etc.

Jeppecederlund said:

Anybody sitting on info about this old mill I got? Google gave me nothing, would like to add photo but don’t now how?

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What Tom said.

IF.. you have one of those where the photo caption includes:

The Rockford miller overcame this problem in an ingenious way - the drive from the spindle was lifted by gears so as to pass through a hollow overarm support.

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THEN .. you have one of the more versatile of small mills for its size made then or since.

I have a No2 universal with the original dividing head and gears.Mine came with a after market vertical head.It was made in 1924.There was a thread on here some years ago about them.Tony's site is the only thing I have seen about them.

ratbldr427 said:

I have a No2 universal with the original dividing head and gears.Mine came with a after market vertical head.It was made in 1924.There was a thread on here some years ago about them.Tony's site is the only thing I have seen about them.

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I had passed on one - NYC area - five or more years ago before I knew about Tony's site so was unaware of the Rockford's advantage over the Burke #4 I bought soon after.

Plain bearings, BTW, are not a show-stopper. First, they do the job, and are restorable.

Second, most of these small mill makers later offered Timkens for heavy duty and/or New Departure ball for high-speed tasking.

DIY conversion to roller-bearings is possible, and probably w/o need of re-boring.

I'm curious what kind of drive your machine has.Mine is not a cone drive like in Tony's pictures.It came from the factory with a flat belt driven clutch at the rear of the machine.

The speeds were controlled by a 3ph variable speed motor.The speed control consisted of 3 iron bars that were the cores of 3 choke coils,one for each phase, and were moved vertically in and out of the coils by a screw.Haven't seen anything like that,way,way before VFD's!

I tested it when I bought it and it would creep really slow but don't know how much torque it had or what speed range it had.
If this site had existed I would like to have donated it to some one who liked old electrical tech.I stumbled over it one to many times and threw it away.

I'm curious what kind of drive your machine has.Mine is not a cone drive like in Tony's pictures.It came from the factory with a flat belt driven clutch at the rear of the machine.

The speeds were controlled by a 3ph variable speed motor.The speed control consisted of 3 iron bars that were the cores of 3 choke coils,one for each phase, and were moved vertically in and out of the coils by a screw.Haven't seen anything like that,way,way before VFD's!

I tested it when I bought it and it would creep really slow but don't know how much torque it had or what speed range it had.
If this site had existed I would like to have donated it to some one who liked old electrical tech.I stumbled over it one to many times and threw it away.