Van Norman 28 Long Table

FirstEliminator · May 13, 2016

Hey guys,

A couple years ago a guy had posted a VN 28 for sale that his father had originally ordered with an extra long table. I think it was located in Maryland. It was a while after that I had again seen the mill was still for sale. I did some searching and couldn't come up with the post. Does anyone know if this mill ever sold? Or, if anyone remembers the specs of the table and table travel?

thanks,
Mark

sfriedberg · May 14, 2016

I had a hard time searching for that thread, but this is it. Last info was December 2014 and the #28 was still available at that time.

FirstEliminator · May 14, 2016

Awesome, thanks for the reply. When the machine was listed, I was thinking it was pretty special with the long travel. Wish I had the space, time and money to do something about it. Not like I gained much of any of those int he past 2 years, but hate living with regrets. Ya never know what might still be out there on old for sale posts. With some persistence I was able to purchase Norton U4 cylindrical grinder parts from a 7 year old thread. I have a 28 now with standard travel. The 12" face mill won't completely clear a 24" part. If I were to face a V-8 engine block I feel that the following side of the face mill should pass the work. The ad sounded like the guys in the shop really like that mill and took good care of it.

thanks for digging up that post,

Mark

neilho · May 14, 2016

Mark's on the hunt for a new machine again

neil

FirstEliminator · May 14, 2016

Well, I had pondered about this mill for a while back when it was listed. Kinda wish I called on it then as the long table is pretty interesting. Maybe I missed out, maybe it still exists.
There are a couple machines I'd like. One of them being a J&L #5 turret lathe. Also a Bullard 46" VTL. Before accumulating any of those, I'm pretty much out of room. Need another building.

FirstEliminator · May 17, 2016

I wrote to the seller using the e-mail address he had posted in the ad. He said it was sold this past fall to someone in Maryland. I wonder if they are on here or on the VN yahoo group? Glad to see it found a home and didn't go to scrap.

Has anyone ever seen a long table VN other than this one?

thanks,
Mark

sfriedberg · May 18, 2016

FirstEliminator said:
Has anyone ever seen a long table VN other than this one?

That's the only one I've seen that was completely beyond catalog sizes, but my 28A has a table sized for a 38 (longer) which I believe was factory installed not a Franken-job. So VN was apparently open to specials.

moonlight machine · May 18, 2016

FirstEliminator said:
Awesome, thanks for the reply. When the machine was listed, I was thinking it was pretty special with the long travel. Wish I had the space, time and money to do something about it. Not like I gained much of any of those int he past 2 years, but hate living with regrets. Ya never know what might still be out there on old for sale posts. With some persistence I was able to purchase Norton U4 cylindrical grinder parts from a 7 year old thread. I have a 28 now with standard travel. The 12" face mill won't completely clear a 24" part. If I were to face a V-8 engine block I feel that the following side of the face mill should pass the work. The ad sounded like the guys in the shop really like that mill and took good care of it.

thanks for digging up that post,

Mark

Why would you want to machine a radius on your v8 engine? Especially with the long table it will droop an amazing amount at full travel.

FirstEliminator · May 18, 2016

In a perfect world, it would cut strait. Thinking about it, you might be right about it drooping. Perhaps I'll cut the decks on the 24" Cincinnati shaper.

moonlight machine · May 18, 2016

FirstEliminator said:
In a perfect world, it would cut strait. Thinking about it, you might be right about it drooping. Perhaps I'll cut the decks on the 24" Cincinnati shaper.

That would be worlds better.

FirstEliminator · May 18, 2016

moonlight machine said:
That would be worlds better.

I got the engine block the other day and need to get it machined quick. The engine machinist said he'd bore it, I asked about decking and if he wanted me to bring down the pistons and rods from the 4 corners so we can zero deck the block. He said for me to take it back, mock it up and give him measurements. Well, I surface a lot of cylinder heads on my shaper and thought maybe I'll deck the block myself versus bringing it back down to where he is. He's about 45 minutes away. Not sure how well the block will mount on the shaper. If I am not confident about cutting it on any of my machinery, then I will have to have to take the trip back down.
for a while I've thought about doing some block work on the VN28. Boring the block, I could mount it on one cylinder deck with the other side facing the cutting head of the fashioned in the horizontal position. Then I could feed the block in on the Y axis. I suppose I could face the deck that way too. But, it could also be faced by setting the block on the oil pan rail and tilting the head at 45*. As long as care is used on the set-up it should work. It may not be efficient, but should work and be fun.

FirstEliminator · May 18, 2016

Hey guys,

Looking at this VN38 on e-bay ( Van Norman Model 38 Vertical Mill 48 Volt | eBay ), it has a 72" table. The info on Kasunich's webpage says that the 38 does have a 72" table but only has 34" of X travel. His page also says the 28 comes with a 65 inch table and also has 34" of X travel. Longer table, but the same travel?
Another thing is this e-bay VN38 shows a pic of the tag. Which says MEA-4275-358. I thought the MEA was the one that had the swiveling table? That seems like a neat option. Decoding the serial number, I would guess 358 was the sequence number. Does the 4275 portion have anything to do with the table travel and table length?

thanks,
Mark

moonlight machine · May 18, 2016

machine a bar to fit the mains, clamp it with the caps, set it in big v blocks square it up and clamp it down, easy.

moonlight machine · May 18, 2016

FirstEliminator said:
Hey guys,

Looking at this VN38 on e-bay ( Van Norman Model 38 Vertical Mill 48 Volt | eBay ), it has a 72" table. The info on Kasunich's webpage says that the 38 does have a 72" table but only has 34" of X travel. His page also says the 28 comes with a 65 inch table and also has 34" of X travel. Longer table, but the same travel?
Another thing is this e-bay VN38 shows a pic of the tag. Which says MEA-4275-358. I thought the MEA was the one that had the swiveling table? That seems like a neat option. Decoding the serial number, I would guess 358 was the sequence number. Does the 4275 portion have anything to do with the table travel and table length?

thanks,
Mark

Look at the amount of unsupported table and the narrow knee, no way there won't be loads of droop when the table is not centered. That DRO is prehistoric!

sfriedberg · May 19, 2016

FirstEliminator said:
The info on Kasunich's webpage says that the 38 does have a 72" table but only has 34" of X travel. His page also says the 28 comes with a 65 inch table and also has 34" of X travel. Longer table, but the same travel?

Not everything on his page is 100% accurate. The standard #28 doesn't have 34" of travel. The VN 2X models were basically #2 sized, while the 3X models were basically #3 sized. For VN, that meant mostly a bigger motor and a longer table. Otherwise a 2X and a 3X are basically the same machine.

Another thing is this e-bay VN38 shows a pic of the tag. Which says MEA-4275-358. I thought the MEA was the one that had the swiveling table? That seems like a neat option. Decoding the serial number, I would guess 358 was the sequence number. Does the 4275 portion have anything to do with the table travel and table length?

The 4275 is the serial number. The 358 is March 1958 date of production.

I don't have all my VN brochures here where I'm typing, but I don't believe that all MEA's had universal (swivel) tables. Certainly the one in that eBay listing is not a universal. Probably the universal sisters of the MEA were tagged MEAU.

FirstEliminator · May 19, 2016

MEAU? sounds French.

brockwood · Apr 27, 2017

So that sold. Pics did not do it justice. Weight was more than I wanted to deal with. But location being so close did have my attention!

Also learning that the suffix on the serial is the build date!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Yahoo group did not mention that.

Search

Largest Manufacturing Technology Community on the Web

Search

Van Norman 28 Long Table

FirstEliminator

Cast Iron

sfriedberg

Diamond

FirstEliminator

Cast Iron

neilho

Titanium

FirstEliminator

Cast Iron

FirstEliminator

Cast Iron

sfriedberg

Diamond

moonlight machine

Diamond

FirstEliminator

Cast Iron

moonlight machine

Diamond

FirstEliminator

Cast Iron

FirstEliminator

Cast Iron

moonlight machine

Diamond

moonlight machine

Diamond

sfriedberg

Diamond

FirstEliminator

Cast Iron

brockwood

Aluminum

Similar threads