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Thoughts on Gorton Mills

MDH

Cast Iron
Joined
Jan 24, 2005
Location
Missouri
Looking at a Gorton 9J verticle mill, what kind of experiance have folks had with them, any good? Also understnd they came with a B&S spindle taper, difficulty finding collets and toolng for this?

Thanks

Mike
 
Love em'...I trained on one of these machines so I am probably a little biased but I would love to have one. They are not perfect but they are very well made and I like how the pwr feeds and the fine down feed work on these machines. If you are looking at the one on Ebay and can have a look at it let us know what you think of its condition.

This may not be the best machine for your only machine, a Bridgeport would be more adaptable and the tooling is easier to get.

Charles
 
The 9J's are probably one of the sweetest mill you will ever run!
I'm a little partial to them. My family over the past 30 years has own three of them, where BP's were selling for 6 to 12 grand back in 1980, we bought these Gorton for around 3 grand apiece. There not as versitle as a BP but we didn't let that stop us. We added digital readouts to them when we got them and away we went. The con's are, one, it takes for ever to crank the knee up or down, one turn on the handwheel is .050", so to move it up 1", you have to crank it 20 times! :confused: Another con is the No. 10 B & S taper in the spindle. Larger endmills will chatter, not much you can do for it. We did change out the spindle bearings with a new set with a higher preload and higher angular contact, that did help. The mill had plenty of capacity for the type of work we were doing. I liked the table handwheel that came out at a angle to the right side of the table, sure made it nice moving the table in the x direction, sure miss not having that on my Index mill. The Gortons are a heavy mill, weighing in at around 3400 lbs. 1000 lbs more than a BP! Unless you have 480V power, pass up those that have a 480 V motors. They cannot be wired for 220V unless you rewire the two speed motor, or replace the motor. We had to sell off the Gortons when we sold the homestead two years ago, I sure miss them. There is a Gorton website out there, check it out, also a gorton yahoo group. I still have a few odds and ends left if you are interested. Good luck on your find.
 
I have a 0-16A in my garage that I have the princely sum of $500 in. The Gorton is a nice mill, although for the money being asked for this one you can get at least a serviceable Bridgeport. The 9J was offered with a variety of spindle tapers; if you don't like the one this one comes with talk to the folks at Wells-Index about your options. A regrind to either R8 or #40 is probably doable.
Mark
 
I have a Gorton 9-J that uses 10B&S tooling. I have a adapter to R-8 that fits in the spindle so nice, you don't even know it's there. The R-8 part can be made using the compound, but the #10 is much easier to get right with a taper attachment. --Doozer
 
The Yahoo group is a good resource for Gorton information. There is a 70-page manual there you can download to check out specifics (and print for your own use if you get the mill since it probably doesn't come with one).
Also, do a search there for discussion on tapers. Somebody posted a source for some B&S tool holders for around $10 each.
Yahoo Group Link

Some of the Gorton mills were available with many tapers especially in later years, so you might not know what it has until you can check it out. All of them are standard tapers except for a proprietary Gorton taper for which it is difficult to find collets. Maybe the mill comes with some tooling for whatever taper it has. My Gorton has a 40NMTB (which I really like) and I have adapters for R8 and 30-taper. Also I remember one fellow had his spindle re-ground to a different taper for about $200! That seems like a really good deal to me and I'm sure it can cost you a lot more to have this done, but it shows what can be found with a little digging.

A Gorton in good condition is a very fine machine. I'd rather have mine than any Bridgeport I've used. It's more rigid, it's quiet, and mine has a power knee which spoils me. I don't miss the extra "knuckle" that's standard on the Bridgeport and it probably contributes to the extra rigidity. If I need to mill at an angle to the material I have to angle the material on the table instead or use an angled cutter - not a big deal, especially since that doesn't come up too often in my work.

Keep us posted
 
The source for Gortom manuals, catalogs, and other info is Rick Gortons site.
Gorton

I think it is Wells Index that grinds the spindles for $200, it's mentioned in the Yahoo Gorton group.
 








 
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