Info on Lil' Horizontal

I came across this little horizontal and was wondering if anyone had some info about it? It's an Enco, so Lord only knows who made it and the country of origin. I have one job that a little horizontal would make quick work of. I could be wrong, but it looks a little more stout than a Hardinge of the same size.

Must be a bit older, relatively, as I don't recall ENCO offering a little horizontal. It appears to be a hand miller as the lever on left operates a rack. More than a few little bench mills like that for doing lots of repetative work. Do you know what size spindle it has, just out of curiosity?
This thread might die, though...

Someone will have to fill in the details, but there was a short period when there were a few "old tech" Asian import tools. I think Grizzly sold a shaper, too. I think they were fairly well-made equipment, for the market segment, at least. They didn't have any more luck selling them than domestic makers this late in the game.

Recoilless is right about the table. It's a production feed with a short deck. Might make some operations a PITA. I sold my Benchmaster because of that, but it also had a lever-feed knee that really was a deal-killer.

I realize this is against the letter of the rules here, but I hope Don doesn't lock this thread. It's such a weird and obscure part of the machine tool scene in years past.

I had a more or less identical Taiwan mill back around 1984. I don't think mine was marked Enco, but I recall Enco sold one just like it. It had a 30 taper spindle and a 110 V motor. I sold it before I found a use for it, so I can't say much about its quality. I kept my bench and floor model Hardinge horizontal mills, and have used them. Size wise, the Taiwan machine fell between the two Hardinge mills.

Larry

A couple of years ago, I bought a mill from a retired guy,in downtown Gary, IN, who had a shop in Chicago. I think there was an ENCO store in Chicago back then(15-20 yrs) because he bought a lot of stuff from them. When I was in his garage looking at how to move mill, he had a different looking ENCO mill he claimed was made in France,?. Who knows, maybe true, maybe not. He was kinda losing it at that time because he stuffed an R8 collet in the spindle of TM Vertical head...I just changed topics . Wasn't gonna convince him anyhow.

Enco did have a store in Chicago up till about 6-8 yrs ago. At a shop I worked at we had 2, 5 position lathe turret attachments. They were specifically made for an American 14" x 60" and the other for a South Bend 14" x 60". They were made at the Chicago factory and were very well made. I still have a mag base that was made in Chicago as well. My father is a retired machinist, and we used to go to the store/factory and browse. We were there one time and they were selling a horizontal mill maybe about a
#2. It looked like they unwired it and put it out to sell. It still had an arbor with a slitting saw, and a pile of chips!

I too have been to the Enco factory/headquarters on W. Bloomingdale in Chicago to buy stuff. I recall the owner and his son were Nathan and Charles Usiskin. I saw an obituary for the son dated June 20, 1996, so I guess MSC bought Enco after that. Enco made bed turrets, four-way tool post turrets and quick change tool posts in their factory, and they were good products. They also ran a second mail/phone order tool business called Colex out of the same building. I think the Colex name came from their invitation to call them collect, back before 800 numbers became common.

Enco had their name put on many imported products. My Enco 40 position quick change tool post was made in Switzerland. My Enco boring and facing head, bought new around 1975, was made in France. I picked up another size Enco head on eBay that looked the same, but it is made in India, probably more recently. Then there was all the Taiwan stuff of mediocre quality.

Larry