Victoria/Elliott U2 milling machine + slotting head

Hello and greetings from Finland.

Please be kind as this is my first post here (and if this goes to the wrong section, moderators hopefully will move it to the right place)

I recently got my hands on a Victoria U2 milling machine and now it is in my garage. If I have understood right, the same machine is sold under the name of Elliott also.
I have a slotting head for it, but it's missing some parts. I believe there should be some kind of eccentric piece and an axel etc. of some sort for it. I have been searching for pictures about the mechanism from the internet with no luck so far.

So, if here anyone happens to have an Victoria/Elliott U2 milling machine and a slotting head to it I would be super grateful if you could take pictures of the mechanism. Or if you have the original exploded view / pictures of the slotting head. I could then make the correct part.

All other discussion about Victoria U2 milling machine is also welcome

This link is the best I have to offer as far as information: http://www.lathes.co.uk/victoria/


Hope it helps,

-Ron

marceFIN said:

I have a slotting head for it, but it's missing some parts. I believe there should be some kind of eccentric piece and an axel etc. of some sort for it. I have been searching for pictures about the mechanism from the internet with no luck so far.

Click to expand...

See also any OTHER slotting heads for the concept. (old) South Bend badged (Elliot buy-in) mills for starters.

The counterpart to what you are missing that I do have for my K&T slotter head is a thick drive gear with a simple square-bottomed slot centered across the front face of it.

Your one should probably have a similar item, probably a fit to spindle-bore and driving lug(s) rather than geared.

It should also have a rectangular block to slide in that slot, with a hole & bushing or bearing for the crank-pin you do show.

There is otherwise nothing 'eccentric' on the mill itself, only the crank pin in the slotter body.

And those of use who still harbour such critters, of course..

Monarchist said:

See also any OTHER slotting heads for the concept. (old) South Bend badged (Elliot buy-in) mills for starters.

The counterpart to what you are missing that I do have for my K&T slotter head is a thick drive gear with a simple square-bottomed slot centered across the front face of it.

Your one should probably have a similar item, probably a fit to spindle-bore and driving lug(s) rather than geared.

It should also have a rectangular block to slide in that slot, with a hole & bushing or bearing for the crank-pin you do show.

There is otherwise nothing 'eccentric' on the mill itself, only the crank pin in the slotter body.

And those of use who still harbour such critters, of course..

Click to expand...

Milling machines are all new to me and I don't have any experience working with them, so I really can't tell what mills are similar to each other etc.
If you could take some pics and measurements of the parts you have? I know this is not rocket science, but I would like to manufacture parts that are as close to the original as possible.

MetalCarnage said:

This link is the best I have to offer as far as information: http://www.lathes.co.uk/victoria/


Hope it helps,

-Ron

Click to expand...

I already ordered a paper version of the user manual from lathes.com a while ago. At least that manual did not have any chapter about the slotting head or any pictures of it.



I would also want to know what kind of tools are "must have" for milling work. I now only have a couple of swivel cutting heads.

I have an Elliot U2 but no slotting head, these mills were quite common in the UK and in good condition were accurate. Due to the build quality, they have been well used and abused over the years.
There are still a good few machines left in the UK and I think there is a yahoo group for them.
You could also post a request for information on a UK site called Homeworkshop, this is very popular with UK home workers.
I do have the vertical head, the articulated vertical (rack milling ) head and dividing head with its hearing for differential indexing and spiral milling.
PM me if I can help more.
Peter

marceFIN said:

Milling machines are all new to me and I don't have any experience working with them, so I really can't tell what mills are similar to each other etc.

Click to expand...

Tony's lathes.uk.co site, milling section, should become your pre-bedtime reading for a week or three, then. The more varieties you grok, the greater the understanding of the tribe in general.

Also a regular walk through eBay, search term 'milling cutter', search term 'endmill'. Then 'face mill', 'shell mill', 'slab mill', and 'flycutter'. See also 'arbor', 'boring-head', and 'milling vise' as well as clamp-sets. Those should lead you to more-yet.


Try to understand 'climb' milling, and why one has to care.

There are good books - most very OLD - basic to complex - on setting up, calculating RPM and feeds.
Beware of You-Tube.
Not many books have bad examples. You-tube ain't a book.

Clamping is a sacred subject for mills and planers if ever-was.

A mill is more demanding of skill than a lathe. Horizontal boring-mill, more so yet. All are worth a good deal of study in advance rather than just charging in.

There's no shortage of information as to doing all manner of work with manual mills. One does have to dig for it. CNC mostly ate their lunch - and supper - a very long time ago, now.

If you could take some pics and measurements of the parts you have? I know this is not rocket science, but I would like to manufacture parts that are as close to the original as possible.

Click to expand...

Nothing K&T'ish is going to be anywhere near 'close to the original' for an Elliot. My one would need at least chainfalls to get NEXT TO the mill, not find enough daylight to get aboard, risk the health of your ram if ever even it could get in and find power.

Several other British mills could be close to the Elliot. Some may even use the same slotting head.

Seldom-used goods of that sort were often sourced from third-party specialist makers serving several makers of mills - within England's industrial centres most especially.

Bill

Monarchist said:

A mill is more demanding of skill than a lathe. Horizontal boring-mill, more so yet.

Click to expand...

That cannot *possibly* be true. I have 2 horizontal boring mills and I haven't even found where to start looking for a clue yet....

WRT the slotting head I also have a Vicky U2 mill but no slotting head, so can't offer advice. I can say that the manual from lathes.co.uk is quite expensive, I got mine on a CDROM which became unreadable and got no response to en email about this. I found a very good PDF version of the manual somewhere else online. IIRC there is no specific information on slotting heads in the manual but there are instructions for fitting one - FWIW.

PDW

PDW said:

... no specific information on slotting heads in the manual but there are instructions for fitting one - FWIW.

PDW

Click to expand...

Even 'fitting' instructions would probably be helpful to the OP.

My K&T slotter was 'fitted' to a USMT "Quartet" combo-mill's horizontal spindle by effective, but highly non-standard DIY means, could be a BAD example rather than a good one.

Tony's site does have a few clues, though. Mention is made of a #3 MT spindle.

The vertical heads are offset with step-up gears on a second axis to gain daylight if not also ratio-change.

The 3 1/4" stroke slotter head (less than half that of my K&T) shown has a casting 'hump' that implies its crank is also gear-driven on a displaced axis, not the axis of the spindle.

Sooo.... the missing link(s) the OP is looking for may be TWO items.

1) A drivING gear on #3 MT tail, ELSE straight-shank to be gripped in a #3 MT collet...

2) A drivEN gear with cross slot to engage the crankpin he showed in a photo.

ELSE..

1) DrivING disk with #3 MT tail and a link-bar/ connecting rod. Said link coupled up the 'hump' directly to the crankpin.

Inspection of the casting on his slotter should give a klew as to which.

All that presuming he even has the clamping/attach-bolt needs covered.

JM2CW

Bill

Monarchist said:

Even 'fitting' instructions would probably be helpful to the OP.

Click to expand...

Yeah well if he can't get them elsewhere I'll post the instructions when I get a chance. ATM I'm in transit and have another 6 hours of driving I'm about to tackle.

PDW

PDW said:

Yeah well if he can't get them elsewhere I'll post the instructions when I get a chance. ATM I'm in transit and have another 6 hours of driving I'm about to tackle.

PDW

Click to expand...

Because of the nature of my daily work (Strawberry & Raspberry farmer) I have now no time to even use the milling machine, so I'm not in a hurry I just wanted to leave the question here "floating" and every now and then check if someone with similar machine + slotting head would come up and post the pictures of the parts that I need. I will need the slotting head for one work that I'm doing in the autumn. So there is still 2-3 months time to do the research.

Peter Colman said:

I have an Elliot U2 but no slotting head, these mills were quite common in the UK and in good condition were accurate. Due to the build quality, they have been well used and abused over the years.
There are still a good few machines left in the UK and I think there is a yahoo group for them.
You could also post a request for information on a UK site called Homeworkshop, this is very popular with UK home workers.
I do have the vertical head, the articulated vertical (rack milling ) head and dividing head with its hearing for differential indexing and spiral milling.
PM me if I can help more.
Peter

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link, will post the same question there if I will not get lucky here

Hello from Finland,
Saw this thread about Victoria U2 and I have the same machine in my garage.
So I decided to register and post.
I have the slotting head and parts for it and some other parts if still interested about them.
I have converted the machine to cnc and some of the parts are not used anymore.
It's a nice and very sturdy machine I have to admit.
My machine had leadscrew nut worn very bad, oil hole was misaligned and no lubrication was not going to the nut. So I replaced it with a ballscrew and nut.

Marko

Your a very lucky guy to post and get a response such as MJPfin has given,that will save you a lot of time and potentially give you the original parts that your looking for from one source.I would have a big smile on my face.I know this machine well made hardy machine that you will be happy with once you have sorted it out.Nice find vertical head and slotting head.Missing the arbors can easy get them if you are-Have a good look on Tonys site it is ideal for this sort of thing-Just noticed MJPfin is in Finland get to the shop and buy a lottery ticket,you have just made a new friend-That vertical head have you measured the pitch of the fixing holes-do they match with the ones on m/c?

Oh and if someone is missing the gear set and spacers and holders/ what not to the universal dividing head I have a complete set sitting in my garage. I have also the original indexing chart for the gears. It's useless to me for I'm going to put a stepper or a servo to the indexing head and use it as a 4th axis.

Marko

MJPfin said:

Hello from Finland,
Saw this thread about Victoria U2 and I have the same machine in my garage.
So I decided to register and post.
I have the slotting head and parts for it and some other parts if still interested about them.
I have converted the machine to cnc and some of the parts are not used anymore.
It's a nice and very sturdy machine I have to admit.
My machine had leadscrew nut worn very bad, oil hole was misaligned and no lubrication was not going to the nut. So I replaced it with a ballscrew and nut.

Marko

Click to expand...

This is excellent, I will be in contact with you [emoji4]

On my Victoria the leadscrew is damaged also (Y-axl) but i haven't had time to check it out yet.

I've got one, really like it and am jealous of all the accessories you have. They are robust machine with a small foot print. Just to keep you motivated here's a few shots of it action. Most of these were from making a bunch of Dickson style tool holders. DOC is almost always full depth.

Might have a manual as well....can't remember. I will hunt for it if you don't have one or find one on the web

Mcgyver said:

Might have a manual as well....can't remember. I will hunt for it if you don't have one or find one on the web

Click to expand...

There's definitely a manual out there in PDF form as I have a copy. Can't remember where I got it from now but if someone wants a copy, PM me with a return email address and I'll send it.

I had to strip my U2 right down to get all the rotted coolant etc out of the saddle & knee plus fix a few things a previous ham-fisted so-called fitter had 'repaired'. Now the power feeds work properly and the machine delivers a decent cut. I don't have a definitive check but a 640mm straight edge casting after a second light milling pass blues up over most of its length on the granite slab. I was quite surprised by that, thought the machine was more worn.

One of these days I need to make a big bunch of Dickson tool holders as well.

PDW

Little tip though you dont really need to do it on this m/c but if you want to give those straight toothed wide side and face wheel cutters put couple small gashes in the teeth helps the cut really well-chip breakers-not in line

Nice to see other fine universal mills at work. Mine has got some changes to it for cnc conversion, I'm running linuxcnc and big steppers at the moment, but already have couple of servos waiting for installation. And I have a new ballscrew and nut for Y axis as well waiting.
My machine came with two vertical milling heads, one of them can be tilted on x and y direction, that is the one I use the most. Horizontal millig parts are just sitting in the garage for I have not used them. I do mostly small parts, for airguns and so on.

Picture of the setup phase of the cnc conversion, sorry for the mess.


Marko

Edit: got horizontal and vertical mixed up again.

Marce, I think this is what you are missing?


Marko
Edit:
Found something more, I thinks it's the overarm support?

MJPfin said:

Marce, I think this is what you are missing?


Marko

Click to expand...

I think that it could be those parts. Can't really tell because I dont know what kind of they really should be [emoji16]