badwithusernames
Aluminum
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2017
Not sure if this is the right forum, today I picked up an old South Bend vertical milling machine and haven't found much info on them. I had been looking for a Bridgeport, but finding a good one in my range has been tough. Anyway, this showed up on Craigslist, was an hour and some away so I went to take a look at it.
sorry for the grainy photo.
I got there and the machine was filthy, but surprisingly in really tight shape. Everything moves smoothly with no excessive backlash in the handles, or play in the table. The table has just one or two crash marks from tooling, and a newer vise. The mechanical table feed is powered by a small 1/3hp motor, running a gear box that looks like it was taken from a south bend 9" lathe. It's cumbersome to look at, but actually works pretty smoothly. The large cabinet next to it has a pump and reservoir for running a hydraulic quill feed. It works but the speed seems to be stuck, as the fine adjustment has no effect. I had read the SB machines use a specific "acorn" style collet, and the machine has a full set from 1/8 to 3/4".
I have yet to unload or clean it, but it will be a good bookend for my new SB 16x60. Scored it for $450, couldn't be happier about that.
I'll follow up w some pics and questions, if anyone knows a thing or two about these I'd love to know it. Thanks.
sorry for the grainy photo.
I got there and the machine was filthy, but surprisingly in really tight shape. Everything moves smoothly with no excessive backlash in the handles, or play in the table. The table has just one or two crash marks from tooling, and a newer vise. The mechanical table feed is powered by a small 1/3hp motor, running a gear box that looks like it was taken from a south bend 9" lathe. It's cumbersome to look at, but actually works pretty smoothly. The large cabinet next to it has a pump and reservoir for running a hydraulic quill feed. It works but the speed seems to be stuck, as the fine adjustment has no effect. I had read the SB machines use a specific "acorn" style collet, and the machine has a full set from 1/8 to 3/4".
I have yet to unload or clean it, but it will be a good bookend for my new SB 16x60. Scored it for $450, couldn't be happier about that.
I'll follow up w some pics and questions, if anyone knows a thing or two about these I'd love to know it. Thanks.