Cincinnati Follower Mill

[corbinstein]

I'm wondering if there's a way to convert a Cincinnati Follower Mill to become a standard knee mill. This thing has a hydraulic pump and some stuff, but I'll remove that and maybe add handwheels to the bed.
I don't know much about it yet.

 

[sfriedberg]

If this thing uses hydraulic cylinders to drive the axes, it's a non-starter for conversion. If it uses hydraulic motors or electric servomotors to turn leadscrews, it might be possible to convert it, but you'd be signing up for a substantial design/build project. If you don't already have a substantial mill, this should not be your first mill.

 

[4GSR]

I wonder if he is talking about a old Cincy Hydrotel mill that has a hydraulic tracer? And yes, all the axis are hydraulically assisted. If this is so, run from it!!!

 

[corbinstein]

The tracer unit says True Trace on it. I don't know if that helps.

 

[EmGo]

PHOTO !

But it's probably just a tracer mill. Leave it alone. If you want a bridgeport, just get one.

btw, I think I could make better money with a 2-30 Gorton tracer than a Haas vmc these days. Specialize in broken antique stuff, they send you the pieces, you glue them together, toss a chunk of 6061 on the table and knock out a new piece that's the same as the pre-broken old piece. No castings, no design work, no programming, it's exactly identical, I think there's a niche there.

 

[corbinstein]

 

[corbinstein]

Hope this helps.

 

[EmGo]

Hope this helps.

Yeah, leave it alone, it's cute the way it is and actually useful to someone. Get a Bridgeport or a Gorton or a Sharp or anything that's ready to go and maybe put this in the for sale section, if it's yours. Maybe there's some old goat who can see the value.

I'd be making harley parts with it. And osca parts, and offy parts, and indian parts ... you could make money with it the way it is.

 

[hvnlymachining]

I resent the "old goat" label!
That said, I'm actually watching for tracer machines nowadays, but not hard, basically scrap priced machines close enough to retrieve myself.

That machine appears very well setup, I don't recall ever seeing one quite that well outfitted, with lots of expensive bells and whistles when it was new.

 

[Aejgx6]

That little stylus and the bias knobs make a great power feed with rapids. It's awsome how it is. Sure it's noisy but the best things in life always are.

 

[tnmgcarbide]

i believe that's a "contourmaster"

 

[boslab]

We had the no6 I think, 50 taper with a 2” x 8” cutter, cutting tensile test pieces out of 16mm plate, needles of pain, not really a conversion project, but traces well.
Mark