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Moore No3 Jig Bore Moving

drom68

Cast Iron
Joined
Jan 13, 2013
Location
VA, USA
By accident I won a Moore Jig Bore, No3. Yes, I was messing around actually waiting on a CNC to come up and ended up watching several other items to get an idea of what the crowd was doing as far as spending money.

I ended up hitting the "place a bid" button (live auction) and well no one seemed to want to bid on it. So now I am the owner of a Moore No3.

I need to pick it up this week and need advice on moving it. I have read that the table is held by gravity and this could pose some issues while driving down the road.

Has anyone moved one recently and what precautions did you take specific to a Moore No3 Jig Bore?

It is 5,000lbs, I do have the means to move with a 15k flat bed and unload with a forklift. I have moved many machines, so I am familiar with safely loading, strapping, and unloading.

Thanks,
 
On the #2 (I'd imagine it's the same on a #3), probably the main thing you want to do is block up the head counterbalance weight in the column. I think there is/was a special pin or bracket to do it, but if you wedge a 2x4 in under the weight, it gets the shock off of the chain. Our #2 has a smaller table than yours and arrived without any disassembly, but if it was me I'd just lower the head down onto a sizable chunk of wood and pin the table down, similar as you would with a VMC with linear ways. Don't block off of the face of the spindle though as that would transfer any road shock to the spindle bearings. Those things deserve some tender love n mercy.

Moore is still in business and there are a few places online you can get reprints of the manual for their machines, but the only manual machines Moore want's to mess with these days are the Jig Grinders. They still have a couple guys on staff that can give helpful advise for the Jig Borers, but no more parts.
 
By accident I won a Moore Jig Bore, No3. Yes, I was messing around actually waiting on a CNC to come up and ended up watching several other items to get an idea of what the crowd was doing as far as spending money.

I ended up hitting the "place a bid" button (live auction) and well no one seemed to want to bid on it. So now I am the owner of a Moore No3.

I need to pick it up this week and need advice on moving it. I have read that the table is held by gravity and this could pose some issues while driving down the road.

Has anyone moved one recently and what precautions did you take specific to a Moore No3 Jig Bore?

It is 5,000lbs, I do have the means to move with a 15k flat bed and unload with a forklift. I have moved many machines, so I am familiar with safely loading, strapping, and unloading.

Thanks,

Other advice to be followed, etc.

I can only add it is useful to liberate a wore-out tire large enough to drop over the top of a mill, drillpress, jig-bore - anything "tall".

PAD the inner edge. El Cheapo recycled tire doormats from the"Dollar" stores are good.

Make use of it like a horse-collar to attach rigging to prevent sway and tip-over during the journey. Pay the landfill fee to shed the tire, later.

Bead of a tire will not fail you. Natural flex of it, pulled tight keeps tie-downs from coming loose.

Can save a lot of time and hassle trying to find safe attach points and then also have to assure tension doesn't go slack during the run.

Old tires also make good "bumpers", etc.

2CW.
 
To make this easy you need two pieces of 1.5" dia. steel round bar, about 4 feet long. Slide those bars through the provided thru-holes in the bottom of the base casting. If your lift has forks 5 feet long or better, you're in business.
 
#3 jig grinder has a threaded hole for a lifting eye. I bet the borer is the same way. I tied mine down with the eye also. Rode like a champ.
 
Thanks, I'll pack a number of different sizes and thickness pieces of wood block and 2x4. The auction site has onsite riggers, so I'll be paying for them to load. But, I'll be sure they don't do anything crazy.

Once I have it to my shop I'll unload with the 1.5" round as mentioned.

As for strapping it down, I have a number of straps and liners to protect everything.

I'll grab some pics of the borer once I have it home and figure out what is next...

Anyone have any ideas, I am sure there are some of you have time on one of these.
 
You may be aware of this but being an old Jig Borer, the head, spindle bearings, ways, etc. were designed for the forces you'll see drilling an boring holes. It doesn't have the capacity for a lot of side load on your cutter when milling for example. They do fine with "light" milling though, which begs the question, HOW light? I've read about lots of guys saying that these old borers mill fine, and it also helps to remember that "normal" milling back in the day was done on heavy horizontal mills with 5HP and up spindles. So personally, I like to split the difference and mill with it like I would on my round ram Bridgeport at home: keep things to 1/2" collet and 1/2HP range, and that does fine for me.

When these were new, they were trying to hold +/-.00005" tolerances, but you also have to consider that to do so requires temp controlled environment and tools/tooling that likewise hold those tolerances. The castings and construction are designed more like a piece of inspection equipment than a dirty milling machine. Mine had an old DRO on it that died, so I went back to using the analog dials and rulers and I truthfully haven't missed the DRO, it's that accurate. The only advantage of the DRO would be for things like hole patterns and tool offsets, so someday I might look into putting an Acu-Rite VUE display back on it.

Tool holders come up on Ebay from time to time, but I'm not aware of any new manufacture going on. If you can get them, the old Moore table tooling pieces like angle plates and rotary tables were built to hold the same tolerances as the rest of the machine. Most of my jobs have either been bolted straight to the table (off the shelf 5/16-18 T-nut hardware), or held in a tool-makers vise that is purpose built for these machines.

It doesn't have all the versatility as a Bridgeport knee mill, but it has the potential to be 10x as accurate.
 
Attached is the actual Jig Borer that I purchased.

I don't plan on milling, I have a Bridgeport and Tree 2UVR that will mill. Actually, I plan on selling the Bridgeport as I purchased a CNC and will need the space and the cash will go towards the cnc.

I have done a number of jobs that required boring, though they did not require the high accuracy of a Moore. But, it may be nice to have for those one off, and I do get a lot of those.

No 3 Jig Bore b.jpgNo 3 Jig Boore.jpg
 
1-8 the in top for lifting, but needs a long shank. No, the table isn't coming off, that is what the lead screw and nut is for.
 
Your machine looks very similar to ours. Likewise we have other mills, but I tend to use the Moore for jobs simpler than it was designed for so it stays warmed up, but it does see some die tolerance work on occasion. I did some gear box bearing bores a while back that were +/-.001 or so hole to hole, but the Moore did a beautiful job on the bores. Exactly on size and a glass finish. Even though the table is smaller than a knee mill, you have loads of daylight under the head. It can quickly slide up and down and repeat without having to re-indicate your position. The push-button variable speed spindle and integrated one-shot lube system are handy features too.

The one no-no I do with ours is that I do have a compressed air gun hanging off of it (also have a Kool-mist unit too), but the machine has a dedicated regulator and I keep the PSI dialed way down to avoid blasting chips places they shouldn't go like between the lead screws and ways.
 
1-8 the in top for lifting, but needs a long shank. No, the table isn't coming off, that is what the lead screw and nut is for.

Thanks, it appears that there is one already on top of the machine. I have one that I will take along just in case.
 
Your machine looks very similar to ours. Likewise we have other mills, but I tend to use the Moore for jobs simpler than it was designed for so it stays warmed up, but it does see some die tolerance work on occasion. I did some gear box bearing bores a while back that were +/-.001 or so hole to hole, but the Moore did a beautiful job on the bores. Exactly on size and a glass finish. Even though the table is smaller than a knee mill, you have loads of daylight under the head. It can quickly slide up and down and repeat without having to re-indicate your position. The push-button variable speed spindle and integrated one-shot lube system are handy features too.

The one no-no I do with ours is that I do have a compressed air gun hanging off of it (also have a Kool-mist unit too), but the machine has a dedicated regulator and I keep the PSI dialed way down to avoid blasting chips places they shouldn't go like between the lead screws and ways.

I need to read up on this machine. At first I was not a happy camper, but I am warming up to the idea of it. Mainly because I do get work where I have to locate holes and bore to a new size. Always frustrating on Bridgeport. I actually used a K&T much easier and with better results that the Bridgeport.

I need pick up on the maintenance part and ensure I have the correct fluids. Hopefully they have the manual, that would be a treat.
 
As I understood the #2 manual:

I use Extra Heavy Hydraulic Oil (Mobile DTE Extra Heavy) in the 1-shot system, which the operator is to pump twice daily.

On a monthly basis you should clean and grease the spindle spline, and grease the vari-drive components. I use Mobilith SHC100 Grease as it seems to work well in low speed precision applications.

Annually you should drain flush and refill the gearboxes with the above HD fluid.

Every 2 years there's a part of the motor control system that gets oiled with a Non-detergent 600W gear oil (same as would be used on some antique car differentials). Other oils apparently can destroy the bronze elements in the system.

These are all considering a like-new machine being used 40 hours a week, so you might play with how often you do things. Your machine might have some other things to do, but I think it's just a scaled up version of the #2.
 
M.B.
Thanks for the info. I'll grab of the items you mentioned.

Unfortunately I was not able to grab the No3 today, I loaded up the trailer yesterday and the tail lights were not working. Seems the crappy wiring has started disintegrate on me. Trailer is only a year old and I have had to troubleshoot the wiring twice already. Fixed the issue this morning, took a while to figure out where the internal break was. Guess I'll have to rewire next spring.

Tomorrow should be a good day to go pick it up.
 
Hint, most people make their setups on the dead center of the table. I like to use the four outer quadrants of the table on a used jig grinder for better accuracy and to spread the wear.
 
I was able to pick the No3 and get it back to the shop yesterday. NY roads suck...

Based on all the information provided the loading and transport went well. The 1.5" holes on the bottom made it easy to move, load and unload. Also the the information on the wood block to support the ram on the table was great advice.

For reference, the No3 is well balanced and easy to move. Even though it appears top-heavy, there were no issues. The holes for the 1.5" round will be at the limits of short forks as I had to remove the metal guard on the forklift and also remove the hand wheel on the No3.

You will need about 12" long piece of wood to go between the ram and table.

Thanks for the information provided, it worked out well. The No3 is in the shop warming up from low temps.
 
drom, How tall is the #3 ?
I have a #1 and am looking to upgrade.
Needs to fit through my 8' tall shop door.
Thanks,Greg.

You will be able to get it under 8' when lifted by doing the following:
- Remove the metal guard on top of the machine (two allen head bolts), it is a guard for the ram/quill when in the up position. Keep the ram/quill lowered when moving as well.
- Remove the eye bolt at the top.
- Remove the "feet" at the bottom, they add about 2" in height.

As it sits with all items on the machine, the No3 is approx 95".

By removing the items listed, you can reduce the height by 4" - 5" or about 90" - 91" in height.
 

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