Burton LeGeyt
Aluminum
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2011
- Location
- Boston, MA
I responded to a local Craigslist Ad last week and ended up with, among other things, a little Cataract Bench Miller. It is even smaller than I thought it would be, noticeably smaller than even my Stark bench mill.
Condition is good/bad. The good being that most of it is in very good usable shape. X, Y, and Z all travel smoothly through their full range and x and y even have double nuts in a configuration I have never seen before. I was able to dial in the backlash to almost zero. I do need one 1/4-26 screw to fully lock in the Y nut, the head had broken off of the one on the machine but I was able to get it out.
The very small square ends that drive the screws are all slightly bent but work fine with the large round handles. The locks for the Y and Z are beautiful and slender and also lock well.
The headstock is in very nice shape, what I imagine is the original bearing scraping is still visible in the cast iron bearings. I was worried when I opened up the front and saw no felt ring and a few chips but I don't think it was ever really run like that, inside of that was fine. I cleaned and re-oiled and replaced the felt.
The bad, obviously, is the poor mangled slots in the table. Someone really did a number in it, it will need to be repaired. I'm undecided on what to do the repair with and whether or not to include the v down the middle when I do. It is hard to imagine ever finding the little indexer that goes with it but I guess I never expected to find the miller either- No vise either although I see there is 1 on ebay right now that looks about right. Likely that will go for more than I paid for the mill!
I see what I imagine are the mounting spots for the power feed box under the table on the left side. I also see that the leadscrew does not have a slot running down it and therefore likely this was shipped without the power feed? I also imagine that the lock screws (the allen screws in the photo) for the stops on Y and Z are not original.
I know a few other people have these and if anyone has pictures of details I don't have I would be very interested in seeing them. I would also be curious as to when it was built, I think the fact that it has the hollow rectangular base and is stamped Chicago helps narrow that down? I don't have any catalogs that old and did not find that info on Tony's site.
Larry, I am hoping you see this and can shed some light on that.
Burton
Boston, MA
Condition is good/bad. The good being that most of it is in very good usable shape. X, Y, and Z all travel smoothly through their full range and x and y even have double nuts in a configuration I have never seen before. I was able to dial in the backlash to almost zero. I do need one 1/4-26 screw to fully lock in the Y nut, the head had broken off of the one on the machine but I was able to get it out.
The very small square ends that drive the screws are all slightly bent but work fine with the large round handles. The locks for the Y and Z are beautiful and slender and also lock well.
The headstock is in very nice shape, what I imagine is the original bearing scraping is still visible in the cast iron bearings. I was worried when I opened up the front and saw no felt ring and a few chips but I don't think it was ever really run like that, inside of that was fine. I cleaned and re-oiled and replaced the felt.
The bad, obviously, is the poor mangled slots in the table. Someone really did a number in it, it will need to be repaired. I'm undecided on what to do the repair with and whether or not to include the v down the middle when I do. It is hard to imagine ever finding the little indexer that goes with it but I guess I never expected to find the miller either- No vise either although I see there is 1 on ebay right now that looks about right. Likely that will go for more than I paid for the mill!
I see what I imagine are the mounting spots for the power feed box under the table on the left side. I also see that the leadscrew does not have a slot running down it and therefore likely this was shipped without the power feed? I also imagine that the lock screws (the allen screws in the photo) for the stops on Y and Z are not original.
I know a few other people have these and if anyone has pictures of details I don't have I would be very interested in seeing them. I would also be curious as to when it was built, I think the fact that it has the hollow rectangular base and is stamped Chicago helps narrow that down? I don't have any catalogs that old and did not find that info on Tony's site.
Larry, I am hoping you see this and can shed some light on that.
Burton
Boston, MA