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HB Rouse Hand Milling Table top Machine

Suppo32

Aluminum
Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Location
South Carolina
I just noticed a HB Rouse Hand Miller Machine in NOS condition posted on Flea bay . How good is that machine? It look pretty simple but sturdy. It uses a 2HP motor so it will take a bite out of material. I google it and there are a lot of folks that use if for repetitive operations. Interesting machine the Flea bay listing number is 114073271757. Looks like you can add a cross slide and move material thru it or slot and cut small gears. Kind of a mini horizontal mill. You just have to get the bits and slides.
 
I second what Mr Stretch had to say. The Rouse hand milling machine is hardly that. It is a milling spindle mounted on a vertical slide of limited travel. No table, no provision for an overarm, unknown spindle taper (if any). In short, it is not going to be useable in a home/hobby machine shop without a LOT of adding-on, and then will be an approximation of a milling machine, and of limited use.

Barker or Nichols hand milling machines (of which many were built for WWII and into the 60's) are usable as they are built. These two are production type horizontal milling machines, but can find use in a home/hobby type shop. These are still production type machine tools, but have enough features on them to allow them to be used for "one-off" jobs.

The type of milling machine needed (ideally) for "one off" type work is a "knee mill" with feed screws and micrometer collars for the X, Y, & Z axis. A variety of small/light duty knee type milling machines were built, and these include: Benchmaster (the lightest duty, low end of the scale), Burke (middle of the scale), and Hardinge (high end of the scale). Bear in mind these are horizontal milling machines, and while capable in that regard, do not offer the advantages of a vertical mill. These smaller knee type horizontal mills were often fitted with vertical milling heads, making a nice package with a good deal more capability. A good smaller knee type milling machine for home/hobby type shops with limited space is the Clausing or the Rockwell vertical milling machine. Small footprint, R-8 spindle taper, and can be moved in a crossover SUV or even a car if need be (taking the mill apart for the moving in a car or crossover SUV).

By the time the Rouse mill was modified and equipped to do any kind of real work, the OP would be in it for the cost of a good used small knee-type mill such as Burke. My advice is to run the other way from the Rouse milling machine and look for a real knee type mill.
 
I have a Barker PM that is very nice and solid but it is most definately not a general purpose horizontal mill. I use mine exclusively with a dividing head to cut clock wheels and pinions. Works a treat and was cheap.
I put mine together myself at a screw machine dealer's place in Bridgeport, Conn. The owner let me loose in a bay that had 10-15 Barkers in various states. I found a completely unused base & x / y slide assembly on a shelf and a column that looked like it had been used in a fixed position all its life. Fun day, owner offered me a job and let me take anything i found for $300.
Barker was still in business making mills at the time (2007) and was able to supply the few extra pieces i needed to set up the mill with dials for y&z and a lever for the main x feed.
 








 
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