Help identifying old German horizontal mill

mart154 · Mar 22, 2020

Hi,

I managed to find myself this old milling machine and can't seem to identify the manufacturer.

Any chances anyone here knows the maker or has any other clues.

What I know.

Original colour PROBABLY black, but could be darker green also.

The contraption on the top for tensioning flat belt is selfmade, but flat belt pulley up there is original.

Metric machine - all leadscrews with 5mm pitch.
Fasteners are real weird. Bolt diameters are all metric, eg 6,8,10,12mm but thread pitches are all TPI.

Motor location is not original - motor in all likelyhood is original.

All, and I do mean ALL parts, including custom fasteners are stamped with serial number, in my case 458 or on small parts just 58

Only writing on the machine I could find is "D.R.G.M" what is sort of German patent.

Stamped on the edge of the vertical head casting, there is "FEST"

mart154 · Mar 22, 2020

Photos I couldn't upload in the last post.

Markings on gears and bearing.

And finally the only actual Writing on the machine "Backgear With / Without"

Doozer · Mar 25, 2020

The motor mount looks like insect legs.

Very unique.

--Doozer

thermite · Mar 27, 2020

mart154 said:
Hi,

I managed to find myself this old milling machine and can't seem to identify the manufacturer.

View attachment 282559 View attachment 282561 View attachment 282563 View attachment 282564

Any chances anyone here knows the maker or has any other clues.

What I know.

Original colour PROBABLY black, but could be darker green also.

The contraption on the top for tensioning flat belt is selfmade, but flat belt pulley up there is original.

Metric machine - all leadscrews with 5mm pitch.
Fasteners are real weird. Bolt diameters are all metric, eg 6,8,10,12mm but thread pitches are all TPI.

Motor location is not original - motor in all likelyhood is original.
View attachment 282565

All, and I do mean ALL parts, including custom fasteners are stamped with serial number, in my case 458 or on small parts just 58

Only writing on the machine I could find is "D.R.G.M" what is sort of German patent.

Stamped on the edge of the vertical head casting, there is "FEST"

Pure hunch, but the machine looks pre / during War Two, the motor plate looks POST War Two. Where you sit, you'd have far more exposure to the history, but AFAIK, as the war wound-down, anything as could be moved was stripped out of Germany and hauled back to the USSR.

Any East German production as was left - or was rebuilt, then fell under Soviet oversight? That mebbe how it found it's way to a Baltic venue?

No solution to the mystery, but perhaps a hint you won't easily find one even from where you sit, and far lower likelihood yet for those of us outside that zone of influence.

mart154 · Apr 13, 2020

Doozer said:
The motor mount looks like insect legs.

Very unique.

--Doozer

Hey.

The "spider" on top is homemade for sure. Quite rough and none of the fasteners match the machine.
The "spider" handle on other hand seems factory made - too good compared to the rest. And the flat belt pulley on top, as mentioned, is most definitely original - it has the serial number stamped in.

mart154 · Apr 13, 2020

Hey, thanks for the reply.

I have the same hunch about its origins. But historically there are some things that don't add up.

If it would have been a "war import" it would have most likely ended up in some factory. And anything from an old soviet factory is unusable scrap metal after all the abuse. Or if anything was left usable, it would have been stolen / put aside bit by bit at the end

This machine tho, seems like it has had very little use - what would suggest private ownership. This of course would mean it ended up in Estonia pre war or by pure luck after the iron curtain fell.

Anywho, it is a lovely addition to the workshop. Way more rigid than the old Bridgeport I used to have... But gosh, I would like to know what it is to get it back to its original glory

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