I have been casually brousing the forum on and off for a while, but now I need to get specific and serious with my research.
I picked up this mill at the estate sale of my wife's uncle, but he never had gotten around to setting this up and running it. As luck would have it, I did speak briefly to the fellow who sold it to him and got just a rough, recent history. Basically, the only tidbit was that the quill power feed did not work. Obvious issue is that the feed reversing knob is missing along with the quill lock lever.
Anyway, the price was not terrible and I bought it $600. At the time, I had no way of hauling it, but did remove the head and brought it home. I am going back tomorrow to get the rest of the machine, which will need a complete disassembly and cleaning.
I have started cleaning and inspecting the head and have found that it needs the collet alignment pin replaced in addition to whatever the problem is with the quill feed. The serial # of the upper and lower sections do not match. The lower portion is J20557, and the upper is J37597. I don't have the knee serial# quite yet.
I believe I need the knee serial to determine the year of my machine?
For one reason or another he also had a M head there also. But just the head. I picked it up too. I figure I will clean it up and verify the operation and probably sell it. It has the #2 MT spindle, and the serial #'s match, so the market may be there.
Anyway, is green scotchbright and WD40 the preferred method of cleaning up the ways? Or possibly some light wire brushing? While I have the table removed, I plan on possibly media blasting the top surface and T slots, but that has not been decided yet. Good idea, or bad?
Any other advice?
Thanks
I picked up this mill at the estate sale of my wife's uncle, but he never had gotten around to setting this up and running it. As luck would have it, I did speak briefly to the fellow who sold it to him and got just a rough, recent history. Basically, the only tidbit was that the quill power feed did not work. Obvious issue is that the feed reversing knob is missing along with the quill lock lever.
Anyway, the price was not terrible and I bought it $600. At the time, I had no way of hauling it, but did remove the head and brought it home. I am going back tomorrow to get the rest of the machine, which will need a complete disassembly and cleaning.
I have started cleaning and inspecting the head and have found that it needs the collet alignment pin replaced in addition to whatever the problem is with the quill feed. The serial # of the upper and lower sections do not match. The lower portion is J20557, and the upper is J37597. I don't have the knee serial# quite yet.
I believe I need the knee serial to determine the year of my machine?
For one reason or another he also had a M head there also. But just the head. I picked it up too. I figure I will clean it up and verify the operation and probably sell it. It has the #2 MT spindle, and the serial #'s match, so the market may be there.
Anyway, is green scotchbright and WD40 the preferred method of cleaning up the ways? Or possibly some light wire brushing? While I have the table removed, I plan on possibly media blasting the top surface and T slots, but that has not been decided yet. Good idea, or bad?
Any other advice?
Thanks