Gorton O-16a mill

I bought one of these last year and I haven't got around to setting it up yet. I am new to machining and didn't know much about mills when I stumbled onto this one at a great price. The mill is in fantastic shape and hasn't been used much. My question is what was this machine designed for? The slowest speed it shows is 1400 RPM and goes up to 12000 RPM. Can I install a VFD and slow the old girl down? I bought this mill to use on my little hobby farm and to teach my son about machining. I fear I may have jumped the gun and bought a mill I can't use. Thanks for any help

I don't know much about them, but looking at a brochure, I think there should be speeds lower than 1400rpm. I would also guess its better at finer more detailed work, verse hogging off material.

Gorton Super-Speed milling machines:
George Gorton Machine Co. - Publication Reprints - Super Speed Milling Machines - Catalog | VintageMachinery.org

The pdf:
http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/2136/23576.pdf

Operator and parts manual:
George Gorton Machine Co. - Publication Reprints - Gorton 0-16A Mill and Duplicator Manual | VintageMachinery.org

the pdf:
http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/2136/3540.pdf

Very nice machine! Gorton had a long line of pantograph machines, so they are familiar with high speed (for the time it was made) spindles. Depending on the spindle bearings, you may be limited to the amount of metal it can remove at one pass. It looks like there is a "duplicator" optional table, so this probably fit into their product line very well, like the Deckel KF series. From the Manual, it appears the motor will slide on a dovetail way, so you have options. You could add some different pulley ratios or even make/modify the mounting bracket and add a DC motor with a variable speed motor (my Deckel has that). You may be able to use a VFD, but there are a few variables which you need to look into, such as if you have one-phase or three-phase power and the type of motor.

Thanks for the info on my mill. I did get a whole set of the Gorton collets with the mill and it has had DRO added to it. We are wanting to start building some hunting rifles and I figured the machine might be a nice size for that also