rabler
Cast Iron
- Joined
- May 25, 2020
- Location
- Rural S.W. Indiana
A new toy with an mildly interesting back story.
This is a Kearney & Trecker #3K vertical mill. Built in 1944. My wife is checking it out after I pulled into the barnyard with it today. She has told me that as long as my toys are older than she is, she approves.
It actually has, embedded in the casting, something to the effect of "War Production Approved Finish, WPB L-100".
It barely fit in the garage while still on the trailer getting under the 10' door. We had to jack it up and remove the 4" x 4"'s that are between it and the trailer bed to get it under the door. I think it spec's at 90" high, about 9200 lbs, which I don't think includes the rather massive 7.5HP motor. And yes, I was serious about securing it, 3 chains and 4 ratchet straps. Several hours of back roads through hilly parts of Tennessee and Kentucky.
For a lunch break I did a little "Google" research on K&T's history. They were built in Milwaukee, Wi on W. National Ave, fairly big and distinctive factory. It was slightly south of I-90 in Milwaukee, looking at pictures it was a distinctive factory that I remembered as a landmark, driving into Milwaukee to visit my maternal Grandmother, back in the 70's and early 80's. Ironically, K&T was eventually bought out by Giddings & Lewis, who my paternal Grandfather worked for long before then in Fond du Lac, Wisc.
While it needs a good cleaning, this machine seems to be in really nice shape. Spindle sounds smooth, rapids all work. Moore pattern scraping still visible on much of the ways, only a few table hits, not much backlash. Someone also fit a DRO and scales on it, but one of the scales is bad. Don't think I'll be having too much trouble with chatter on my relatively small projects. Certainly puts my Taiwanese Bridgeport clone to shame in terms of size/rigidity. I just need to start acquiring NS 50 tooling.
Any advice on what to check over before putting this thing to work? I'm aware that care needs to be taken to get the 3 phase set up so the motor turns the drive pulley to match the direction arrow. Figure I'll take the belts off to see which way it spins and flip the wiring if needed.
This is a Kearney & Trecker #3K vertical mill. Built in 1944. My wife is checking it out after I pulled into the barnyard with it today. She has told me that as long as my toys are older than she is, she approves.
It actually has, embedded in the casting, something to the effect of "War Production Approved Finish, WPB L-100".
It barely fit in the garage while still on the trailer getting under the 10' door. We had to jack it up and remove the 4" x 4"'s that are between it and the trailer bed to get it under the door. I think it spec's at 90" high, about 9200 lbs, which I don't think includes the rather massive 7.5HP motor. And yes, I was serious about securing it, 3 chains and 4 ratchet straps. Several hours of back roads through hilly parts of Tennessee and Kentucky.
For a lunch break I did a little "Google" research on K&T's history. They were built in Milwaukee, Wi on W. National Ave, fairly big and distinctive factory. It was slightly south of I-90 in Milwaukee, looking at pictures it was a distinctive factory that I remembered as a landmark, driving into Milwaukee to visit my maternal Grandmother, back in the 70's and early 80's. Ironically, K&T was eventually bought out by Giddings & Lewis, who my paternal Grandfather worked for long before then in Fond du Lac, Wisc.
While it needs a good cleaning, this machine seems to be in really nice shape. Spindle sounds smooth, rapids all work. Moore pattern scraping still visible on much of the ways, only a few table hits, not much backlash. Someone also fit a DRO and scales on it, but one of the scales is bad. Don't think I'll be having too much trouble with chatter on my relatively small projects. Certainly puts my Taiwanese Bridgeport clone to shame in terms of size/rigidity. I just need to start acquiring NS 50 tooling.
Any advice on what to check over before putting this thing to work? I'm aware that care needs to be taken to get the 3 phase set up so the motor turns the drive pulley to match the direction arrow. Figure I'll take the belts off to see which way it spins and flip the wiring if needed.