1994 Abene I bought : Can the horizontal ram be moved manually

Anyone here familiar with this model? VHF340 II, made in 1994. It looks very similar to the current Abene VHF 350 . I had mistakenly thought it was just a newer iteration of the VF3, but this machine is larger and heavier. I'd say it is in the Deckel FP4M size.


Anyways.., to move it, ideally I need to move the horizontal ram forward to center the weight for transport. But the hand-wheel (Blue arrow) at the back of the ram will not budge, so obviously the axis is locked. I can't find any manual locks for this axis. Does the ram only move in power feed mode?



I was thinking of bolting 4x4 Douglas Fir beams across the front 2 holes (red box) in the casting, to increase machine's footprint and make it less prone to tip over. But decided I will bolt machine to a heavy duty pallet I have and bolt Doug Fir beams to pallet.

I would think most here would be more familiar with the older single angles ram revision. The VHF 340 that I saw at auction years ago had the locking bolts on the other side. If I remember correctly there were two each for the two different rams. show us a photo of the other side. That machine was not a VHF 340 II however. There would be no need for the hand wheel if you could only move it under power. It might have an electro / mechanical brake also. Do you have the manual and is it still under power?
I don't like pallets for transport unless custom made for the job and weight . They usually just increase center of gravity height.

Andy

In the link is a photo of the bolts I remembered on the two rams. So yours didn't have these?

Abene VHF340 U/BS Turret Mill

Andy

Andy St said:

In the link is a photo of the bolts I remembered on the two rams. So yours didn't have these?

Abene VHF340 U/BS Turret Mill

Andy

Click to expand...

From the picture I have, I see the 2 bolts that lock the diagonal movement. Pics I took of the machine won't open and I can't recall if I saw the 2 bolt son top. But the machine in your picture looks just like mine, so it must have the 2 top bolts.


Yeah I don't like pallets either, especially since the one I have is rather high because it is a pretty heavy duty pallet.


Could I just attack some 2x4 to 1" plywood to give it some clearance for forks to get under, and bolt machine to plywood? If Machine wants to tilt , will it rip the bolts our of 1" plywood?

No suggestions for OP, but nice looking mill!

L7

Even has a quill... drool!