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Jefferson MIll ??? opinions

jackalope

Titanium
Joined
Oct 8, 2004
Location
St. Peters, MO
Here is a link to a small Jefferson Mill. Seller knows nothing about them and thinks it is from the 50's He's asking ~$300 for it and it has vertical attachment. Does this "look" like something that worth dragging into the shop and playing with?
It's small and if everything is there, seems to be a habndy little unit? Any opinions here?
http://www.gotflap.com/mill.htm
 
new one on me. certainly a stout machine, geared table drive, etc, a few steps above a Rockwell of the same size, more along a more modern version of the US Mill. 300 is not unreasonable, but no dealer would bother with it, your competition if there is any, is other guys like yourself.
 
Unless it's in a basement and you have to pay a fortune to haul go for it.
A piece like that would be great for setting up to do 2nd ops instead of tearing down your main mill setup.
I'm in DE no worry about me driving out and getting it :cool:
 
It looks like a good solid machine, and with the vertical attachment is well worth the $300.00 asking price.

It is difficult to guesstimate size, but it appears smaller than the Rockwell or Millrite mills. It looks to between the Benchmaster or Atlas size mills and the larger Rockwell and Clausing mills.

Nice find.
 
I just spoke with the seller. He has used it to build small telescope parts, etc. It is small. It uses a 120v motor and he said it was light enough to break down and carry in his basement with a small dolly!
He could not tell me the exact spindle taper but did say it was smaller than an R8. He said it "looks like a smaller 5c style collet" but did not know specifically what it was.--Any ideas? I am still way new to this.
 
I am picking this little unit up sometime this coming week.
Does ANYONE know ANYTHING about these. I have Googled "Jefferson Milling Machine", etc. and have had ZERO luck. Anyone ever heard anything or know anything.
 
There are those who would say that 300 bucks sounds excessive, given what larger horizontal mills don;t fetch at auctions. OTOH, you are buying the mill from a private seller who has something tied up in it. He is not in the same position as a larger business who may actually profit in the end by selling the machine at a loss. It is a solid looking little mill, doesn't look abused, and has a vertical head. It appears all intact including power feed to the table. It is one of those little machines that is small enough to go into a home/basement shop & meets your requirments. These things don;t come along with any certain regularity, so I would grab it. I would say 300 dollars sounds like a fair price.

I am guessing the spindle taper may be a Brown & Sharpe number 7 or number 9 taper. A number of the smaller milling machines from the 30's-60's used the B & S tapers.

I am also guessing the Jefferson Milling Machine may have been a WWII era product. There were a few smaller milling machines that came on the scene for WWII defense work and ceased to exist right after WWII. Most of those smaller mils were built for production milling operations. They often had hand-lever and rack feeds on the X-axis for production work. The Jefferson Milling machine is built as a regular little knee-type horizontal mill with screw feeds to all axis- making it an interesting machine. It is all intact, and from the posted pictures, nothing looks to be busted/brazed or missing. I would not hold out much hope for locating Jefferson let alone any parts, so it is good the machine is all there and intact. The fact the seller has used it for making telescope parts means that he was likely able to get close work out of that little machine. It should be a good little milling machine.
 
Thank you VERY much for your reply!! That is the kind of info I was hoping to get.
I did feel that it was a machine worth grabbing after to speaking with the gentleman. He said it was in good working order but that he was in the market for something bigger. He is a little older and seemed to be honest (I know that sounds odd) while talking with him on the phone. Like I said, I will be picking it up within the next week. Since it is so small, I am sure I can find a place to put it without having to worry. I would imagine it is a B&S taper but he did not have digital camera or a way of showing me. The photo link I posted was done by his younger brother.
Lastly, if anyone else has info on this little unit, I would be extremely grateful to hear it. Once I pick it up I will post some better close-ups for better analysis from you all.
 
I know the main post is old but I also have a Jefferson mill. They are few and far between but good machines. I have done a lot of work on mine but could use some vertical attachment parts. I have only seen 2 others.
 
My Jefferson bull dog uses Monoset C1 collets it may have been modified for I am using it as a vertical which is unhandy but it works. I just finished a vertical attachment for it. I wouldn't take $300.00 for mine!
 








 
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