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Beginnings of a Machine shop. Victoria V2

tjscott3

Plastic
Joined
May 17, 2020
Location
Glasgow. Scotland
first post here and ive had a dig through the forum rules and im 90% sure this is the right section, sorry in advance if its the wrong place for it though.

Hi, ive been after a milling machine of some sort for a few years, mostly for supporting my car hobby, and had planned to pick up a project bridgeport to work on in my spare time outside of uni. however my students budget ended up ruling that one out and i have got ahold of a Victoria V2 vertical mill ( although with lockdown on, after uni has just become every day ).

it has been converted to 240v, i am unsure of the motor power but its enough to flicker the lights on startup, which was actually part of the decider for going for it as i wont have to spend the extra to put together a rotary converter.

it does have some issues, i only have one handle which is for the knee/saddle screws so when used on the x axis it doesnt really fit properly and the worm drive box that bolts across to the Y axis screw is cracked which is giving about 0.05-0.06" of backlash ( ill need to find a replacement or come up with a way to fix this) . oh and its all in imperial which i am now learning how to read.

sorry for the long post, hopefully some photos make up for it

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Good find - Back in the day I put a ''good few'' hours in on Victoria's and IMHO they're not a bad tool, …..nothing over special, .sorta the Ford Cortina of mills, ...…….does what it says on the tin etc etc

take care & stay safe.

Forgot to add this earlier

FYI Page Title
 
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well i used it for its first job, milling out a mild warp in the turbo manifold for my car. finish isnt the best but i have no clue how old these carbide inserts are and they dont look too sharp. also does anyone know anything about this big facemill? looks pretty old so im curious to know a bit more about it.

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if anyone has any spare bits for this machine please get in touch. im after the saddle worm drive box that bolts onto the y axis screw to replace my cracked one, the left side table end bracket, and maybe some metric dials and an x axis handle.
 
well i used it for its first job, milling out a mild warp in the turbo manifold for my car. finish isnt the best but i have no clue how old these carbide inserts are and they dont look too sharp. also does anyone know anything about this big facemill? looks pretty old so im curious to know a bit more about it.

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if anyone has any spare bits for this machine please get in touch. im after the saddle worm drive box that bolts onto the y axis screw to replace my cracked one, the left side table end bracket, and maybe some metric dials and an x axis handle.

Somewhere I've got a PDF of a manual for the Vicky U2, I think it might cover the V2 as well. All the drive and saddle/knee components are the same IIRC.

Metric dials will do you no good unless you also have metric screws to go with them. Good luck with that. Stick a Chinese DRO with 3 axis readout on it and call it good.

Parts - dunno. I've made bits for mine over the years.

As Sami says, they're a solid honest machine. Not flash or sexy but capable of removing a decent amount of metal to acceptable tolerances. I use mine a lot for machining castings and weldments plus general stuff. Rather use it than the B/port if I've serious metal to remove, or an interrupted cut.

PDW
 
i managed to get a hold of a copy of the manual, id does indeed cover all the V2 parts also. i hadn't realized the screws were different but that really should have been an obvious one now that i think about it. ill just stick with the imperial dials and ill get a hold of a cheap DRO at some point ( possibly a silly question, but do these run off their own plug or do they connect to the machines wiring? and will they run fine off of 220v single phase?). the main bit im really after is that worm drive box as its got a pretty serious crack in it, if something doesn't come along in the next week or two ill have a go at fixing it.

the only thing i know about the vice is that its got "Lhure" stamped into the handle, the shaft for the handle looks like an 8 spline tractor PTO and it weighs at least 50kg. im planning to clean it up a bit and see if i can find any other identifying marks.

other than sorting my manifold ive been messing about surfacing and milling slots into some box section off cuts that ive got around. ill need to get some proper bar stock/blocks of metal to have a go at making something proper. one of my friends works as a CNC machinist and dropped off a few carbide end mills for me to try out with the advice of "max the spindle, have fun".
 
The Victorias generally outlast the later fancy Elliots ,due to a lack of breakable bits.Like the flimsy rapids of the square form machines....Broken castings shouldnt be a problem if all the bits are still there...Even bodged braze jobs can easily be remelted.................Incidentally the company is still going ,still owns the factory in Victoria Rd ,just over from the famous Scrubs prison,but have reinvented themselves as real estate spivs.
 
If the wear isn't too bad then it looks like a decent machine.. not to start a war but can't say I've ever been very tempted by Bridgeports.

The motor should have a plate on it stating the amps or hp. It's likely to be between 1 and 3hp if UK single phase.
 
the full casting is there, just cracked through and is adding give to the y axis as it flexes. im thinking if need be ill drill and tap two holes either side of the crack, run some 6mm threaded rod through it, drill a smaller hole between the two and then weld the two bits of steel rod together. the two bits of rod will be solidly attached and trapped in the casting in other side so should hold it all solid, similar to the idea behind metalock cold stitching but with weld.

the victoria machines were made in london according to the big casting on the side. ill get some better pictures of the machine ( and the big vice ) tomorrow. the vice actually looks a decent bit older than the mill but then again i dont know much about what cast 1950s vices would look like.

ill have another look around the motor but i think the plate is hidden back somewhere in the casting of the mills body
 
If the taper on the cutter in the picture is what goes into the spindle, better get to work cleaning it up. What does the spindle taper look like?

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk
 
the cutter i dont think has been used in a very long time. the two other tool holders that seem to have had the real use is a decent condition clark autolock and also another set of more modern collets that are in good condition. the big cutter has since has had a long introduction to a bit of finishing pad ( its like gentler scotchbrite for painting car panels ) to get everything nice and smooth, the picture looks pretty bad but there was no major pitting, just some surface oxidation. ill get under the spindle and shine a light up it tomorrow to make sure thats all good too.
 
I've got to think if you went shopping for a bridgeport and came back with that, you did real good. :cheers:

Amen to THAT!

ISTR tripping across a Lhure vise whilst seeking an old, old, massive, massive, that a factory I had once worked in had imported from Germany, early 1920's, to be utilized on the bench. German, maybe? And more likely cast in 1920's or 1930's than 1950's.

Auto work, curvey goods, such as manifolds & castings to machine?

Keep an eye out for a Voltas (India) James Morton Size 2 "Multivise".

Morton Multivise Size #2 - Item 1075 | eBay

...or take some "jaw-tooling" inspiration from it to make some other vise more useful, even if only with dowel-pins and "stuff' hung off them- some as simple as an ignorant hex nut!

Yer going to STILL need all sorts of posts and dowels and shouldered goods and elevation supports, and, and, cubic cleverness goodies in general to get a STABLE grip on auto goods by crafting built-up clamping of yer own bespoke devising, but... not new, is that?

... the swing-plate "jaws" on a Morton can handle lots of the piddlier NUISANCE s**t, as-had.

My "other Kurt" (NOT!) vices being largely Gerardi modulars and one, lone but heavier than sin "Quad-I".

Massive as it is, the Lhure will not likely have "pull down" nor probably not-even anti-jaw tilt, and that can be a cryin' shame when "the force" hits the work. Keeping some deformable Copper around can help.
 
LHURE on the vise is likely for Leon Hure ,Paris ....makers of a vastly superior milling machine .....sadly ,no B. Elliott. Co. product could ever hold a candle to a Huron milling machine,but neither does it weigh 10 tons.
 
well, there are models that weight less than half of that and most people dont move the head, its too complicated.
 
ill just stick with the imperial dials and ill get a hold of a cheap DRO at some point ( possibly a silly question, but do these run off their own plug or do they connect to the machines wiring? and will they run fine off of 220v single phase?).

They come with their own plug and run fine off of a 220/240V power supply.

"Max the spindle speed". ROFL. That's what, 1200 rpm? Less?

These machines really aren't good running small cutters at high speed. OTOH I can run a 200mm diameter 20mm wide side & face cutter 50mm or better deep into cast iron and the machine doesn't really notice it. Or a slab cutter 150mm wide.

My B/port just hides in the corner.

PDW
 
V2

I had an identical machine for many years, my only vertical mill for some time. The quill movement is only a few inches but very useful with the handwheel control. Had problems with the y axis/cross feed nut housing coming loose, had to re-drill and dowel the bracket, it is a bit of a weak point. One day the feeds stopped working, on investigation found there is a chain drive in the right hand side of the column behind the rotary feed change dial, piece of new chain and quickly fixed. Shouldn't be sentimental about those lumps of metal but I was sorry to see the old girl go at the end. Where are you in UK?
Regards, Ray.
 
When I was working for my dad learning the ropes about 15 years ago, we bought a U4 that had been removed from a power plant maintenance shop. Although probably half a century old, it was practically new, many of the accessories still wrapped in oil paper.

It was a good solid machine. Still in good order and regular use in his shop.
 
the main reason i ended up with this over a bridgeport was price to be honest, after watching a project bridgeport with two chunks broken out of the T slots and zero tooling sell for almost a grand on an ebay auction i spotted this one being sold for substantially less than that and went for it. been pretty happy so far even if all ive been doing is polishing dials, tooling and tidying up. i managed to find four inserts that fit my big cutter and was having a test on some box section off cuts, which have been my main victims for facing, slot milling and playing about until i can get hold of some chunks of material to try out some small practice projects.

it will be doing a decent bit of surfacing and facing for manifolds, castings and the like. but i also want to get on to making some other parts like copying my aluminium hub uprights with some modifications for taking larger brake calipers, lowering the hub in regards to the upright and also some other changes. engine mounts are another thing ill be redoing in aluminium. along with some parts for a hillclimb racer project im wanting to start over winter. so a good mix of dealing with flat surfaces, castings and also shaping chunks of aluminium for structural parts.

ive got a pack of clamping related stuff but that swivel jaw vice looks like it would be a handy thing to have. ill probably pick up something a tad smaller than the current monster purely for something easier to move for holding smaller stuff.

and yes, the max spindle speed is a whopping 1050rpm, but im sure i can live with feeding the table a little slower. but by the sounds of those cutters youve had going it should handle any of the bigger stuff i can throw at it.

the y axis housing is the bit thats cracked on mine, although the nuts and dowels seem fine when i popped it off. im up in scotland, just outside of glasgow.

heres a couple more photos of the big vice and also the two decent looking tool holders that came with it, some oxidation on the collets and that but the tapers all seem smooth enough.

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theres also no coolant pump so i reckon ill be coming up with something for that at some point.
 








 
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