Need thoughts on Ex-Cell-O milling machines

Hello everyone!

I'd like to get some input on XLO milling machines. I ran across one which has been sitting at a local machine shop (closed since the 90's). The old man is finally selling off his shop and I was one of his first calls. I already picked up a Colchester lathe from him. He had two milling machines there he offered to me but I had convinced myself at the time that didn't need them. Since I've never owned a mill I now realized I do, in fact, need one. The two mills he has is a Lagun and XLO. The XLO caught my eye as it's in apparently great shape. Seems like it's low use, and it has just about all of the optional features equipped like the power feed, remote oiler, DRO, and it's a 48" bed. He originally quoted me $3,500 and I turned I down. Now he's offering it up for $2,500 and I feel that's a good price. I don't know much about these machines so I'd like to get some opinions. From what I recall the machines were built in Canada by a now defunct company. My concern would be parts availability and any design shortcomings of these machines. Can anyone share some experiences or thoughts?

If the ways look good then the price is not bad. I learned on Bridgeports but will take an Ex Cell O any day. Good solid machine.

Ed.

I have the same mill and I like it. I like the 1" more travel on the quill and I feel its more rigid than a B'port. Can you run it first? Take a listen to the head and run the speeds up and down. My machine had very low hours when I got it and the head has always been noisy. Its never gotten any worse, its just a bit noisy. I've heard others same the same about them. I thought there was a company that had spares for them. I haven't needed anything in the 10 years I have had the machine.

I think they may have some relation to the cardboard milk cartoon maker of the same name.
Bill d

EX-CELL-O Milling Machine

I ran a brand new one back in the 60s and it was a good machine.
There was a wait list on Bridgeports.

Parts are available for some Laguns, not XLO's. Both were good machines when new. Definately a step up from Bports. Think a TOS FN25 is even better, but better to buy whats local and easy to check out.

L7

sandiapaul said:

I have the same mill and I like it. I like the 1" more travel on the quill and I feel its more rigid than a B'port. Can you run it first? Take a listen to the head and run the speeds up and down. My machine had very low hours when I got it and the head has always been noisy. Its never gotten any worse, its just a bit noisy. I've heard others same the same about them. I thought there was a company that had spares for them. I haven't needed anything in the 10 years I have had the machine.

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I ran it at a fixed speed probably around 200rpm and it sounded perfectly fine to me. I'll run it harder before buying. I wanted to make sure the motor ran and the DRO worked. Both checked out. Thanks for the heads up.

lucky7 said:

Parts are available for some Laguns, not XLO's. Both were good machines when new. Definately a step up from Bports. Think a TOS FN25 is even better, but better to buy whats local and easy to check out.

L7

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That was one of my concerns. I know Laguns do have better support now. The mill he had was definitely a workhorse and not in as good condition. If I could get him down to $1,500 I'd probably take the Lagun.

I really like Ex-Cell-O. We have a similar machine that came out of a technical college, and would say it is at least as good as a Bridgeport and probably better. The tilt/nod setup is more compact, seems more robust.

Someone seems to have started a CNC conversion on ours. The X and Y screws were swapped out with ball screws, which is nice except they used a right hand thread on the Y axis so it turns backwards from every other mill on the planet. They also tossed the graduated dials, so it's DRO all the way.

As far as parts go- if it works now and you run it no more than 80 hours a week, is parts availability really an issue??? $2,500 isn't unreasonable.

Everyone needs a lathe, mill, and TIG welder, just a fact of life...

If the machine is basically in good shape then $2500 is an excellent price and you should get it for sure. $3500 would be an excellent price in these parts, where there were deals on manual machines after the financial crisis but in the last five years prices have been much higher, with fewer private sales at least on Craigslist. I've known various people to own and run Ex-cellos and they seem to be fine machines. Is that an R8 or a 30 taper? Having grown up on Bridgeports as a engineer/lab rat, I was super impressed the first time I tried a stiffer 30 taper machine.

I have had an Ex-Cello for over 30 years and it has been a great machine. With the power feed and DRO I would jump at the price. Another thing is the 48" table rather than the 42".

I had an XLO converted to CNC by Spindle Wizard. Had the head apart to check things out when I first got and I will say it was much better constructed and stiffer than a Bridgeport.