I recently got a mill and now my buddy really wants a vertical mill for his shop. lol! He said he wants a Rockwell mill. I think the 21-120 model. He said he just wants a smaller mill and the picture he showed me was a Rockwell 21-120.
We are located in Lake Charles, LA but willing to travel if needed or pay for freight for the right deal.
Thanks!
That's kinda in the same vein as wanting a Crosley or Morris Minor motor car - with a winch and snow-skis - because they were really small.
Problem is, you have to pay over the mark for them and all that because they are also serious obsolete and never were all that common to begin with. Harwell/Centex/Delta Rockwell, not the worst ever made - the history is here:
Delta Rockwell milling machines
That said, MOST combo mills are nicer in concept than execution and actual utility.
My USMT "Quartet" at 5205 lbs Avoir - Hell-for-stout vs 780 lbs Avoir - is barely tolerable for a hobbyshits use, would be a disaster in a revenue shop where two SEPARATE mills could git 'er done FASTER as well as better without all the f**king about to make the change-of-gender stuff work.
A Rambaudi - at a LOT more mass than the Rockwell combo - is far the better way to go if you have the combo need for real, not just because it seems a neat idea.
They did cease making them, whilst Wells-Index ain't yet quit.
If even yah do NEED the horizontal
at all.
Happens it takes a genuine mill hand to get HIS "head around" the ways of working of a horizontal to good effect. Not all that many of 'em around to help yah "get it", these days, either.
Verticals are less demanding, learning-curve-and tooling wise for the part-timer or hobbyist. EVERYBODY has the tee-shirt, yah get lots of help.
Wiser spend could be a decent BirdPort, Wells-index, Basque, or Taiwanese BirdPort clone. R8 if you must, 40-taper if one can.
The extra size and mass makes it EASIER, not harder to do small work. Repair parts, motor to tooling are more easily found, DRO, even servos, may already be in-place and sorted out. Half the known world uses this class of vertical, there are a dozen decent makes with a lot in common.
For a modest allotment of extra space and mass, yah worry less about carrying the needs of a small-niche orphaned mill on yer back, and just get on with life and let the more common class of mill work for YOU!