Vertical miller for sale - any offers

[JonE]

How big is that thing in comparison to a pillar drill? It looks enormous in the photos. Can one person move one?
I guess the issue is that lots of us can see the advantages of what it could do, but I'm imagining there are less of us able to be really competent for "serious things" than the serious people think.
I'm personally very thankful that the Seven specialists are pretty reasonable and happy to do small jobs when competency is needed!

[Ian Williams]

I would buy it for that price Tony.......however NZ is a bloody long way to ship something that heavy!!!!

[Tony Griffiths]

Not only an incredibly useful piece if equipment in any workshop, the fact that it comes complete with a very nice Abwood vice it is  very good value indeed.
Try and get any Abwood vice at a reasonable price these days -they are like hen's teeth.
I wouldn't be without my ZX25 mill/drill along with my lathe, although a Myford has its limitations when doing Automotive work.
Bob

I started off with an ML 7 a long time ago,vertical slide for limited milling work but have to say everything was hard work,too small a table too little slide travel etc too small a spindle bore.Bought a Super 7. Better tailstock for drilling,countershaft clutch and fitted a second hand gearbox and taper turning attachment from another super 7 I bought so in the end as good as a Myford could get.
I do admire those Old model engineers who made superb models on them,I spoke to one who'd machined a 3" traction engine cylinder on one.
However if I was going to advise someone looking to buy a lathe I'd say maybe a Boxford for most small /medium work,a bit bigger,heavier and capable of more useful? Work.
I still have my Super 7 and use it for certain jobs,lathes are like lawnmowers,You can't get one that does everything.

Yes, a good choice is a Boxford. The model to avoid is the "C", a version that lacks power sliding and surfacing feeds and requires the use of the easily-worn (and hard to replace) leadscrew clasp nuts to drive the carriage. The Models "A" and "B" have a power feed apron with worm-and-wheel gearing inside; this - instead of the leadscrew - is used to drive the carriage for normal turning and also provides power cross feed. The arrangement also gives a much finer rate of feed than using just the changewheels or screwcutting gearbox. The top-of-the-range Boxford is the late-model VSL with an L00 spindle nose and a much larger spindle bore.
If considering a Boxford read this first: http://www.lathes.co.uk/boxford   If pondering which lathe to buy, here is some advice: http://www.lathes.co.uk/faq/page2.html

[Parazine]

The mill/drill is now happily settled in Wiltshire, having been removed from a rather damp concrete and asbestos outhouse in Barnet. Turns out that it was in almost unused condition; what appear to be rust stains on the before picture below are mostly the factory applied rustproofing treatment!

Before:

   

After:

   

It's had a clean up, new belts, my 13mm Rohm chuck fitted, with a Clarkson available for milling cutters and it's been wired into a fused spur. The Abwood vice, which was sadly lacking its handle has been transferred to my Adcock and Shipley 1AD, being a more suitable size for that machine....  Need to make some longer arms for the quill feed handle.

Lifting it onto the garage bench, in fact lifting it at all was quite a performance, however it only took me just over an hour to remove it from the outhouse when I picked it up. 

It apparently weighs in at 180kg   

The extension on the bench is more substantial than it looks and the balance point is well to the rear.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Nice one Tim.

[Ian Dunford]

Excellent news Tim.

[Tony Griffiths]

I had my suspicions about the rust being preservative. It's amazing how often I hear from people who've bought a house and found machine tools left in the cellar or garage (this was the case with the Warco miller). Also, people inherit a house and find that uncle Jim has left them a collection of machines tools. Sometimes they just want to give them away in a panic - but they often end up being advertised here http://www.lathes.co.uk/page3.html and here https://store.lathes.co.uk/adverts
The best was a farmer who rang to say he bought the farm next door and in one of the barns was a collection of thirty assorted Wadkin woodworking machines. The scrap man had offered £800, what should he do? They sold for £18,000. He was rather pleased!

[Bob Culver]

I purchased very similar one new about 1975. About $1000 when my wage was around  $4000 pa. The same today is less than $2500 and the same employment about $90,000! Later ones have a more robust pillar. Fitted mine with a cross brace. Tools were then so expensive I hoped to avoid a separate drill but too cumbersome.  Have little used but one job was milling hopefully parallel edges on a pair of angle irons which were then shimmed and clamped level across the the lathe bed for static balancing of a Javelin crank with added counterweights, Bradford cranks, flywheel/clutch assemblies.  
It is incredible how inexpensive machiney has become... and some still do not have a lathe!
(I have a lot of Model Engineer mags from about 1930. A new 3 inch lathe without chucks or motor was UK L8, over two weeks of a tradesman's wage.)

In reply to JonE the devices are heavy but readily break down into motor, head, column , base and with a bit of work that can be split also.
I have seen very reasonable small lathes acquired through Trade me for L400 equiv so the equiv price here would seem not exceptional. Often old lathes come with accessories and a set of bonus collets, end mills etc would be a great added asset.

The additonal pulley interesting as changing belts seems much more of a chore than with a bench drill.

And incidentally the house for L10,000 equiv at the same time is now valued at 50X that! When I spent up on my lathe and mill drill I consoled myself that such retained value.... I could have bought a Pentax instead. And a new car was not hugely more espensive

[bob46320]

If you get fed up with changing the belts around from the lowest speed range to the highest, bolt a couple of new pulleys on top like this ?

   

Or add a power feed (stepper motor) to the X axis if you get fed up with turning the handle ??

[Tony Griffiths]

I'm afraid not, it did go rather quickly. If similar items turn up at bargain prices, I'll put them on the forum.