Benchmaster vert mill

[Jtrain]

I have an opportunity to buy an old Benchmaster vertical mill with a 6x18 table. It is very nice condition, the thing I do not care about it is the table side to side has a lever with a rack and pinion, not a screw and hand wheel, is this an acceptable way of milling. I could get it for a few hundred dollars.
John

 

[Quickj]

John,
I have a Benchmaster Vertical mill, as do a couple of the other members here.
The Lever operated rack and pinon feed on the table indicates it wsa a "production" mill. Companies could buy a bunch of mills, set each one up for a single operation, and after dropping the part in the fixture, the operator would just have to move the lever back and forth to machine the part. Benchmasters were pretty cheap, so you could set up a production line of several mills, each set up to perform a single step on a part, and the operators would pass the part down the line after doing their operation on the part.

If it were me, and the mill was in good shape, I would certainly buy it. The manuals, parts diagrams, etc. are readily available on line. They are easy to rebuild. The original spec spindle bearings are still available from Timken etc.

Tooling is easy to find, Uses 2mt collets and endmill holders.

Jim

 

[Jtrain]

there must be some sort of lock or brake on the table, so holes can be bored or use a rotary table. Could a screw and a handwheel be made to replace the rack and pinion?

 

[New_Guy]

it sounds like a good machine and if you have a decent size lathe you can make a new screw

milling with the leaver feed sure will make you think differently about how you mill it maybe very interesting

 

[joeby]

I have a Nichols mill, which are able to be used as production mills. They are set up in a similar fashion.

Mine had the option of being used with lever feed or with the usual screw and handwheel. The nut for the table feed is basically cut in half so you can drop it down and out of the way when using the lever feed.

There are a bunch of photos on the web that show the Nichols setup, I think there are even photos of conversions from the straight lever feed to handwheel feed, I'll have to do a little searching.

If you would like, I can take a few photos of the handwheel setup on mine, perhaps you can do something similar.

Kevin

 

[Quickj]

John,
It is possible to convert the mill from Lever feed to screw feed. Benchmaster used to sell a conversion kit to do just that.

I have uploaded 3 of the scans from the manual to my PhotoBucket site in the Benchmaster Album. The direct links are;

http://i617.photobucket.com/albums/tt256/quickj_photos/Benchmaster/bnchmr03.jpg
http://i617.photobucket.com/albums/tt256/quickj_photos/Benchmaster/bnchmr04.jpg
http://i617.photobucket.com/albums/tt256/quickj_photos/Benchmaster/bnchmr06.jpg

There are also Pics in the album of my Benchmaster

Beside the BenchMaster and the Nicols hand mill, you may occassionally see the Barker Production mill. Cute little things.

Jim

 

[Jtrain]

John,
It is possible to convert the mill from Lever feed to screw feed. Benchmaster used to sell a conversion kit to do just that.


There are also Pics in the album of my Benchmaster

Beside the BenchMaster and the Nicols hand mill, you may occassionally see the Barker Production mill. Cute little things.

Jim

Jim, I cannot find the album of your Benchmaster.
Thanks everyone for your helpful advice.
John

 

[Quickj]

John,
Sorry, this should work to get you there.

http://s617.photobucket.com/albums/tt256/quickj_photos/Benchmaster/

Jim

 

[Stan]

I also have a Benchmaster Vertical and a lot of information on it.

 

[Jtrain]

Well, I got the mill at home in my garage now. It has a 0.5 hp motor. I assume that is plenty big enough for a half inch cutter. I need to check the electrical. (it doesn't run) It has two switches, why. i don't know. but will check all circuitry, simple replacement of electrical components. But i have the mill, not so simple to replace. I'll look at all information i can get.
Thank you
John

 

[New_Guy]

cool have you got any pictures? have you checked the motor isnt 3phase?

 

[Jtrain]

Well, I got the mill at home in my garage now. It has a 0.5 hp motor. I assume that is plenty big enough for a half inch cutter. I need to check the electrical. (it doesn't run) It has two switches, why. i don't know. but will check all circuitry, simple replacement of electrical components. But i have the mill, not so simple to replace. I'll look at all information i can get.
Thank you
John

Okay, One switch is a push button on/off, the other is a toggle reversing switch. The reversing switch is the problem, so i bypassed the switch and it runs. Does this type of milling machine need a reverse?

 

[joeby]

Reverse can be handy sometimes. As for being absolutely necessary, I doubt it. Most of the cutting tools for a vertical mill, you will find, are made to cut in a clockwise direction looking at the shank or toolholder end. You could set it up without the reverse, just make sure that the spindle does indeed turn clockwise looking down on it.

Reverse can be added later on if you decide you really need it, but for those instances, you can probably find a work-around. Now that is running, use it as is and see how frequently reverse becomes an issue for the way you work.

Kevin

 

[Stan]

I modified my Benchmaster to a MT3 spindle and use MT3 collets. I run 3/4" endmills on a regular basis. The motor is a 1/2HP DC and never shows a lack of power. I could probably run it out off power with deeper cuts but I run it dry because of the mess with coolant.
I have a coolant pump on it but haven't used it in years. The motor has a reversing switch that is also never used. Mine has an original power feed on the long axis which I run on the max feed rate if using a carbide cutter and lower feed rates with HSS cutters.