new workshop and new/old milling machine

[chbeyer]

Hi,

haven't posted anything of technical interest for a loooong time - sorry for that. I have a valid excuse though, bought some ground and had a company building a house on it.

I had to build the workshop/garden shed combination myself for money reasons. Took me a year and a half from buying the property - no steaming activity possible during that period unfortunately.

Now the main work is done, there are some puzzling rests of work to deal with of course, but ...

The new workshop has ~13 sqm enough space for the myford super 7 and the bf 16 optimum mill. I was never completely satisfied with that one though.

So I killed quite some time looking around on e-bay for a small, industrial milling machine. Not an easy thing to find, most of the machines are big and heavy which is a good thing for a milling machine but difficult when you have only a small workshop Not to mention the prices you have to pay for a machine in reasonable conditions

Ended up with a charming (maybe) one hundred year old beauty standing in the driveway

 

[skyline1]

Lovely old machine. The advantage with older machines like this is they were really built to last. and designed to be simple to maintain and refurbish. They are often really well looked after too people had a pride in their tools back then.

The disadvantage is they often use obscure thread sizes which makes getting taps and dies a bit tricky and you tend to have to make parts for them yourself. This often means that you need another machine (usually bigger) to make them on (or a friendly fellow machinist who will let you borrow theirs)

I am also a Myford owner, I've got an early ML7 (1953 Sno K23999) and I have had a few problems refurbishing that one.

Since Myfords folded up about a year ago the name and the spares business was bought by RDG tools who are really milking the spares for all they can get. Myford bits were always a bit pricey but now they're extortionate and some parts are simply unavailable.

Enjoy your new milling machine it looks like a nice one and as you said not too big

 

[chbeyer]

Hi skyline,

I fully agree on the spare parts situation for the myford lathe, I keep looking for same stuff for my super 7 on ebay.co.uk too but that's not urgent

For the milling machine, it seems the threads are all metric and in the usual sizes. Plus, someone did a decent paint job on the machine and maybe even scraped the guides (is that the correct word in english ? ). Or maybe the machine was never used under working conditions, all the guides are running smooth and tight over the complete distances, no chattering observed till now

Here are some further pics, in the workshop now, I think the machine is ~100 years old, unfortunately I did not find out much about the producer 'Beling & Luebke' from Berlin. They are listed on lathes.co.uk though:

http://www.lathes.co.uk/belinglubke/index.html

cheers
christoph

 

[dgjessing]

That's a beauty! Hope it works well for you

 

[skyline1]

Thanks for posting some more pictures I think you got a bargain with that one.

Despite being small and compact it's pretty beefy and rigid, plenty of metal where you want it, You should be able to tear huge great cuts off with it.

If that extra shaft poking out of the back of the head is what I think it is that would explain why it's built like a tank. It's probably for a horizontal milling abour for slab milling and that sort of thing. Horizontal mills need to be really rigid Because the cutting forces are huge compared to vertical milling. We had a big one where I used to work and slab milling on that could make the floor shake.

Being German made would explain the metric threads on such an old machine. They have always been metric even before they became an international standard.

On the subject of threads here's a bit of trivia for you. Do you know that B.A. threads (British Association) are actually based on metric pitches not Imperial look it up on wikipedia (or in you thread tables book) you nearly always find the tapping drills are metric sizes. a bit of a surprise to me that one.

Regards Mark

 

[chbeyer]

Hi Mark,

thanks for the approval, I'm quite lucky with my new baby though I did not do any serious work on it till now. As it was looking quite oldfashioned on e-bay it did not attract many bidders so it was a real bargain indeed I got it more or less for the price of the vise that came with it (Had to have it shipped to my home crossing nearly complete germany though).

You are right about the vertical spindle, also the machine had an automatic feed in x-axis once. Unfortunately the gear part for that is missing

Also the scale in x-axis is different to the other axis and not 'zeroable' I suspect there was an additional measuring system beneath the x-way atttached to the small slitted bolt you can see on one of the pics. I have no idea though how it might have looked like

cheers
christoph

 

[Maryak]

Wow,

Great machine Yes IMHO it's a vertical and horizontal mill. The turret looks like it has provision to mount the outer support bearing and housing for the horizontal milling arbor.

I sure hope you can find out more about it as it is a wonderful addition to your workshop.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[SilverSanJuan]

Wow! That mill is a work of art. And, I think it is hard to beat old German engineering. That beasty will last forever.

Todd

 

[rhitee93]

I am envious, that mill is a nice find. Enjoy it

 

[rake60]

In my earliest days working in machine shops, I used to complain about running junky OLD machines.

Eventually I worked my way up to the point were I was running the newest, state of the art machines.

I'd take one of those "junky OLD machines" over a new one anytime!

GREAT SCORE chbeyer!!!! Thm:

Rick

 

[chbeyer]

Hi,

thanks for all the positive input !

Somebody asked me already if I could sell him the machine he would put it up in his living room

I dismounted the head in the meantime and discovered how the quill retaining mechanism (which is absent at the moment) is supposed to work.

It's realized by a counterweight that hangs in the case attached to metal strip. Hopefully I will find the time this weekend to restore that somehow ...

In the first pic you can see the deflector roll in the body of the machine, a second one more in the front and everything else of the retaining mechanism is missing but shouldn't be rocket science to imitate

cheers
christoph

PS: sorry for the qualitiy of the pics

 

[Mosey]

Cherish that old machine. It is a sweet and unique old girl. Do whatever it takes to put it into complete working order and make things with it. You'll come to love it, I bet you.

 

[eXact-Modellbau]

Hello Christoph
How is the actual status of Your Beling&Lübke?

Do You know mine as well?

With kind regards
Larry

www.die-minilok.de