Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Gorton mill

Hi Ron,

I am indeed a "Home Shop type, looking for a nice machine,
cheap". I'm also an EE, computer type guy more than a
machinist. My only formal machine shop training was in high
school, a loooong time ago. So, I'm in over my head already,
just trying to figure out if I want to lug this thing home.

If there wasn't twenty odd miles of the Pacific Ocean
between where the mill and I am now and my shop on the
mainland, I'd just haul it home first and then figure out
how much trouble I was in. However, I don't really want to
pay about $300 to the barge operator to move 2500lbs of what
may turn out to be scrap iron.

If I were to take this huge thing, my plan would be to pull
it apart, clean it up, and rebuild it as a CNC mill. This
means throwing money at it for ballscrews, etc. etc. So this
"free for the taking mill" would cost a bit of dough, after
all. My fear is that by the time I found and paid for the
oddball tooling it needs, I'd have sunk so much time and
money into it that I might as well have bought a clean used
Bridgeport.

You say "Making a tool holder should not be beyond the
ability of any HSM guy." Well it seems beyond mine right
now. My abilities have been known to improve with time,
though. If someone here would care to try to educate me
about this, I'm sure ready to listen. The idea of just
making a new spindle occurred to me, but I'm a bit too
ignorant to know if that's a silly idea or not.

I'll be here, within walking distance of the mill through
this weekend, and I'll be back here next month sometime,
and, of course, the mill isn't going anywhere. I'll have
plenty of time to change my mind about this dozens of times.

Thanks,
Jeff

On Wed, 23 Aug 2000 08:38:44 -0400, Ron Ginger wrote:

>I may have a different view of this- I think the original poster was a
>Home Shop type, looking for a nice machine, cheap. In that case I say
>grab this mill. Its clearly an 'industrial quality' machine, likely a
>much better base to start with than a chineese import.
>
>The major problem seems to be the lack of tooling for the spindle. Well,
>for a HSM guy,just how many tool holders do you need? If you can
>find/buy/make just one holder to hold a 1/2" shank end mill you have a
>very usefull machine.
>
>Making a tool holder should not be beyond the ability of any HSM guy. A
>comercial holder wold likely be a wonderfull, hardened, ground, device.
>A home made holder of common cold rolled steel, nicely machined, but
>maybe with less than perfect surface finsih will work fine- it might
>wear faster than a properly ground holder, but come on guys, how many
>HSMers will live long enough to wear a tool holder- and if you did, by
>then you would be so much more expierenced you could make a better one.
>
>A 'free for the taking' mill is worth it!
>
>ron