as lovely as a Tree

Gerald,

"Tree" brand milling machines are considered by many shops to be the
best vertical mill ever made. It is a matter of personal preference
but it will certainly perform equivalent to a Bridgeport. Spare
parts being the only drawback, but I think Tree is still in buisiness
and it was a popular enough mill you can still get parts. I am not
familiar with your description of the "ways" on the ram however. Get
a picture of the machine and let us take a look at it. It may have
been a special purpose machine which may or may not make any
difference for what you want to do.

Don't confuse the manufacturer "Tree" with the slang term for a
benchtop mill (like Enco) that are commonly called "tree mills",
vs "knee mills", vs. "bed mills"

You should never let a 3 phase motor stop you from buying a mill.
Phase converters are just too cheap and easy. I ran my 2hp
Bridgeport for the last 2 years off of the dryer plug in our laundry
room.
Best deals are always on 3 phase stuff.

Make sure the Tree has a common spindle taper that you can easily buy
tooling for. If it is not R8 or NMTB 30 I would be very cautious
about buying it. Many old mills like Index and Groton, B&S etc had
spindle tapers that just aren't as common now, which means very high
cost for tooling.... if you can find it.

Talk this guy down. There really isnt' a huge market for used
milling machines that don't say "Bridgeport" on them. You should be
able to knock off a few hundred bucks or get him to throw in some
tooling which would be even better. The tooling is worth more than
the mill.

Joe V.