The Mill and Lathe

I have wanted a good milling machine ever since I used a friends one to help build our original heavyweight, Xtreme impaX.

We have muddled through getting parts made by others but it has sometimes been a close run thing getting parts made in time.  I was tempted several times to get a cheap small mill from the likes of Harbor Freight or Grizzly but knew it was not really what I wanted or needed to do the bigger work required for anything over a 30lber.

 I had been watching Ebay etc. for a good Bridgeport  Mill at the right sort of price and not several States distant as I knew moving one was not going to be cheap. I was talking about this to a colleague at work who works in our model shop and he said he had a Mill and lathe in his workshop but since he had injured his back he had been unable to use them for several years. It took a bit of persuasion over the next year  before he finally decided he was willing to sell them to me.

The Mill is an 1968 Canadian built Ex-Cell-O 602 with a 1.5HP motor and a 9" x 42" Table. It has a variable speed head and a power drive on the X axis. It also weighs almost 1.5 tons!  I was not really looking for a lathe yet but since he offered them as a package at a reasonable price I bought it as well. It is a 12 x 36 Clausing 5912(?), again with Varispeed. I came with a 3 and 4 jaw chuck, an Aloris quick change tool post set and a lot of other useful tooling.

First job was to get them moved to my garage.