Identifying Cobbled-Together Bench Mill

[Placeholder17]

Hello all,
I picked up a bench mill abandoned in a shed that the owner had apparently cobbled together from a donor machine. As I obtained it:

• The table and base seem to be original and went together
• The head and pulley assembly are a later retro fit held together by a combination of welds, epoxy, and screws/bolts.
• I have no idea what the collet fit is. I don't know if it was custom-made or was from a once-known brand name.
• It came with a single 1/2" collet.
• There are no gradation nuts on vertical or longitudinal travel, but there is one on transverse.
• The longitudinal travel swapped from gear drive to lead screw drive by turning a lever (that's why I picked this up).

My questions are:

1. Can anyone identify the source of the machine by the table/base?
2. Can anyone identify the collet system?

 

[RoninB4]

1. Can anyone identify the source of the machine by the table/base?

-Doesn't resemble any of the industrial machines I've seen/used in machine shops. There are/were light duty milling machines that didn't have a graduated table travel, they were for cutting a slot all the way through the work so a graduated dial was only for saddle (Y axis) travel. This also might be a Franken-mill base from a woodworking machine, hard to say. It sorta reminds me of the small Rockwell mills but it's different.

1. Can anyone identify the collet system?

-I've seen collets that are similar, there have been a lot of different types over the years. Does your require a drawbar or thrust on the face to collapse/hold it? If you have more than just one or two of these collets I'd expect them to be a "standard" for whatever the spindle uses. I would suggest a bit of searching on the internet for what collet type these are.

-The larger question is what you intend to do with this or what you need it to do.

 

[Placeholder17]

-Doesn't resemble any of the industrial machines I've seen/used in machine shops. There are/were light duty milling machines that didn't have a graduated table travel, they were for cutting a slot all the way through the work so a graduated dial was only for saddle (Y axis) travel. This also might be a Franken-mill base from a woodworking machine, hard to say. It sorta reminds me of the small Rockwell mills but it's different.

-I've seen collets that are similar, there have been a lot of different types over the years. Does your require a drawbar or thrust on the face to collapse/hold it? If you have more than just one or two of these collets I'd expect them to be a "standard" for whatever the spindle uses. I would suggest a bit of searching on the internet for what collet type these are.

-The larger question is what you intend to do with this or what you need it to do.

There is no drawbar; you tighten an external nut and it presses on the flat rim of the collet and forces it up into the spindle. I did try researching on Google, trawling forums for collet/taper brand names and then looking for pictures, but couldn't find a match. I have no machining exposure and don't know what else to search.

I bought it figuring it would be cheap exposure to playing with a bench mill, and given the production longitudinal travel and only having a 1/2" collet, I thought I could use it for very rough flattening of the few pieces of steel or cast iron I've scavenged to cut up into holders for jigs.

 

[paulsomlo]

What I believe I'm seeing, is a portion of an Atlas/Craftsman (618?) lathe bed, carriage, and crossfeed. The vertical dovetail column may be another lathe bed or from an old horizontal mill. I can't ID the collet, but if you register and post over on Practicalmachinist.com, someone over there will probably know.

 

[Provincial]

+1 on the repurposed Atlas lathe parts.

I suspect that the main part of the machine was originally a surface grinder.

 

[DocsMachine]

Paul's got it- that's a Craftsman bed, carriage and cross slide. The column I'd bet money was taken from a small Jig Borer, similar to a Linley, or a drill press with a travelling quill support.

The "head" is 100% shop made, and I'd bet a paycheck that collet was handmade to match.

The whole thing is interesting and actually kind of clever, but almost completely worthless as anything but a curiosity.

Doc.

 

[Placeholder17]

Thank you all for the input.