After two years of watching my local tool dealers website, A mill finally popped up that meets all my needs. Thus for $525 I picked it up, it’s a U.S. Machine tool Company V2 vertical mill. The mill is about 2/3 the size of a Bridgeport weighing in at 1800 + lbs, and has a 9-5/8″ x 36″ table. I pulled the following tidbit of info off the net, that some might find interesting.
The United States Machine Tool Co. was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1915. It became the US Machine Tool division of Ransohoff Co. in 1947. In 1948, it merged with Burke Machine Tool and became US Burke Machine Tool Co. In the 70s, US Burke became part of Powermatic/Houdaille and the Cincinnati facility closed sometime in the early to mid 80s.
The Dealer initially didn’t have any photos of the mill on his website, but after sending of an email request, I received the following two photos.
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I recently made a cross-slide lock for my lathe. Half way through the project I found out I needed to replace the carriage lock because it was interfering with the cross-slide lock. My lathe originally had a simple setup: an M8 socket head cap screw in the carriage pulled a cast iron block up against the front way when tightened. This worked fine initially, but I quickly tired of digging through swaf to find the proper Allen key.
Below is the second version of my locking screw( the first one worked, but isn’t as pretty). The clamping bolt is essentially a stainless M8 bolt with a custom head. The handle is a section of stainless turned to a diameter of 5.5mm and then tapped on each end for a M4 socket head cap screw. Since the heads of the screws are slightly larger than the hole in the clamping bolt, the handle can slide from side to side without falling out.
After a recent project that required a lot of drilling, I decided I needed a better way of locking my tailstock in place. When I purchased my lathe it came with a 19mm wrench for locking the tailstock. It worked fine for occasional use, but was a pain when you needed to move the tailstock a lot. I considered making a cam lock tailstock, but they can’t provide the clamping force a wrench can.
Below is the solution I came up with, it’s a shortened 19mm reversible ratchet wrench. It’s as quick and easy to use as a cam lock mechanism, with the added benefit of producing a lot more torque. A short stiff spring between the base casting and the locking plate insures enough tension on the bolt to make the ratchet actuate.
I’m still waiting for some parts to arrive for my next project, so I’ve been spending my “goof off” time playing in cad. My latest project is this 1/2-20 bolt designed to class 2A tolerances. If you want to take a look at it in 3D you can download the RhinoCad file here.
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My latest Cad doodle, a CCGT 21.52 insert with 15 degess of back rake. I have no idea if it would actually work, but is was fun to design. If you want to take a look at it in 3D you can download the RhinoCad file here.
