milling machine help needed

[bigwillyz]

hi there

ive just got a milling machine and cant work out
the taper size (2mt,3mt etc)

is there an easy way to measure this?

thanks for any advice

 

[Paul.]

Try here Clicky

 

[bigwillyz]

wow that was quick

thanks for that i can go spend some money now

got some very helpful people on here

thanks mike

 

[Wedg1e]

Come on then, what sorta mill is it?

 

[bigwillyz]

its a gorton ive never heard of one before?

it come from u.s.a and i think the date is bout 1936

been looking and cant find alot of info on it

its 3 phase aswell so need a converter

cant wait to use it

mike

 

[wyn]

You can get hold of a manual and parts book for a Gorton 1-22 mastermill, if that's what it is, here. About half way down the page.

Just found free manuals here

 

[JimM]

Haven't checked the manuals but I vaguely remember that Gorton machines used their own taper !! If it does it could be a problem getting tooling to suit, if so you may need to find someone that can make a new spindle. (Hope I'm wrong though)

 

[bigwillyz]

just had a look and gorton used there own taper
and tooling is like hens teeth

someone said there has been machines converted
to r8 taper?

looks like it might be for sale

 

[JimM]

Thinking about your problem, it might not be as bad as first thought. There's probably only 2 or 3 bits of tooling you're ever going to need eg end mill holder (I'd use an ER32 collet system for this) & drill chuck are the first ones that spring to mind.

If you can find out the dimensions of the taper, it shouldn't be too hard for someone with a lathe to turn something to fit.

It's beyond my skills but ask around on a couple of the (model) engineering forums and you may find someone who can help. Obviously if you offer a few beer tokens it'll help your cause but it will certainly be cheaper than converting the spindle.

The Gorton looks like a good solid machine so seems a shame to sell it if you can get it up and running with a little effort.

HTH

Jim

 

[bigwillyz]

hopefully dont have to sale it

i have one collet thats 1/2in but the
chuck i got with it only goes up to 10mm

going to see a mate tomorrow whos a toolmaker
to see if theres an easy way out

if not got to send the collet to a friend up north
and he`ll see if he can do anything with it

the only tools ill probley use are a chuck,endmill,boring head and flycutter
but you never know if youll need it for anything else

mike

 

[MrFluffy]

Check out :-
http://www.gorton-machine.org:8080/machines/index.html

 

[Pete.]

DON'T sell your machine. I have a 1952 Herbert mill and it too has a proprietary taper. I found someone to re-machine the spindle to accept R8 tooling. I'm sure he could do another, so long as the Gorton Taper is narrower than R8. Check out the conversion HERE

 

[bigwillyz]

dont worry aint selling it now got to keep these good old machines going

i went to see a friend today and said about
converting the machine to an r8 and he said
pop the spindle in and he will sort it out for me

so hopefully it will be done soon when it is ill put some
pics up of it

thanks for that link very helpful

mike

 

[Wedg1e]

Aye, it does seem a bit daft to get rid; at the end of the day it's only a machining job, the same sort of task that made the mill in the first place!

I have two mills: a 1980 Bridgeport 1ES (40 International taper, nice and easy!) and a Perrin of indeterminate age. The Perrin is unusual in that it has interchangeable spindles, one with a 1Morse taper socket, one that's 2Morse and a third with a coarse thread that accepts different chucks. This 'universal' spindle was bent when I got it and I've half-heartedly persevered with it for three or four years before I finally got round to drawing the spindle in AutoCAD and getting a local machining company to make me one (for 'free' as I slipped it in with a load of other stuff they were making for us ).
Now it works a treat! The universal spindle has an ER25 collet chuck, Jacobs 1/2" chuck, 2.5" boring head, centring device... what more do you want for nowt (the mill itself was a freebie too)...?
Might go the whole hog and put DROs on the table...

 

[bigwillyz]

right took the spinlde in today and it wont work
theres not enough material on the spinlde to
convert it to r8!

so its for sale just want to get back what it owes me
and go get something with a more common taper

someone with a bit of engineering back ground would
probley be able to sort it

thanks for all the advice mike

 

[Pete.]

Why not grind it to a MT3 or MT4 taper and use a collet chuck for your end-mills?

 

[bigwillyz]

the gorton collet is about 3in long and the r8 is 4in
im worried about the metal being to thin
because where the spindle goes though the bearing
the spindles not much bigger than the r8 collet?

 

[Pete.]

So make a new spindle with a longer nose. Mine was converted by shrinking a slug of metal in the end and machining the R8 taper into that.

 

[HasBean]

Would 3MT work? It's just that bit smaller than R8.

 

[bigwillyz]

the chap that machined your spindle how would i get in contact?

i really want to keep it and if i could get this sorted ill buy the 3 phase converter

just trying to find someone with the intrest in doing these one off jobs
is what im finding difficult