Round Column Mill with CNC conversion- Ottawa (Tentative)

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IF the knee mill that arrived yesterday turns out to be viable I will be selling my existing tricked out Busy Bee mill. Hoping members here can provide thoughts on what it is likely to sell for?

One thing for sure is I will be adding CNC capability to the new mill, so one option is to transfer all the CNC bits and pieces from the old to the new and sell the old mill as a manual mill so if your up to throwing a number out please specify with and or without the CNC stuff.

The upgrades:
1) Belt driven stepper motors on X,Y and Z axis, drives, SBC ( Mach3), BOBs and custom control panel
2) Limit switches on 3 axis wired into Mach and with LED's on control panel.
3) Scales on all three axis integrated into DRO of Mach
4) Touchscreen monitor (mounted on swing arm)
5) Industrial sealed keyboard (mounted to mill)
6) Mouse on table that extends off table.
7) Motor driven head up-down (love this feature)
8) Notebook with all of the CNC details: schematics, wiring, part numbers, Mach brain logic etc.
9) Head-Column locking levers with thrust bearings that lock the head effortlessly
10) Base with integrated 6 drawer stand that places table at an ideal (no slouching) working height.
11) 3-Phase motor with VFD speed control on customer control panel
12) Linear bearings that maintain head to table orientation
13) Tooling: T-nuts, vise, endmills and all the original manual handles.

 

[Bandit]

Would be interested in a few more pictures of your round column mill and some details of additions. It looks very interesting. No I will not be buying it ,sorry, just great to see how you how dealt with various things.
I do understand you have a new mill to spend time with!

 

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I posted a few images above, what in particular would you like to see?

Taking a tea break from the scotch bright and WD40 extravaganza;-)

 

[Bandit]

Mostly the anti rotation/head lifting setup. Yes I looked at the above pictures also and I do like it, very neat, appears to be still using original lift with motor on it.

 

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Mostly the anti rotation/head lifting setup. Yes I looked at the above pictures also and I do like it, very neat, appears to be still using original lift with motor on it.

Correct, lift motor is actually surplus Princess Auto windshield wiper motor mated to the shaft that the big hand crank was bolted to. Works like a charm. I use to detest having to lift the head because a) the crank is in an awkward location and b) need to loosen and then tighten the three big nuts on the other side of the column, because both were in an awkward to access location in my tight shop area, it was a PITA.

I added thrust bearings to the three locking bolts and then made permanent levers instead of having to mess with a big wrench. The levers are long so combined with the thrust bearings they can now be locked or unlocked with trivial effort.

To fix the perennial round column head rotation when lifting problem I added a pair of linear bearings, one side on the head and the other on the base. Required a few shims to get just right, but it was worth the effort.

Any question just ask.

 

[Janger]

I think you should keep it. You will need it to make parts for the new mill CNC upgrade. It's a very nice upgrade and I really like the panel.

 

[Bandit]

Thanks for taking the time for the pictures! Looks like maybe 3/4 or 1inch shafts, a lot of time/work/money appears to have gone into that mill. I would be moving some things over to the new mill, unless can get a fine price there.

 

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Ottawa is a bit of a desert for mills and such, I was thinking of asking $2k without the CNC stuff and 3k with, does that seem like an unreasonable asking price?

I won't sell until I have completed the mounting brackets for the knee mill and have it up and running, then the old needs to make room for the new (old) mill.

 

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My good old mill is sold - tentatively.

Fellow came down, we cut a key slot to test it out and I now have a good deposit.

I advertised it as I need it for a month before I can sell it. Need to get on with the mods for the knee mill so he can pick it up.

Three people in three days, all seemed quite interested, but this guy wanted to lock in the sale.

That was easy.

 

[Susquatch]

Three people in three days, all seemed quite interested, but this guy wanted to lock in the sale.

That was easy.

Boy, you gotta love that!

One of these days I'm gunna sell my mill/drill. But it won't go like that. Unlike the guy who sold it to me when I bought it, I will never be able to look myself in the mirror if I don't disclose its faults to the buyers. I'll sell it heavily discounted but with full disclosure.

 

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The purchaser is a software guy that dabbles with machines. We finished a part for a lathe he is working on. Perfect fit in someways because he is comfortable with the CNC aspect and truly appreciated the effort required to integrate that aspect into an older machine. Another guy seemed to quite like the machine but was overwhelmed with the CNC aspect.

I suppose everything used (or even new) has some defects, I see brand new 2023 vehicles with factory bodywork and paint that is just terrible, poor fit and orange peel paint jobs, hurts my eyes just to look at it. I can't imagine the sales guy pointed it out to the new buyer, and if he did the buyer probably wouldn't care.

I'm fully expecting to find defects in the used mill I just purchased (already have), I accept that, it's used and was not perfect from the factory in the first place.

Every piece of equipment is obviously unique both in the quality level that it was manufactured to and how it was treated and maintained. Seems like many of the Taiwan made machines are often better used than the brand new similar style made in China machines.

What defects does yours have that would not be obvious to a buyer?

Somethings are just easy to sell, used vintage car parts command crazy prices and sell in days. I think used lathes, mills etc. are not quite there but nevertheless relatively easy to sell. I sold a used fan for a Shelby for $US1200.

 

[Susquatch]

What defects does yours have that would not be obvious to a buyer?

It's single biggest issue is the 9 tpi lead screws which result in an approximate 111 thou per revolution of the handwheels.

A while back I accidentally used the power X to move the table with a wooden pallet on its side under the opposite handle and it stripped the gears inside the power X. So I removed it and added another handwheel. I have no idea why the shear pin didn't break instead. Might be a high strength pin an idiot installed when a previous pin broke.

With a perfectly functional Hartford Knee Mill in my shop, I have no need for the mill drill, nor to add DROs. It just needs to go.

I am an engineer, not a car salesman. My integrity and my conscience would never allow me to sell it without full disclosure.

Here is a link to a pretty comprehensive discussion about my old mill/drill.

My old mill drill needs some work

Back when I was looking for a good knee mill, I posted a few things about my old mill drill. It's a bench top round post model with no real z axis other than the quill. The head can be cranked up and down a fair bit to gain working space but totally loses x&y in the process so fairly useless...

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