Bought a mill!

[IHinIN]

After several years of casually looking for a Bridgeport style mill, I finally got serious and bought one last weekend. It is a Willis model 1050 knee mill. It was built in 2007 or 2008. It has a 10”x50” table, 3hp motor, variable speed, quick change pneumatic drawbar, X axis power feed, way oiler pump, work light, and digital readout on X and Y axis. It’s a tight machine with flawless ways, less than 0.020” backlash in the lead screws, and the table doesn’t have a single mark on it. It currently has a 6” riser on top of the column that I’m going to remove.

When I plugged the readout cables back into the box, the X scale wasn’t reading correctly and the numbers were jumping around. I cleaned the scale and reader and now it works fine.
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[dschwandt]

Way to go!!
Looks like a nice clean unit.

 

[wh cc guy]

Looks good. I spent many years operating one of those. It's amazing the things you can make with it.

 

[IHinIN]

After I ordered the VFD to get 3 phase power to the mill, I began looking for a suitable enclosure to protect it. It dawned on me that I had an ammo can that might work. After cutting holes in both ends and adding some mesh for airflow, I have a military grade electrical enclosure. I will add some filter material over the ends to keep dirt and shavings out and it will get mounted to either the back of the mill or the wall behind it.

 

[IHinIN]

I removed the 6” riser and lowered the head back down to a normal height. Stacking blocks between the knee and ram allowed me to use the knee to raise the head, remove the riser, and lower the head back down. The riser can be installed easily enough if I need the extra height for a special setup.

 

[gloughery]

I live in the mountains where no one has 3 phase. I understand it needs to come from the transformer on the pole? Is this cost prohibitive? It would be nice to have when I rebuild my shop and upgrade some equipment.

 

[OBH]

The VFD pictured is what converts standard 220v power to allow the 3 phase motor on the mill to run. Many people with home shops use similar setups. Years ago there were two types a static converter and a rotary.

 

[RAllison]

I removed the 6” riser and lowered the head back down to a normal height. Stacking blocks between the knee and ram allowed me to use the knee to raise the head, remove the riser, and lower the head back down. The riser can be installed easily enough if I need the extra height for a special setup. View attachment 156279View attachment 156280

Rapid travel... very nice!