Ballpark of the weight of a milling machine head and how to separate the head form the machine safely

I'm not familiar with that mill, but I doubt the head weighs more than

Pete C.

Brent, I think your plan is better and safer than this plan. I did it the way you outlined to rebuild the spindle on my excello (similar in size to yours)

Karl

I wouldn't be so sure of that, the head would have a sizable risk of tipping off the table onto someone's foot. Elevating the entire shop crane is perfectly safe unless you have to elevate it a lot. I would expect that a single concrete block height of 8" plus the 1.5" of the

Pete C.

A J head weighs 168 and a 2j2 is 196 lbs. (bridgeport)

The ram adaptor/ram/turret weighs 395.

Wes

You don't need to pull the head on a Bridgeport to remove the quill & spindle assembly. Are you sure you really need to with your mill?

Ned Simmons

not entirely but i also bought the mill knowing that the fine spindle feed handwheel appeared to not be engaging and that i have 50 years of grime and crud to clean. the location of that hand wheel is uncomfortably high to poke into for a person of under 6' high (i'm

i figured that with the one repair or at least inspection and the thorough cleanup the best way was to take the head to a bench and do it in a more comfort able environment

but ned you may very well be right saying i dont need to. But it seems the best way to go over the machine and make sure everything is kosher. i'll see upon reassembly if i was making work for myself or not

Thanks they are similar to my machine but the diamond shaped ram likely weighs more, maybe the head too but either way they are under a half ton and can be handed by 2 or 3 people or by my dolly fairly comfortably since my comfort level is about double what you just mentioned for a head weight i doublt i'm dealing with over 300 for a head weight though even if i'm wrong i doubt its double and i can handle double

Unless you want to totally disassemble and tank the head why not just crank it over 90 degrees so the spindle is horizontal? You'd be able to easily get to both ends of the spindle and the power feed.

Regards Paul

I am surprised by this comment. I am 5'11" and am very comfortable reaching the fine feed handwheel.

I would try using the mill first and doing some measurements of the mill's condition. You need something to lift the head with if you want to put it back on. A pulley sheave block will work, probably can be cheap to get. See

Ig there is a big diffrence between reaching the wheel and poking your nose eyes and tools into a spot. I try and do all my work whenever humanly possible in a work envelope from my chin to the bottom of my elbows In this case if i'm poking int the handscrews they are taller than the comfort level I'd rather bring the work to me than put myself into an uncomfortable position to work on the machine if possible

I did try the mill and did see it under power before loading. THe mill at the price it was at and in the condition i saw it in (with only this one handwheel feed not operating but the QUILL feed itself operating fine) it was either something reasonably simple in the quill feed mechanism or there was a feed selector that selected the quill handle versus the fine feed. Either way with the full service manual diagram and still having vendor parts support i'm not worried about getting the mill into shape

However i think the Best suggestion just presented itself with Pauls comment

THANK YOU thats just a few minutes work to do it that way and it means i'm not fhighting height or gravity.

I'll start with this idea now and separate the head from the machine as plan B

Brent Ottawa Canada