Gorton 2-28 milling machine

Gorton built top of the line equipment, and enjoyed a very respected (and deserved) reputation in machine tools.

You did good.

Harold

Harold, to be honest, I like Gortons more than Bridgeports.

If it all works..you will absolutely love it.

Think of it as a Bridgeport on steroids

They are strong! and Stout!

And easy to put a DRO on. Z axis..not so easy...so Id suggest adding one of the little Z axis stand along DRO rails you can buy on Ebay for $30.

They have both a powered downfeed AND a crank downfeed, plus the standard drill press style downfeed lever

The next version..the 2-30 was converted to NC. Same machine..just upgraded with "CNC" controls

Gunner

A Gorton is to a BP what a Chev is to a Rolls Royce. They are an excellent machine. Do not be discouraged by comments that have little merit.

Harold

"Harold & Susan Vordos" fired this volley in news:1Ytbt.127$ snipped-for-privacy@newsreading01.news.tds.net:

I think you reversed that. Bridgeports certainly are NOT Rolls-Royce caliber!

OTOH, as rigid as the Gortons have reputations for being, I'd want a tilt-head machine for my 'second-ops' position. My mill is a rigid-ram machine, and there are things it would be nice to be able to do without all the fuss and bother of sine plates and complex fixturing.

Lloyd

My I-22 has never had the head swung. And I do a fair amount of machining.

Shrug

I hang around industrial machine shops for a living..and in the 16 or so years Ive been repairing machines..I think..think I remember seeing one swung or tilted.

Ayup...I do remember (1).

Gunner

I do not think that the ability to swing the head is all that critical.

I think I made that point above.

Laugh.

Gunner

I like the ability to swing and tilt the head on my BP because over the years I've had to do both many times when for instance an item would foul the knee so the head was swung to allow the item to hang down beside the knee. After the item was done the head would be put back above the table as normal as that what is used most.

Are they arguing about the column swiveling feature, in which the entire head and overarm (ram) swivel about the colum on a vertical axis (which sounds like what you're talking about), or the head swiveling on the ram, that allows the spindle to be set off the vertical axis?

I thought they were talking about the latter. If so, I believe the most common use for that is drilling holes off-axis on large workpieces. Mold makers also used it for machining various off-axis features where then didn't want to play with sine tables and such.

jon_banquer fired this volley in news:6a861c6d-8a5d- snipped-for-privacy@oy9g2000pbb.googlegroups.com:

Of course not; I agree. But the older (well, they all are) Gortons are known for their 'strongback' design. They're sure a lot more rigid that BP machines of all ilk.

LLoyd

Gunner Asch fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Production shops, or shops doing mostly flatwork probably never swing the head, and would be better equipped with rigid-ram machines. Re-tramming is always just a little bit of a pain, even with the right tools.

But I do a fairly large amount of one-off work with angles. It takes less time to angle the head then re-tram than it takes to do a many of my setups with angle plates and riser blocks.

Like I said -- only for a second-ops machine. I'm happy with my mill.

LLoyd

Ed Huntress fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

We're talking about the latter, although his comment has validity. For a second-ops machine, I'd want both features.

Lloyd

You are milling on top of the knee, anyway./

Not if you swivel the ram of a Bridgeport style machine, that can move the spindle well off to the side of the knee.

Ignoramus24865 fired this volley in news:RI6dnXWZgId5f_PMnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Yeah, but Ig, overhang makes a difference. If you faithfully lock all the gibs EVERY TIME, you can cancel most of the tilt in the bed, but you can't do that if you need XY motion, only if you're drilling or spotting.

Lloyd

jon_banquer fired this volley in news:da08f3b9-bbb0- snipped-for-privacy@c10g2000yqd.googlegroups.com:

That's called "overhang". What I said. Lloyd

Exactly. If one is considering a knee type mill, they are amongst the best. They should not be compared to a bed type mill.

Harold

Thats the only milling I can think of that one would need a tilting head for..and the BP sure as hell isnt going to make those kinds of cuts.

Which is why Van Normans as well as the Abenes are still popular among many people.