First post here. Just bought an Index super 55 mill. I have experience with an 1930's South Bend 13" lathe I own, but this is my first experience with a mill. I need to get it inside my house (shop) and have no garage doors to this area. So I need to remove the table to get it through the door. I have significant mechanical experience with automobiles and plenty of tools and cherry picker. Am having difficulty finding much about this mill and disassembly. I intend to order the manual from wells index - but need information now. Will this table back off from the knee easily? The mill has power feed and to remove the table from the saddle looks to be complex. But to remove the table with the saddle looks like it should be easy with only the cross feed (motion towards and away from column) dial protruding up over the dovetailed way to block the saddle from coming off... But I imagine it isn't that easy to just remove the handle and dial and hope it will slide off. Any information that could mediate my naivety is much appreciated.
On Mar 11, 1:02 pm, snipped-for-privacy@mypacks.net wrote:
The problem is that you'll need to remove the leadscrew, and this is easiest on the table itself (longitudinal travel). On the saddle, the other end of the cross-feed leadscrew is connected back inside the knee casting somewhere, but the longitudinal feed has handwheels on both ends. Assuming it roughly looks like a bridgeport or any other knee mill, screw the table roughly to end of its travel with the powerfeed end the one that is overhanging (the powerfeed should be sticking way over the side). Then remove the handles (they probably have a locking nut that will need to be removed, then the handles will either slide or screw off the end of the leadscrew. Start with the one opposite the powerfeed, then unscrew the leadscrew from the acme nut inside the table. In otherwords, it is like you are moving the table, except instead of moving the table, the entire leadscrew is unscrewing. Then unbolt the power feed to protect it. Place either a forklift or extremely sturdy cart beneath the table, and raise or lower the knee to make it as close in height as possible. You want the table to drop as little as possible when it comes off, and it is much easier if the cart actually supports the weight of the table. Then you will need to push the table off. If it is well lubricated and the weight is supported, you might be able to slide it off, other wise you might need to tap it off with a rubber mallet. Once it is off, move the machine inside and bring the cart with the table inside. Being careful of the precision surfaces on the bottom of the table, raise or lower the knee to bring it inline and slide it on. Then reattach the powerfeed, screw the leadscrew back in, make sure the gib strip is adjusted, and reattach the handwheels. That should be about it, just make sure that the order of the parts in the handwheel assembly is the same on reassembly as dissasembly. Since you're familiar with cars, you've probably got some system for keeping track of assemblies like bearings, etc. That's what you're likely to find on each end of the table, just make sure it goes on exactly as it came off. By now you're probably wondering how I got to know this process. I did it exactly the same as I described except when I got to the part where I said to support the table with an extremely sturdy cart, I substituted two strong guys. Trust me, the cart will work better. I look at the dents in the concrete every day I walk into the shop. If for some reason a cart won't work, you can rig the table with slings, pull it off, lower it onto a handtruck, move it in, and use chainfalls and slings to put it back on. After we dropped the table on my machine, we moved it with crowbars enough to slide a handtruck underneath, brought it into the shop, used a chain hoist to put it onto the cart that we should have used in the first place, and proceed from there. Let me know if there are any unclear parts that you have questions about, Hope you're successful ww88
Thank you much woodworker - I think you have given me enough info that I will start to tackle the job. Yes it seems very much the same as a typical Bridgport vertical mill - except it has no ram. Since you call yourself woodworker, perhaps you could answer another quesition crossing the domains of machines and carpentry: I do have a garage opening but need to get the macine into another larger shop area that is only through a 36 inch door. This door has caused me problems every year with something large I want to move. It is on a non-bearing wall. Would it be easier to simply cut out the door sash and a foot of wall - versus removing the mill table?? I don't really need this door there. Another consideration is that while the macinhine appears in very good shape with not a ridge, scratch, or a wear mark on the ways (scraping readily visible all over column way), another man looking at the mill same time I was (not interested as he wanted something more recent), and seemed experienced machinist, told me I needed to remove the table and saddle and clean the ways before I used the machine. The machine has sat in a garage for 5 years and has a thick, adhesive like, dried out grease film all over the ways - with accumulated dust making it like dried black pitch (oilfield term - nasty pipe grease). So perhaps I need to remove the table anyhow...?...or can I simply clean the ways with solvent and moving the table back and forth multiple times as i wipe off what comes out wiith each pass...? the longitudinal and crossfeed handles move their respective pieces smooth and quiet but with mild resistance as if on extefemly viscous grease Thanks again
Playing with mill further - I find you are right woodworker about table vs saddle - the saddle has crossfeed motor, switches, and assemblies attached and so must undo electrical too to take saddle off column, besides the issue of not being able to get to saddle feed screw end nut inside knee. The power feed looks to be no more than a splined shaft only supported at end where shaft gear engages feed screw for table. I can remove nut at gear and likely pull shaft out..?..So the table itself does look easier than the saddle to remove. You don't need to answer above question about cutting out my door larger as i am going to take the table off and then mill will go through door - you have given me enough info/confidence to go for it - thanks again.
I'm going to have the same problem in a few weeks. I figured on putting T-nuts into the slots of the table. Then bolt a chain to them. Then use an engine hoist to hold the table up. I don't have a cart available to hold the table.
The mill may go through the door if you move the table full to one side the go through in at an angle. Once in the doorway move the table full to the other side. Works on Bridgeports.
I had considered that - and then thought ..naw......but if it's known that works - that's a great idea. This mill is actually a little smaller than bridgeport, at least in heighth - but table size is probably a determining factor - this on is 9 x 46. I thnk i"ll do some measuring from an angular view with table at extreme ends...good idea - thanks
I'll just address everything at once, rather than reply to specific questions. If I had to lift up the table, I'd probably use a combination of load rated eyebolts, t-nuts, washers, etc, as well as perhaps some slings as a safety measure. I'd use a shop crane as well, it's probably easier for nearly everyone, I didn't have one at the time. The main problem I ran into when moving mine was that, although I had a 36" door, it is in the corner of the room, so there is a wall literally inches from one side of the doorframe, on both sides of the door. This would have made it nearly impossible to move through and swing the table back. As well, when I got my machine the table had not been lubricated and would not move by turning the cranks, as well as the fact that the shop has only one door (the one the machine had to pass through) and thus it would have been difficult to get materials and equipment into the room once the machine blocked the doorway. As for the gunk on the ways, I would clean off as much as possible with solvent and re-lubricate everything. That's not what you want on a machine, particularly one in as nice a shape as yours (if you can still see the scraped surfaces, that's good). You want to get some Vactra #2 Way oil to use to lubricate the machine. I often wish I had a large roll up door on my shop. A friend of mine has a shop in a maintenance facility for a school, and he just rolled out the forklift, pulled his machine out of the freight truck, drove it into the shop, took off the crate, and set it down right where he wanted it. 45 minutes and it was making chips. Glad I could help you out ww88
To answer this will-it-fit question, I made up a to-scale drawing of the mill (a Millrite in my case) and of the room it was to go into, and the path to the outside, printed it out, and cut the millrite outline out and played paper dolls. It did fit, so the table stayed on. Did end up taking the head off and on, but that's far easier - four big bolts, and nothing precise.
As for picking the table up, I got some flanged eyebolts, T-nuts, and thick washers. These can be clamped to the table T-slots, and used to pick the table up with a shop crane. Haven't had to use them yet, but I have them. This kind of hardware is quite cheap.
I only looked at a couple of the previous posts, but I suggest that it might be easier to remove the doors/door frames than to dissassemble the machine. At my company, they designed a machine that was too wide for
36" doors, so we routinely told customers that the doorway had to be opened up to 42" before we came. Some of then did just that, took out the door frame and whatever else and then put it all back when we had the machine inside. Others took advantage of the opportunity and put in a new, wider doorway permanently, sometimes installing double doors. Just think of the possibilites if you had 48" wide openings!!! For what it's worth, I have built 2 shops inside the same larger building and I put 9 ft wide by 8ft high insulated garage doors in both for just this reason. See
Cool shop spaco - I am envious. Thanks everyone, esp woodworker, for suggestions. I am going to use shop crane and chained load leveler to eye bolts in T-slots to remove table - I always have to take everythng apart anyhow...just gotta know how it works to really enjoy it...personality quirk
Hmm ... are you *sure* that you need to remove the table? I have heard of others getting a Bridgeport though a door by cranking the table all the way to one side, sliding the base through the door with the short end of the table passing through the door at an angle, then cranking the table all the way to the other end, and sliding the other side back through the door.
If this won't work, then you are going to have to remove the table, and I've not done it on an Index, so I don't know what the tricks and gotchas may be.
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