I just bought this Nichols horizontal mill.
- posted
20 years ago
I just bought this Nichols horizontal mill.
I bought my Unisaw and a few tools from Marshall Machinery, they're local. Don Nichols is the resident Nichols Miller guru. The vertical heads come up on ebay from time to time, but there is a spline that you will also need to drive the head, and that is usually not included. Last vertical head sold for $125 IIRC, without the drive spline.
This one might be easily adaptable. I believe it was made from a kit (Dore Westerbury) that is popular in England... The auction ends Wednesday and no, it isn't mine.
Looks about like mine. I managed to find a vertical head after a lot of searching and had to make the drive spline. It was not a fun job! I cut the internal spline on a 16" shaper. If I had it to do over again, I'd make a vertical head with it's own motor so I could mount it higher. It's great as a mill, but drilling is chalanging, sometimes. The table will come up up the horizontal spindle, so that isn't a problem. One thing about the Nichols that lends itself to a homemade vertical head is the spindle downfeed is in the mount. This means you can make a simple spindle and not have to worry about adding a downfeed. I am considering making a drilling spindle to reside beside the mill spindle, but higher.
I love my Nichols. It is a very rigid machine. Much better than a mill/drill.
Mine is 1½ HP, though. Maybe yours is, too, despite what the auction says.
Ron Thompson Was On the Beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast, Now On the Beautiful Florida Space Coast, right beside the Kennedy Space Center, USA
'If you're standing in a puddle, don't touch anything that hums' From the Red Green show
Or you put a Bridgeport M or Diamond or similar self powered vertical head on it.
On your mill, it looks like someone has relieved the overarm to allow larger milling cutters. Id consider replacing that if you want to make heavy cuts. For the price, you did very very well.
Gunner
The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute -- get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed. " Lazarus Long
Congratulations. FYI that machine is the Toolmaker's version. You might want to post a wanted message on
I have an original Nichols vise available.
Regards, Dave
Wow, two hundred bucks. A steal.
I might suggest that the original poster simply try running it as a horizontal for a while, before he spents *too* much trouble fitting a vertical head.
Jim
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I will use the ill as a horizontal but would like to fit a vertical head also. I have this head, and a 1-1/2 HP pump to run it.
Would a standard proportioning valve work? Sorry, I don't have one - just interested in the idea.
Hi,
I have an extra nichols verticle head that I could part with. (Complete with driver)
If you are interested, contact me.
Lee
I should mention Lee is a gentleman that I trust.
Gunner
The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute -- get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed. " Lazarus Long
eBay auction number: 2593670208
rest of URL snipped.
You got a good deal. (Other than as gunner mentioned, the overarm has been modified.) The overarm is just plain CRS of the proper diameter, and both the head and the support bearing clamp onto that. So it should be simple to replace.
Good points:
1) It has the newer style head, with the circular T-slot already present for mounting the standard vertical head. (I had to adapt mine, which is much older.)2) It is the model which has both a Leadscrew and a lever feed for the X-axis. The lever feed can be seen dangling down just tot the left of the handwheel for the Y-axis. There is a half-nut under the right-hand end of the cable which you loosen and back out to use the lever feed (which is quite nice for some styles of work, while having the leadscrew and handwheel is nice for others).
3) It comes with at least one arbor, and several end-mill holders.
The normal vertical head for the machine is driven from an arbor which fits the horizontal spindle with a spline to drive the right-angle drive in the vertical head.
The thing is *heavy*. Mine arrived breaking its pallet, as it was applying weight on either side of the center bar, so I had to drive in some 4x4s on each side to give it some more stability before sliding it down a ramp from my pickup to the shop floor. (With *lots* of lines controlling the rate of slide -- just to be safe.)
If you want to see what I have done with/to mine (which will show more detail than you really want about fitting a vertical head to the older machine, and show you how much easier it will be with your already prepared one), visit my web page on the subject. (Nothing fancy, just text and images.)
The manual also covers the vertical head and its use.
The manual was a digest-sized book, but has been expanded to 8-1/2x11" prior to scanning. With PDF, and Acrobat Reader, you should be able to print to whatever size makes you happy.
Congratulations on acquiring a good tool, DoN.
Btw....Ive got one of those two pin arbors kicking around collecting dust. Its a short one, with no provisions for the overarm bearing. IRRC its for a slitting saw...maybe. But its for this mill
Gunner
The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute -- get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed. " Lazarus Long
FYI, HPS Tooling and Machine sales in Roseburg OR has a number of used Nichols Arbors in their warehouse. I don't think they have them listed on the minimal webpage, but and email or call should net a result from them:
I have never found any 40 taper tooling that would not work in my Nichols. Cat 40, BT40, whatever. It's all good.
Ron Thompson Was On the Beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast, Now On the Beautiful Florida Space Coast, right beside the Kennedy Space Center, USA
'If you're standing in a puddle, don't touch anything that hums' From the Red Green show
They may be Nichols Arbors, but they have the wrong size pilot and are no good for that Nichols Mill.
Agreed. That one has a needle roller bearing cage in the overarm, and the pilot is 9/16" IIRC.
You could probably (with a spare overarm) press out the existing roller bearing cage (after driving out the taper pin which locks it in place), and perhaps bore for an oversized bearing -- perhaps plain bronze.
Enjoy, DoN.
Agreed -- though I have had to turn some tail extensions to accept the standard drawbar after removing the ball stud on some BT40 ones. (A full-sized thread to engage what the stud screwed into would not fit through the small spindle bore in the old ones -- and I don't really want to have a drawbar which has to have its nuts removed and then be withdrawn from the tool end of the spindle.
Enjoy, DoN.
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