I have wanted a good milling machine ever since I used a friends one to help build our original heavyweight, Xtreme impaX.We have muddled through getting parts made by
others but it has sometimes been a close run thing getting parts made in time. I was tempted several times to get a cheap small mill from the likes of Harbor Freight or Grizzly but knew it was not really what I
wanted or needed to do the bigger work required for anything over a 30lber.
I had been watching Ebay etc. for a good Bridgeport Mill at the right sort of price and not several States distant as I knew
moving one was not going to be cheap. I was talking about this to a colleague at work who works in our model shop and he said he had a Mill and lathe in his workshop but since he had injured his back he had been unable
to use them for several years. It took a bit of persuasion over the next year before he finally decided he was willing to sell them to me.
The Mill is an 1968 Canadian built Ex-Cell-O 602 with a 1.5HP motor and
a 9" x 42" Table. It has a variable speed head and a power drive on the X axis. It also weighs almost 1.5 tons! I was not really looking for a lathe yet but since he offered them as a package at a reasonable price
I bought it as well. It is a 12 x 36 Clausing 5912(?), again with Varispeed. It came with a 3 and 4 jaw chuck, an Aloris quick change tool post set and a lot of other useful tooling
.
