# Newest acquisition: Mill



## G1K (Jun 29, 2009)

Just got back from Syracuse to pick up this mill. It's a 1994 Supermax, a Taiwanese Bridgeport clone. The ram and head are off, the head was disassembled and then the project forgotten about. It has power feed and a Mitutoyo 2 channel DRO, and a Mitutoyo quill readout. Table is smooth across the full travels, no binding or slop. There's only one small scar on the table. I don't think this was used very much at all...

Looks kinda rough now, but it'll clean up just as nice and my old 10EE. (https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/218841)


Here are the pics, still sitting in the back of the truck until I can get a friend to help me unload it.


















I'll be sure to post up some pics as I progress with the clean up and repaint.

Ryan


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## gadget_lover (Jun 29, 2009)

That's purty! ( Drool)

Good catch.


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## wquiles (Jun 29, 2009)

Yup, what Daniel said - nice catch!

It will look awesome once clean it :thumbsup:


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## precisionworks (Jun 29, 2009)

> 1994 Supermax


One of the more nicely finished Bpt clones :twothumbs

The big M on the front shows that it's made from top of the line Meehanite castings, much nicer than anything else coming out of Southeast Asia:

http://www.meehanitemetal.com/


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## KC2IXE (Jun 29, 2009)

Supermax Mills are considered right up there as good as, if not BETTER than Bridgeports of that era, so...


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## cmacclel (Jun 30, 2009)

So if it did not see much use why is the head apart???


Mac


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## G1K (Jun 30, 2009)

cmacclel said:


> So if it did not see much use why is the head apart???
> 
> 
> Mac



That's a good point. Maybe it would have been better to say that the table and ways don't look abused. 

I have two quills for it, I wonder if there was a quill issue? Hopefully one of them is good, but I can check anything out until I finish a couple other projects first...

I'll keep my fingers crossed that what ever the problem is I can figure it out, and keep it inexpensive to repair.

Ryan


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## precisionworks (Jun 30, 2009)

> the head was disassembled and then the project forgotten about


It would certainly be worth a phone call to the seller to see why they took the head apart. Normally, bearings are the reason, but sometimes it's the power down feed, other times it's a variable speed drive issue. I would want to know exactly what they found.


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## G1K (Jul 12, 2009)

Update:

I got everything reassembled Saturday eve and threw the switch. I accidentally wound the varispeed adjustment chain on the wrong side of the shaft, but after a quick adjustment I happy to say everything seems to be working well. The head is quiet, the speed adjesment works as it should, it seems very smooth.

I still have to put a cutter in it and actually make some chips, I gues that'll be the true test.

I wound up replacing all the bearings on the top end while it was apart, rather than risk one or more of them being close to end of life. I also had to fab a new cable for the DRO, a replacement was out of the ballpark price range.

I still have to wire the cooling fan in the rear of the head, and find an auto downfeed clutch asm. The quill feed handle should be here tomorrow. I orderd an import from Enco, and the first time I used it to lower the quill the pin sheared. Enco offered to replace it, but I bumped up to the USA made one and covered the price difference. Hopefully it will be a bit more robust.

But the hard part is done I hope. Sometime in the not to distant future is a wild paint job to compliment the 10EE 







R


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## wquiles (Jul 12, 2009)

AWESOME - nice going dude :twothumbs


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## gadget_lover (Jul 13, 2009)

That's looking good Ryan. 

I would not have had the guts to take a machine like that and try to rebuild it without knowing what was really wrong. I tend to get too tied up in making the parts to make the jigs to make the part to fit the spot....

I wish I'd bought one with a variable speed head. You guys have me considering yet another upgrade. 

In short, I'm envious.


Daniel


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## precisionworks (Jul 13, 2009)

> I wish I'd bought one with a variable speed head.


A VFD will help a lot ... you'll still have to change belt position, but not as much as before.


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## wquiles (Jul 13, 2009)

gadget_lover said:


> I wish I'd bought one with a variable speed head. You guys have me considering yet another upgrade.


I am putting a VFD on mine. I will keep you updated so that you can do your own VFD conversion as well 

Will


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## gadget_lover (Jul 13, 2009)

Hmmmm. Will there be pictures? 

Daniel


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## wquiles (Jul 13, 2009)

gadget_lover said:


> Hmmmm. Will there be pictures?
> 
> Daniel



Pictures??? Who has time for that? I would never do that!. But I can perhaps make an exception "this time only" and post "some" pictures, since you are asking nicely :devil:


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## G1K (Jul 18, 2009)

Small tool gloat. I saw an ad on CL for some end mills. Here's what I scored for $25. Quite a few are unused, but most are used but still useable. A couple will need to be resharpened or tossed.







R


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## precisionworks (Jul 18, 2009)

NuCut has good prices, quick turn around, and does a nice job:

http://www.end-mill-sharpening.com/prices.html


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## wquiles (Jul 19, 2009)

G1K said:


> Small tool gloat. I saw an ad on CL for some end mills. Here's what I scored for $25. Quite a few are unused, but most are used but still useable. A couple will need to be resharpened or tossed.
> 
> (snip pic)
> 
> R



Nice score!


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## frisco (Aug 8, 2009)

Looks like mine..... Same Mitotoyo DRO

frisco


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