Picked up a new project

As if I didn't already have enough car projects I just picked up an non-car project. It's a Wells Index model 837 milling machine.

The story goes like this.A buddy of mine that still works for a company I used to work for was telling me one of the mills I used to use was now sitting outside rusting. He said the y axis started binding up and the variabe spindle speed mechanism wasn't working. They got tired of messing with it so they put it outside and forgot about it. Once it was outside some parts started to mysteriously go missing. I told him if they just want it to go away I'll get it out of there for them. About a week later he called me up and said I owed him a steak dinner. He convinced them it wasn't worth anything and had a guy that would make it disappear. I did have to end up paying them $1.00 just to keep the book keepers happy.

The mill needs a complete overhaul and replacement of the missing parts but for $1.00 I figured I fhad finally fallen into a good deal.

Now THAT is Grassroots!! I'm sure you will have some semi serious money in that thing when done, but what do they cost new? 15-20K? Now I know where to bring my heads for a cleanup.

Cool. But did you really need an ambulance on standby when you brought it home?

Tim Baxter wrote: Cool. But did you really need an ambulance on standby when you brought it home?

Perhaps he needs to brush up on his shop safety knowledge?

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/shop-safety/

Tim Baxter wrote: Cool. But did you really need an ambulance on standby when you brought it home?

Yeah well you never can be too careful. Actually the ambulance is my tow vehicle for my race car.

This is coming through turn three at VIR.

cwh wrote: Now THAT is Grassroots!! I'm sure you will have some semi serious money in that thing when done, but what do they cost new? 15-20K? Now I know where to bring my heads for a cleanup.

Brand new this one is around $15,000. You can get them a lot cheaper but the quality goes down with the price. I'm expecting to have about $1500 - $2000 into the machine when it's ready to start working. Of course that depends on how bad it is once I get it apart. Then comes the cost of buying the tooling you need to do anything with it. Sometimes buying the machine is the cheapest part.

My buddy amassed a massive ammount of tooling for fairly cheap on ebay. All used stuff that may or may not have been appropriated from shops without the owners knowledge.. But.. good stuff.

Artfully shadowing the red Mini...

Sweet!! If only it wouldn't go through the floor in my shop...

You have a floor? Last I heard you laid in the dirt.

Shop has floor (wood), driveway has dirt. 12x16 shop, so the car won't fit to work on it. Floor would NOT hold that beast up...sigh...maybe one day...

That mini is crushing a cone?!?!

what do you think weighs more the mini or the milling machine

wherethefmi wrote: what do you think weighs more the mini or the milling machine

Absolutely the mill. The monster weighs in at about 3000 lbs. Tomorrow comes the adventure of getting it off the trailer. I'm thinking since I have to overhaul it I'll start disassembling it on the trailer to make it more managable.

ManofFewWords said:

That mini is crushing a cone?!?!

Yeah, I docked it 2 seconds for that but I also think it's warping the bumper.

somebody should have been slapped for letting it sit outside. of course, you saw a benefit of it sitting outside.

If that monster weighs 3000# how damn tall is it? What are its power requirements?

It's about 7' tall, has a 3hp 3 phase motor and has a butt load of cast iron in it. They put the mill on my trailer with a battery fork lift and it wasn't happy when it did it. I got the weight from an ad for basicly the same mill from the same manufacturer.

They want stupid money for a new one but they would be glad to rebuild this one for me. The starting price for a factory rebuild is $6500 and goes up from there. This will be a long project but I think I'll have something once it's done.

I envy you I would like to have the skills to run something like that. Not to mention the actual mill.

I do have and use a lathe with an 8 inch bed to make watch parts.

Tim Baxter wrote: Cool. But did you really need an ambulance on standby when you brought it home?

You must be new here....

what class does an ambulance run in?

nickel_dime wrote:

ManofFewWords said: That mini is crushing a cone?!?!

Yeah, I docked it 2 seconds for that but I also think it's warping the bumper.

Lol it looks like the Mini is next in line for the garbage man to pick it up

mad_machine wrote: what class does an ambulance run in?

The ambulance fits in to the "Slow as Dirt / Top Heavy as Hell" class which carries a minimum weight of 5 tons. If you have big brass one's you can take turn 10 at VIR flat, but I have to lift at turn in to get it to rotate.

I got the monstrosity off the trailer this weekend. What an adventure that was. I went out a bought an engine hoist to get the power head and table off. Then wrestled it onto an industrial strength dolly (with the help of a jack and the hoist) then rolled it down the ramps using my winch to control the decent. Trust me it was not as easy as I made it sound. I'm putting the power head on an engine stand so it will be a reasonable level to work on. Now comes the fun part, cleaning years of grease, grim and chips out of it. Oh yeah and cleaning rust.

nickel_dime wrote: As if I didn't already have enough car projects I just picked up an non-car project. It's a Wells Index model 837 milling machine. The story goes like this.A buddy of mine that still works for a company I used to work for was telling me one of the mills I used to use was now sitting outside rusting. He said the y axis started binding up and the variabe spindle speed mechanism wasn't working. They got tired of messing with it so they put it outside and forgot about it. Once it was outside some parts started to mysteriously go missing. I told him if they just want it to go away I'll get it out of there for them. About a week later he called me up and said I owed him a steak dinner. He convinced them it wasn't worth anything and had a guy that would make it disappear. I did have to end up paying them $1.00 just to keep the book keepers happy. The mill needs a complete overhaul and replacement of the missing parts but for $1.00 I figured I fhad finally fallen into a good deal.

that looks like something Dr.Evil would use to take over the World!!!

How did you get it home???

pinchvalve wrote: How did you get it home???

They loaded it on my car trailer and I towed it home with my Bambalance with about 47 zillion straps on it to keep it from flopping over.