Mortiser milling machine.

[DaveinDublin]

would it pay to look in England, you are a short trip on a ship. Maybe the conversion money plus trip is worth it.

Had a look at eBay uk but the shipping costs post Brexit are crazy. I wanted a £2 woodruff key for a Yamaha alternator and the postage was £17. Other parts I bought privately were shipped and returned to sender due to customs clearance issues ie. Incorrect import codes on the labels. Painful The ferry ticket itself would cost upwards of €300 return and there’s no guarantee the customs won’t hit me up on the way home. Wish I had an address in the North

 

[woodchucker]

Had a look at eBay uk but the shipping costs post Brexit are crazy. I wanted a £2 woodruff key for a Yamaha alternator and the postage was £17. Other parts I bought privately were shipped and returned to sender due to customs clearance issues ie. Incorrect import codes on the labels. Painful The ferry ticket itself would cost upwards of €300 return and there’s no guarantee the customs won’t hit me up on the way home. Wish I had an address in the North

Can you take the ferry and carry it yourself in your vehichle?

 

[stupoty]

I’ve bought the x y table above and a 5in swivel machine vice from Vevor and am very impressed with the quality of the vice. €100 odd including delivery for each. Only a fraction of the price of the Kurt vice which it clones.

Nice , you can always use it with a drill press for co-ordinate drilling whilst working on the mill project also.

Stu

 

[stupoty]

Can you take the ferry and carry it yourself in your vehichle?

I've driven to ireland and taken a ferry , got it from the top of wales.

To be honest the midlands and north a bit in uk is the place to find machine tools and all that good stuff.

Stu

 

[jwmay]

If I were inclined towards undertaking this task, I believe I’d find myself a Myford lathe, and take advantage of heaping mounds of talented English model engineers that have solved for milling on the lathe. Surely a lathe could be sourced.
Another thing to think about: Anytime I start a new hobby, it seems like nobody has the thing I think I need. It takes a while, but in general that’s been a wrong assumption every time. Start talking to locals about what you’re looking for. Pretty much mention it to anyone and everyone you cross paths with. I bet something more suitable will turn up.

 

[SouthernChap]

I've driven to ireland and taken a ferry , got it from the top of wales.

To be honest the midlands and north a bit in uk is the place to find machine tools and all that good stuff.

Stu

Not kidding. Most good old English iron is Midlands and the North. I wish I'd got into this when I lived in Cheltenham. Brum was a short hop up the M5.

 

[SouthernChap]

If I were inclined towards undertaking this task, I believe I’d find myself a Myford lathe, and take advantage of heaping mounds of talented English model engineers that have solved for milling on the lathe. Surely a lathe could be sourced.
Another thing to think about: Anytime I start a new hobby, it seems like nobody has the thing I think I need. It takes a while, but in general that’s been a wrong assumption every time. Start talking to locals about what you’re looking for. Pretty much mention it to anyone and everyone you cross paths with. I bet something more suitable will turn up.

Myfords are wildly overpriced. You can get a two Harrison L5A's for the price of a Myford. And the 7's have a smaller bore than a mini lathe. A decent Super 7 with a gearbox seems to be going for about £4k

Lovely looking machines though and apparently quite sturdy for their size.

 

[jwmay]

Myfords are wildly overpriced. You can get a two Harrison L5A's for the price of a Myford. And the 7's have a smaller bore than a mini lathe. A decent Super 7 with a gearbox seems to be going for about £4k

Lovely looking machines though and apparently quite sturdy for their size.

I’ll take your word for it.

I often see them on Facebook marketplace well below 4K. And then I wonder aloud why they’re so cheap, and why marketplace is showing me all these great deals across the ocean. It’s filtered for 40 miles from home! lol

Maybe what I’m seeing are just scammers or something. I thought they went for 500-1500 in reasonable condition.

 

[SouthernChap]

I’ll take your word for it.

I often see them on Facebook marketplace well below 4K. And then I wonder aloud why they’re so cheap, and why marketplace is showing me all these great deals across the ocean. It’s filtered for 40 miles from home! lol

Maybe what I’m seeing are just scammers or something. I thought they went for 500-1500 in reasonable condition.

Ah FBM, yep, you can get better deals there; significantly so, which makes me (possibly unnecessarily so) a little paranoid.

I was thinking of eBay. Also a lot of the cheaper deals will be Myford 7's with change gears rather than the Norton style gearbox. That might not bother people (I wonder how simple it would be to fit some kind of ELS to a Myford 7) I guess.

It does seem in the UK particularly that, "Look for an ML7" is the default response. I guess it might be the equivalent of "Look for a Southbend SB9" in the states. However, I suspect the supply of decent ML7s and Super 7s is much smaller in the UK than the supply of SB9's in the states and a fair bit smaller than the demand and thus the prices.

I see more modern Harrison M300's with greater capability pop up fairly regularly at about the same price as ML7s and Harrison L5As pop up about half the price (albeit in less good shape).

Maybe it's about size and convenience as regards loading, transporting and installing the newly purchased machine. You can fit an ML7 in the boot of a decent size car with the rear seats folded and can be handled by 2 reasonably strong people. The Harrisons will require at least a long wheel based Transit style van or a trailer and lifting/moving kit.

The loading/transport/install issue is even more acute when it comes to mills I suspect.

I see a fair few reasonable condition Adcock Shipley universal mills with the vertical head included, for less than £2K, but that's going to be a PITA to get from the seller, to somewhere in the UK and then into a standard UK garage.

The most capable of the Seig SX3 variants (but lacking the rigidity and power of the Adcock Shipley) is about £2.5K from ArcEuroTrade but for less than a £100 extra, it can be delivered palletized to the door in a tail lift equipped truck by a bloke with a pallet truck and manhandled into place by a couple of strong people or even one person with an engine hoist and some careful planning.

That said, once in place, even brand new, the Seig machines are still likely to be as much of a 'project' as the used and potentially well-worn Adcock Shipley.

Eh...guess there's more to buying a machine tool than just having the cash.

 

[jwmay]

It does seem in the UK particularly that, "Look for an ML7" is the default response. I guess it might be the equivalent of "Look for a Southbend SB9" in the states.

In my case, it’s unfortunately a case of broad ignorance of what’s available in the UK. But I knew I saw those Myfords. They have been so popular for so long, with tons of projects for them to add capability being published as well, it seemed a reasonable suggestion for a dude getting ready to chop up a mortising machine. The OP is clearly ready to get started. And working from proven plans is such a blessing.