My new Benchmaster

Ok, I got the problem fixed. I took the knee off to examine the screw under it, and it turns out the problem was a combination of hardened grease in the threads and damaged threads. I got the grease all cleaned out and took a file to the threads to clean them up and voila,easy movement from top to bottom!
 
Nice! Mine is a horizontal like Shawn's, and I've found that it gets a ton of use in spite of also having a lathe and vertical mill available. And to think I almost didn't bother with even going five miles to take a look...
 
Ok, I got the problem fixed. I took the knee off to examine the screw under it, and it turns out the problem was a combination of hardened grease in the threads and damaged threads. I got the grease all cleaned out and took a file to the threads to clean them up and voila,easy movement from top to bottom!

Good for you! Much easier fix than a mallet or a scraper!

Beautiful mill there- very hard to find out east here, since they were made and distributed out west by you.

Bernie
 

Nice looking machine! I think the size is great. Did you get a deal?
 
Thanks guys! Yes, it is a very neat little mill. Since I'm completely green to this I've just been tinkering on it and getting used to the way it behaves. I also just won a 6" benchmaster rotary table on ebay to match the mill. Does anybody know anything about the base on my machine. I've only seen one other base like mine. Maybe it was a rarely bought accessory?

Bernie- seems that they're fairly hard to find out here too. I've been looking for a while and this is the only one I was able to find.

LJP- I think I got a fair deal. $750 for the mill, a couple of crappy vises, a full set of collets, a clamp set that is the wrong size and a handful of various mills.
 
Well I finally had a chance to clean the little mill up yesterday. I took apart the table, cleaned and scrubbed all of the muck, goo, grease, chips, and hardened goop of of everything and boy what a difference! The X and Y moves smoothly and with very little effort. I love my little machine even more. One of these days I'm going to take it apart and repaint it, too, but them it'll be too pretty to use! Still looking for a belt guard for this ,too, in case anybody has any leads on one.

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Go to vintagemachinery.org and message member 'dereknlee'. He had a helmet cast at a local foundry (Washington state) that looks perfect. No details on price in the post.

BTW, I home my MV1 turns out half as nice as yours!
 
Gosh. That looks great. And yeah, that base is massive!

I hope you don't mind me asking on your thread, but has anyone who owns/owned one of these also owned a seig x2 class mill as well?

How do they compare from a work envelope/practicality/usability perspective?

The Benchmasters don't seem to come up for sale very often.
 
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