Which Would Be The Most Useful Machine To Get Next?

You didn't say how much tooling comes with the mill. That might make quite a difference.

The Nichols Standard Hand Mill appears to have an unusual feature:

"Although the stand, main body, knee and table were of conventional design, the Nichols employed (for a horizontal miller) an unusual arrangement whereby the entire head assembly, counterbalanced by the weight of the motor and complete with main spindle and overarm, could be moved up and down over a distance of 4.5 inches. The movement, on hand-scraped dovetail slides, was under the sensitive control of a long lever acting through rack-and-pinion gearing while a cleverly-engineered sliding pivot between motor and head allowed the belt to remain at a constant tension no matter what the position of the head. The drive system was simple, but superbly engineered, with the input pulley overhung on the end of the main spindle and driven directly from an electric motor fitted with a speed-reducing gearbox."*

I don't think I'd be able to resist the temptation to buy that so I could play with it. Besides, it was made in Massachusetts.


* From www.lathes.co.uk

http://www.lathes.co.uk/nichols/
 
I went with the surface grinder. The mill may still be a possibility if I can get a few other things sold to fund it. In any case, here is the grinder.
It's been an expensive day; first the Quorn Tool and Cutter Grinder and now this. I really need to sell some things..

Surface Grinder.jpg
 
It occurs to me that one could build a surface grinder adapter for a horizontal mill. It would be to a real surface grinder as a toolpost grinder on a lathe is to an OD grinder, but I would, I think, find it useful.
 
There have been discussions on grinding with a horizontal mill but it presents several issues. Grinding dust being one and speed being another.
A surface grinder's table moves quicker and the RPM on the wheel is higher. There is also the problem with work-holding.
Would it work? Sure, but not ideal.

I'll end up selling a few other items (things that go bang) and then get a horizontal mill perhaps.
 
That fixes the RPM issue; just solve the other issues and you're good to go!
 
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