Yes or no on this milling machine?

I'll add my vote to get it now. You have a mill already, so you have time to go thru this one, an make sure everything is up to snuff. At under a grand, even if you find you are in over your head, you could still get your money out and then some. Could very well be parts from Bridgeport and other re-pop parts suppliers may well fit this Italian version. Mike
 
At 2K it still would be a bargain. - in case anyone might disagree: a 3phase mill with a phase converter? really? I paid over 3500 canadian pesos for a 9X49 and ti was the best deal I could get. - 3phase and no converter. It would have to be in really rough shape not to buy it.
 
I had one of those in my shop, it is still there giving good service; they are NOT a BP clone, everything about them is a bit larger and heavier than a BP, I doubt that the speed change is a big deal, sometimes if the belt is tensioned too tightly, the high speed clutch is difficult to engage, a little tapping down on the lever operated cam on top will allow the dog clutch to engage, having already disengaging the back gear lever. I was able to buy spare parts for min, but that was 15 or so years ago, the company's name I think was DUMA. I do not think it had adjustable nuts for the feeds.
 
It's what's called a fixer-upper in the auto world. It would be a good deal for a person with both mechanical and electronic savvy.
Personally I like the simplicity of step pulley machines as they are less problematic than variable speed units. A variable frequency
drive would be a good add on to make life easier as one could leave the speed adjustment alone for the most part and
seldom have to use back gear unless drilling big holes. The back gear function is a simple belt pulley reduction so not too
difficult to deal with mechanically. One could clean it up and give it some TLC and certainly not lose any money on it,
especially if the vise and collets are included in the deal.
 
If I didn't live on the other side of the world, I would have had it in my shop by now........if I had the cash.
 
When I got my BP clone I couldn't shift into backgear, turns out it sat for several years and a liberal application of oil to the moving parts got it going again.
 
Jason280 said:
The current owner initially told me of the speed change issue, and he wasn't able to get the speeds changed via the back gear while I was there. That being said, I'm honestly not sure if he was doing it correctly or not.
Click to expand...

It sounds like you're talking about switching from high to low (back) gear, not changing speeds via the pulleys.

This is a common problem on Bridgeports, but usually problem is not being able to switch from high gear to low gear. My BP J-head had the problem of not switching from low gear to high gear, which sounds the same as this. I did a bit of poking around in the head and nothing seems broken - I think some debris settled during the move. I can switch to high speed by whacking the top with a deadblow after changing the two gear levers. One of these days I'll take the head apart and clean it; just wanted to point out that your (sorry, assuming you have bought it already) mill might have the same problem, and if it does it's not all that bad to deal with.
 
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