Who knows Cincinatti Toolmaster mills?

[Pete O]

There's a Cincinatti vertical mill on offer at present in an online auction and I'm tempted to place a bid; i'm keen to add a turret mill of one kind or another to my workshop as the lack of a quill on my Victoria U2 universal is a frustration and the fitting and removal of the vertical attachment is a major chore for a limited result; I'd rather have it permanently in horizontal mode. Space is not a major problem so if the right turret mill comes up at the right price I plan to acquire one.
The Cincinatti is about 3 hours drive from me and I'll be on 14-hour nightshifts between now and the end of the auction so no chance to inspect it in the flesh, thus the price will have to be good.
From the web searching I've done, it is a 1B toolmaster with the optional power feed on X and Y; however I'm not sure from the photos whether the quill has power feed nor what the spindle taper is; wondering if anyone is familiar enough with these machines to tell this from the attached photos, any other pros and cons on these mills also.
Apologies about the double photo, had trouble uploading and now if i try to remove the duplication I remove both.
           

[TomG]

I've never used one, but if it's made by Cincinatti, it's going to be made well. Just be sure to check for wear in the middle of the table travel.

Tom

[Dr Stan]

(07-16-2017, 07:51 AM)TomG Wrote: I've never used one, but if it's made by Cincinatti, it's going to be made well. Just be sure to check for wear in the middle of the table travel.

Tom

I understand the Toolmaster uses something other than R8 collets.  One could rebore the spindle but I'm not sure that's really necessary.  One could also buy a ER collet holder to make life simpler.  That's what I did on my Fray as it takes a MT #2 collet.  You'll loose a little on the Z axis, but that's not a big sacrifice IMHO.

[Pete O]

From the research, some of the heads use a #40 taper and others use a different collet that is rare as hens teeth as it is only used on this machine and their t&c grinders. I was hoping someone would be able to tell from these photos whether this machine has the #40 taper or not- the horizontal spindle on the U2 is a 40 and I already have some tooling, seems easy enough to find tooling in that size but I think a mill with the unique Cinci taper would be a white elephant, especially here in Aus.


Update: I just spoke to the seller, it's surplus machinery in a business they have just taken over so he doesn't know any specifics, he is going to get one of his machinists to see what the spindle taper is and send me a text.

[Pete O]

Further update; the seller just sent me a couple of photos of the collets and they are the oddball cincinatti ones, apparently there are a few odds and ends of tooling with the machine but to buy something sight-unseen with a known hard-to-find tooling system doesn't seem like good policy. Pity.

[SteveG]

Pete, I'm assuming you found the same thread I did: http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/cin...1b-262404/

If I'm understanding that correctly the oddball bit can likely be removed to reveal a #40 taper?

[Pete O]

Yep, I read that one and several others on various forums as well as the info on lathes.uk; it's all a little confusing but apparently even if there is a 40 taper in there it sounds like it won't simply accept normal NT40 tooling and, with the motor sitting directly over the spindle, a normal drawbar system can't work so it all has to be jury-rigged even to use modified NT40 tooling.
I'm usually all too quick to buy something and hope for the best but with the machine in Ballarat and me in Gippsland there's no chance to check it out and a white-elephant purchase would make home life unpleasant

[SteveG]

Ah yes, I understand the white elephant syndrome well. May even have a few of skeletons of that species in the closet ;)
Any other week I could probably have arranged to drop in and eyeball it for you since its relatively close to me. I've been looking for a mill myself and had seen that one but didn't look too closely as I'll be away when the auction closes.

[Mayhem]

Pity about the oddball taper. If there is some tooling would it be plausible to modify/adapt to use something else? As Stan said, an ER collet chuck (on a straight shank) could possibly be put to use. As for night shifts getting in the way, you are obviously forgetting about the good old Aussie "sickie"!

(07-16-2017, 07:37 AM)Pete O Wrote: ...Apologies about the double photo, had trouble uploading and now if i try to remove the duplication I remove both...

Fixed