Deckel mill

[Frank S]

Not to worry one day the use and toss society will finally crumble and fall someday then the only ones left will be those who know how to make and or repair or repurpose existing stuff, the rest will starve to death or have to barter with the few who know how to make things for a handout just to stay alive.
If I thought it would work I would set up a go fund me site for the express purpose of collecting any and everything made before 1960

[wizard69]

It can be very distressing to see what gets wasted via companies scrapping practices. I once say 70 million dollar production lines get scraped some of them never making a product to sell.

Locally the community saw Kodak fall apart with the end of film and you would have a heart attack seeing what got healed away as scrap. Huge lathes ripped out of the buildings and dropped in big trucks to be melted down. Think about it a big old crane with one of those claw type buckets crashing down on an old American Iron lathe to rip it out of the building to be crushed as scrap. It turns ones stomach.

People have claimed to me that it is a liability issue, if so we really need to change our laws.

Sometimes I cried. Had to do other work as it caused me so much distress. We weren't allowed to save anything either, nada. Another job for a waste company used to see huge bins of all sorts bought in for destruction to keep market prices stable or things like 15K cases of beer destroyed under guard because ofoff-center labeling.
My daughter works for a scientific supply company and what goes to scrap is mind-blowing. I was there yesterday and a NZ$120K machine was thrown out because it had a scratch on it. I don't know what it was but sure I could have used bits of it.
Is this why we have to pay so much for tools?
World needs more saviours like Darkoford.

[C-Bag]

Every place I ever worked I would go through their scrap yards. I was able to finagle some good stuff like some super heavy duty aluminum ramps for my trailers that were the norm in fruit packing houses before forklifts. Who knows how many of those went to China to be recycled.

The last co. put all but one 3x5 industrial mechanical drawing tables outside when engineering went to computers. I snagged the one that was in an office collecting junk for my son who's now a professional artist. The same co had bins and bins of special hardware, pieces of returned machinery, obsolete stuff and NOS just sitting outside being destroyed by the weather.

THE saddest though is these local weirdo's who buy all kinds of machinery and leave it out in the coastal weather unprotected and expect you to bid on it. Saying "it's got a little rust". I can tell stuff that has that good coating of heavy oil/grease/dust that looks bad but you clean it and it's good still. All these huge old lathes and mills are not like this. They are rusted solid and now ruined. I've started to write them an email several times, but obviously there is no use.

[cjcuk]

[QUOTE=darkoford;97225]Metal mills saved from waste:
I was both fortunate and unfortunate in being left a U.K. copy of this mill made by George Alexander when my brother died last year.
It came with the vertical and slotting heads, horizontal shaft and bearing, as well as a set of imperial collets, dividing head and rotary table. There were also some MT3 shell mills and holders. There was only 1 pair of feed gears with it. I've turned some mehanite blanks and have obtained a set of Mod 1.5 cutters to make some additional feed gears.
Question. It looks from the video as though you have replaced the motor. Mine has a large 1.5HP 3phase motor being supplied via an inverter which trips if I try and use the low speed range of the mill. What motor/supply system do you use. Hope the information is enough.
Thanks for the video, it's the only other example of this mill I've seen

[darkoford]

I found it without an electric motor. Installed electric motor Output: 4kW (5HP) x 1440rpm at 400V or 690V x 50Hz 3ph.