Wells index

Joined
Apr 14, 2008
Messages
4,205
Picking this up on Saturday.
It's a 745 Wells Index, r8, dro, power x and y, still made in the us, all parts still available.

It will go nicely with my 14x54 hendey and my g&l surface grinder.

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I'm impressed with the knee mill...it seems significantly more robust than a Bridgeport. And given that current new Bridgeports are running $35-$40K that seems like a good alternative. What's the weight?
 
Cheese said:
I'm impressed with the knee mill...it seems significantly more robust than a Bridgeport. And given that current new Bridgeports are running $35-$40K that seems like a good alternative. What's the weight?
Wells start at 16k it says in their website.

Should be about 2200 pounds.

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I had other more important things to do, but I decided that now was the best time to clean this thing up. Don't make fun of my crappy Enco vise, a buddy gave it to me and it will do until I feel like spending 1k on a Kurt.
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Trammed mill yesterday, installed my new Kurt DX6 vise and trammed it.

Got stuff to make and repair for people.

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Michael Kellough said:
Thanks for the pics! What does “trimmed” mean?
Trammed.

I swept table with a test indicator mounted in my spindle across parallels I set on the table.

Since I loaded, hauled, unloaded and moved the machine I need to make sure the tilt and nod of the head were at 0.

Tramming is just indicating the head to table, and making sure vise is running parallel to the spindle as well.

Took me a few hours to get it to a little less than a half ten thousandth.

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I’ve gotten hooked on watching Abom79 YouTube videos so I recognize some of the machinery. He uses a Kurt vise. I had no idea they cost that much. I have a shop full of serious woodworking machines, but nothing like your monsters.
 
Birdhunter said:
I’ve gotten hooked on watching Abom79 YouTube videos so I recognize some of the machinery. He uses a Kurt vise. I had no idea they cost that much. I have a shop full of serious woodworking machines, but nothing like your monsters.
I used to watch more of his stuff, but like many others, has kinda turned into a bit of internet panhandling.  Always asking for follows, likes, subscribe to their patreon, buy their merchandise, etc. 

Actual good content is starting to lack and it's more and more like regular old TV.

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Cheese said:
I'm impressed with the knee mill...it seems significantly more robust than a Bridgeport. And given that current new Bridgeports are running $35-$40K that seems like a good alternative. What's the weight?

When I started they were about $2500, and had just jumped a bit.
 
WarnerConstCo. said:

It looks funny to have that computer control box sticking out the side of that "old time" looking machine.  But it is LED instead of I presume the more modern LCD.
 
RussellS said:
WarnerConstCo. said:

It looks funny to have that computer control box sticking out the side of that "old time" looking machine.  But it is LED instead of I presume the more modern LCD.
It's not that old. Believe it's late 80s machine.
Never got around to calling index and finding out though.

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I would actually like to add a Z on my lathe. Only one I deem necessary.

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RussellS said:
WarnerConstCo. said:

It looks funny to have that computer control box sticking out the side of that "old time" looking machine.  But it is LED instead of I presume the more modern LCD.

The look of  a manual mill hasn't changed in ages. They all basically look the same.  Far as the readout, same deal, those all look the same since they came out, not sure when they showed up, probably in the 70s.

In general full machine shops are all CNC so this sort of equipment is basically worthless to them as makes no sense operating cost wise, other than having around for that occasional random task it makes sense.  Older CNCs are getting that way too, problem is you either have to know how to manually G code, or buy software that cost more than the machine you bought, though some open source options are out there now.  Thats where this kind of machine has value to normal folk, you pay for the machine and tools, and use it for life, no software issues. As long as your making basic geometry, you can do a lot with sort of thing pretty easy.

 
DeformedTree said:
RussellS said:
WarnerConstCo. said:

It looks funny to have that computer control box sticking out the side of that "old time" looking machine.  But it is LED instead of I presume the more modern LCD.

The look of  a manual mill hasn't changed in ages. They all basically look the same.  Far as the readout, same deal, those all look the same since they came out, not sure when they showed up, probably in the 70s.

In general full machine shops are all CNC so this sort of equipment is basically worthless to them as makes no sense operating cost wise, other than having around for that occasional random task it makes sense.  Older CNCs are getting that way too, problem is you either have to know how to manually G code, or buy software that cost more than the machine you bought, though some open source options are out there now.  Thats where this kind of machine has value to normal folk, you pay for the machine and tools, and use it for life, no software issues. As long as your making basic geometry, you can do a lot with sort of thing pretty easy.
It's funny, a cnc will just slowly obsolete itself and be worth nothing, a good manual mill can keep on making parts. I have a horizontal/vertical rotary table, a tail stock and an indexing head. I can probably make most anything I would need for anything.

A metal planer is on my short list of machines to get.

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WarnerConstCo. said:
DeformedTree said:
RussellS said:

It looks funny to have that computer control box sticking out the side of that "old time" looking machine.  But it is LED instead of I presume the more modern LCD.

The look of  a manual mill hasn't changed in ages. They all basically look the same.  Far as the readout, same deal, those all look the same since they came out, not sure when they showed up, probably in the 70s.

In general full machine shops are all CNC so this sort of equipment is basically worthless to them as makes no sense operating cost wise, other than having around for that occasional random task it makes sense.  Older CNCs are getting that way too, problem is you either have to know how to manually G code, or buy software that cost more than the machine you bought, though some open source options are out there now.  Thats where this kind of machine has value to normal folk, you pay for the machine and tools, and use it for life, no software issues. As long as your making basic geometry, you can do a lot with sort of thing pretty easy.
It's funny, a cnc will just slowly obsolete itself and be worth nothing, a good manual mill can keep on making parts. I have a horizontal/vertical rotary table, a tail stock and an indexing head. I can probably make most anything I would need for anything.

Sadly that has become the reality to so many things. Adding "smart" to basically everything is just making stuff that goes obsolete in years not decades. This is why there will always be no shortage of people who "rescue" this type of machinery.
 
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