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New machinist looking for knowledgeable advice "index 55"

I have an Index 55 that I have been using for the last 30 years. It is a good machine. Very rigid for a small knee mill. I like it better than a BP. the only drawback is the Brown & Sharpe # 9 taper but there is still a lot of #9 tooling around. If it has everything you posted done to it, I would take it over green bear or Bridgeport.
Ben
 
One thing you have to remember, years ago, used equipment dealers used to have guys working for them that put flaking on all of the ways to hide wear and such. This guy did a fabulous job flaking the ways on this mill. But did he really scrape the ways to alignment before applying the flaking??? If he did, the 4K price tag would be about right. Being your first mill, it will be a learning experience for you. In an effective way, which is good. Like others said, it has limitations. It will definitely be better than a "G"mill by a long shot. It would be money well spent on your part. Just remember, If you decide to sell it, you won't get anywhere close to the 4K you initially spent on it up front.
On another note, I look at almost a dozen Bridgeport mills at HGR in Ft Worth this week. Not one of them was in usable shape IMO. The prices were in the $2500-3500 range. They had a fairly new one sitting there, Newport" brand, a clone, priced at around 6K. So you have it.
 
Not knowing if he just flaked the ways vs scaped the ways what would be a good offer for the machine in your opinion
 
The mill has been cleaned up, repairs made, and so on as you said in your opening statement, and the pictures you posted. That's half the battle dealing with a used machine is taking it apart, cleaning and replacing/repairing parts. I would offer him $3000 tops and see if he takes the bait. The most he will say is no. And probably come back with a counteroffer. An agreed price of around $3500 would be a sale to me if I was buying that mill. Everyone here will have their opinion about this, but this is my opinion.

I will say, the table looks like it has been remachined by grinding. Which in my opinion is not going to hold up very good. It needs scraping marks, just not flaking marks, to carry the oil film to keep the ways lubricated. Likewise on the knee cross slide too. The thing bugging me is, there is flaking on a surface that is not a bearing surface on the knee cross slide.

One thing I will say, Wells Index used Meehnite castings in all of their machine builds. The way surfaces are quite hard, in the high 30's on the Rockwell C scale, at least on my 645 mill. For all of the years of abuse mine went through before I got it, it's still in fairly decent shape. It is losing accuracy. A little scraping will fix it. Just not sure I want to at my age and for the stuff I use it for.
 
Yeah that's on the other side of the country I'm in Arizona right now. The knee cross slide mentioned, is that the top part of the way in the attached picture? I need to look into flaking vs scraping to see exactly what you are referring to.
 

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Yeah that's on the other side of the country I'm in Arizona right now. The knee cross slide mentioned, is that the top part of the way in the attached picture? I need to look into flaking vs scraping to see exactly what you are referring to.
That's what I was referring to.
 
Shipping a machine across the country isn't cost prohibitive, and buying from a dealer with a good reputation can save lots of headache over searching locally. I've bought from lost creek, the dealer suggested with the 745, and I'd do business with them again. You'll come out with a better machine. Or use this info to bargain down the 55 to a realistic price and save some money.
 
After doing a little research it had me scratching my head a little. On all the other machines they definitely had flaking or scraping on the load bearing section of the knee cross slide. It would appear the technique is good but applied to the wrong surface?

The other thing I can gather is scraping is essentially gouging material to flatten or level without adding the thermal properties surface grinding would give you then polishing with a stone to even out the raised edges from the scraping. The frosting or flaking is just a pattern strictly for the means of oil retention in a precision ground or scrapped surface.

Knowing this is would be impossible over pictures to determine if either or is needed. It would be difficult to know if it needed to be scraped flat without measuring or if it was already flat and just needed flaking.

Someone correct me if I am wrong on that because that's how I interpret it. Would it be possible there is enough wear in the knee that the that the top portion of the cross slide is actually where it makes contact now?
 
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Someone correct me if I am wrong on that because that's how I interpret it. Would it be possible there is enough wear in the knee that the that the top portion of the cross slide is actually where it makes contact now?
Exactly!!!!

Let's hope not. I would think the seller would know better. Need to verify with the seller what he has done here.

My index mill has about 1/16" clearance there. I'd take a picture but I would have to remove the way wiper to take the picture.
 
Well called to make the pickup and it had already sold. At least I learned a little more about what to look for and things to expect thanks guy appreciate it. If I come across another find I will have to run it by you all again
 








 
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