[mactec54]

handlewanker

The paint on the mill is a 2 part epoxy I sprayed it on, it is not powdercoat, That mill has worked hard everyday for 10 years now, & still looks like that, It has a 30 taper

As for the Needle Roller Bearings most have a Hardened sleeve that you can get for them
they are very cool

I built a grinder to grind the taper in the spindles

[wizard]

handlewanker

The paint on the mill is a 2 part epoxy I sprayed it on, it is not powdercoat, That mill has worked hard everyday for 10 years now, & still looks like that, It has a 30 taper

I was at the Cabin Fever auction today, there was an old Hardigne horizontal mill that looked like it just came off the show room floor. Well at least the paint does. I suspect youR mill will hold up as well.

As for the Needle Roller Bearings most have a Hardened sleeve that you can get for them
they are very cool

I built a grinder to grind the taper in the spindles

That is cool, does this machine have an an automatic draw bar? There is obviously an extension on head.

As to R8 spindles there are several vendors at Cabin Fever with old Bridgeport heads and spindles, I'm thinking hard about the wisdom in buying such for a rebuild. This would be for a future router type machine build. Frankly the heads I've seen so far are not "whole" if you know what I mean.