Good evening, everyone. I am currently building a CNC router type milling machine, and am wondering about reconditioning my OLD Index mill. This thing was built around 1928, and has seen better days. I bought it out if the paper some years ago for $300, and after getting a chance to check it over (this was my first mill), I thought I'd been taken. The ways are well worn, the center runs loose, etc- and the machine needs a really good scraping, as well as new gibs. The downfeed nut is conpletely gone- the backlash can be measured in 100s of thousandths, so I've been using the knee to feed! The X and Y aren't much better. Climb milling is impossible, because the table will suddenly allow the mill to climb into the work with a SNAP, and break the mill. I replaced the acme nuts on X and Y, but the table movement is so bad, the machine has become useless. I made my money back with the first project on this machine, so its not a question of recovery. I just hate to see an old machine go to the dump.

Would it be worth my while to remanufacture this machine with CNC controls? The castings are heavy, and quite fine grained; aside from the wear in the ways and screws, the machine is physically sound, though I would certainly equip it with a new spindle. The original is Brown and Sharp number 9!