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IndustryArena Forum > MetalWorking Machines > Tree > Newcomer to Tree Forum
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    8

    Smile Newcomer to Tree Forum

    Hi, I'm a newcomer who, because of accidental acquisition of a Tree mill, may be seeking advice from members of this forum. I am a retired design engineer and physician who currently invents tools. I've only done a little bit of metal turning but jumped at the chance to buy a lathe and mill that a friend was selling. I intended to keep the lathe and offer the mill, a Tree 2UVR-C tracer, to another friend who wants a full-size mill. He liked the mill but couldn't find space in his garage for it - since his garage is occupied by tablesaw, welder, metal lathe, mill-drill, tool cabinets and a Piper Cub that he's restoring. Therefore, I found myself the owner of a huge milling machine I've never used.

    My initial question is: what are those round feet or leveling pads that I've seen in the photos of a few Tree mills. They seem to be inserted in the 3/4" diameter holes at the corners of a mill's thick base. "Stinson Voyager" Bill, for example, shows them in the photo of his installed Tree mill. The feet are not evident, though, in the photos that show him sliding the mill off his trailer and moving it into his garage. I've seen another Tree mill with identical-looking feet on eBay. Most used Tree mills, however, don't seem to come with them. Are these standard feet/leveling pads made just for Tree machines?
    Larry

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Posts
    107
    Larry, are you thinking of something like a Mason anti-vibration machinery mount?



    You can get those from most tool suppliers.

    cheers,
    Michael

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    8
    Michael, thanks for suggesting the answer to my question. You're right, the Mason mounts are identical in shape and color to the ones I've seen on a few Tree mills. I found out that they're quite expensive, though, as four may cost about a fourth of what I paid for my Tree mill itself. Since I'm retired, I may fabricate some similar mounts with hard urethane sheet on the bottom of the pads or, perhaps, just place roofing felt underneath the mill's base.

    Larry

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Posts
    107
    Larry, Enco has the 500-1000# Mason mounts (1/2-13 thread) on sale at $9.49 each if you buy four or more. The 1000-2000# units with a 5/8-11 bolt are $15.79 each in that quantity.

    cheers,
    Michael

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    8
    [QUOTE=Michael M;]Larry, Enco has the # Mason mounts (1/2-13 thread) on sale at $9.49 each if you buy four or more. The # units with a 5/8-11 bolt are $15.79 each in that quantity.

    cheers,
    Michael[/QUOTE
    ----------------------
    Michael, thanks for this info. I have been trying to find the mounts you're referring to. The closest ones I found in the Enco online catalog are "Mason Industries 1/2" Stud Glider 1000 Neoprene Leveling Mount" with 1/2"-13 stud and rated at 1,000 lb. each (Enco #). The mount is priced at $15.08 each. Four mounts amount to $60.32 when totaled in their cart. Is there a special quantity discount offer that is not apparent to me?
    Larry

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Posts
    107
    The May 2008 Enco sale catalog has the 1/2-13 3.625" OD 500-1000 lbf/mount load range RW325-6615 as $12.78 for 1-3 and $9.49 for four or more. The 5/8-11 5" OD RW325-6626 is rated at 1000-2000 lbf/mount and go for $21.13 or $15.79 for 4 or more. I've got the latter under my 325 but that's a lot heavier than the manual mills.

    Be sure to get enough stuff in your order to qualify for the free freight.

    ETA: That's on page 13 of the May "Hot Deals"

    http://tinyurl.com/48rtpj

    cheers,
    Michael

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    8
    Okay, Michael, I found them in the Enco "Hot Deals" catalog. Thanks for your help.
    Larry

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by LLoo View Post

    My initial question is: what are those round feet or leveling pads that I've seen in the photos of a few Tree mills. They seem to be inserted in the 3/4" diameter holes at the corners of a mill's thick base. "Stinson Voyager" Bill, for example, shows them in the photo of his installed Tree mill. The feet are not evident, though, in the photos that show him sliding the mill off his trailer and moving it into his garage. Larry
    whoa, no one ever noticed my feet before...

    Must be a podiatrist.

    Actually, I got those feet out of a dumpster. They have a big-ol ball bearing int he middle that supports the load when they are cranked all the way down so you can move the machine like it was on casters. Dunno who threw them away but I've had them for 15+ years, finally had a use for them when I got the mill.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    8

    I'm getting there!

    3 months ago I bought a Tree 2UVR-C mill with Scan-O-Matic tracer for a good friend and ended up with it because he couldn't find any room in his small shop for it. The mill is still in storage. I've been cleaning up my shop, however, to make room for the mill and finally completed a pair of heavy-duty caster units I plan to use to move it into my shop. My casters are modeled after some I viewed on the Internet that were fabricated by a Bob P. in Seattle. I used different structural steel shapes than he did in order to make use of the scrap materials I had on hand. My casters' bodies and arms are made from 3"x2"x0.10" thick channel welded together to form rectangular tubes. The channel was salvaged from heavy-duty shelves. Each caster unit has four 700 lb. capacity swiveling wheels from Enco. Two 5.5" long 1/2-13 bolts will fasten each unit to an end of the mill's base. My beam calculations indicate that each caster unit will deflect only 0.01" under a 2,000 lb. load. My calculations are somewhat suspect, however, since it's been about three decades since I last did any structural steel design work.

    But I'm getting there! The 2UVR-C may take up residence in my shop within a couple of weeks.

    I have a question, though, that one or more of you might have the answer to. If I disconnect the hydraulic pump and reservoir tank - to remove some weight from the mill itself - will it be difficult to purge the hydraulic lines of air when I reconnect them?

    LLoo
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails MillCasters1.jpg  

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    440
    No, self purging system. Just make sure the tank leval is correct. Use the correct hydraulic fluid.You may want to drain the old fluid and fill with new..It is a 70's machine, bet that fluid is almost as old as the machine.Old fluid could kill the hydraulic controls, do not be suprised at leaks under pressure, it is common, just fix one at a time.They were excellent machines that filled a gap between manual and CNC,and with lots of time and work , could copy 3d surfaces.

    There are some excellent Tree Historians on this board that can help you on procedures.

    Adobe (old as dirt)

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    8
    Adobe, thanks for the information. I'll go over to where the mill is stored and drain the tank and disconnect both it and the hydraulic pump from the mill. That should lighten the unit somewhat.

    BTW, I wish you a Happy Birthday - though it's a few days early. Since I'm a little older than you are, however, I guess that makes me "Older than old dirt!"

    LLoo

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    440
    Sorry for the delay, thanks for reminding me about another birthday..Any way I owned a Gortan Tracer Mill with 2 Tree 2urv heads mounted on a machined gang mount, ie I could make 2 parts while copying the original. Which , in the early 70's was a wow! The machine would copy x and y, no Z...But the Tree heads were outfitted with a rotating gismo that would select 5 preset Z depths...It was at the time a step above a manual machine..

    When the unit got warm ( Phoenix Az) during the day, there was some slippage in the X axis, but the short Y axis kept pretty close tolerance.

    During the time I owned, we replaced all of the hoses at least twice,(the State EPA found us ot of compliance due to the amount of Hydraulic fluid around the machine).The machine did perform good for several years, but replacent parts got hard to get, so I traded it in on a Tree Mill.

    Good luck, hope the machine works good for you

    Adobe (old as dirt)

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    8

    Smile Finally brought the Tree home!

    3 days ago I felt that I'd gotten everything together to make the big move of the Tree tracer mill from the seller's storage building to my home. In the early afternoon of Friday, therefore, I towed a rented flat bed trailer to his place of business. He loaded the pallet containing the mill, hydraulic pump and tank on to the trailer without any problems. With the mill tied down securely, I had an uneventful 10 mile trip back to my home. I had surprisingly little trouble backing the trailer down my narrow driveway up to the door of my workshop, where my diminutive wife was waiting. This led me to believe that all was going very well. Little did I know that trouble was just around the corner.

    I had to drive my forklift on to the trailer's bed in order to pick up the pallet. When I attempted to lift the pallet, however, I discovered that my 42" forks were too short to get under the load's center of gravity (they'd used 60" forks to get it on to the trailer). Because the mill tended to tip backwards whenever I tried to pick up the pallet, I felt it would be best to inch the pallet slowly off the trailer. The partially-inserted forks, however, only served to pull up one of the 2" x 12"s from the top of the pallet. I then decided to pull the pallet and mill off the trailer's bed with ropes attached to the forklift. This eventually worked but it was unsettling to me to see little pieces of wood being torn off the bottom of the pallet - as I pulled the pallet across the many protruding hex heads of the bolts attaching the trailer's wood floor to its steel frame.

    By the time I finished disconnecting the hydraulic and electrical power lines between hydraulic pump and the Tree mill (making certain to identify them so that I could reconnect them properly), night had fallen. I nevertheless managed to place the forks under the ram without destroying any part of the mill and lifted the mill off the pallet. Aided by my wife, I began to attach my heavy-duty caster units to the mill's base. The rear unit fit like a glove but the front unit would not because an electrical junction box on the mill's underside partially obstructed the caster unit. Well, there was nothing else to do, I felt, but to fill up the 1-1/2" of space between the mill's bottom and the caster unit with washers. This seemed to require more than the 2 hands with which I was equipped - holding the bundle of washers together on the very long 1/2" bolt while adjusting the heavy caster unit so that I could screw the bolt into its threaded hole. Fortunately my wife held the flashlight to illuminate the work area, while I juggled everything in the confined area underneath the base of the mill, about 3" above the ground. :tired: Eventually I managed to secure this caster unit also to the mill's base. When I started up the forklift again to begin nudging the now-castered mill up a slightly inclined steel ramp on to the floor of my workshop, my forklift got bogged down in the graveled driveway. Nothing we did would get it moving forward or backward. Since the mill was blocking all access to the forklift (a fence was directly behind the forklift), we had to move the mill into my workshop by brute strength (difficult since neither or us are "brutes"). This we accomplished very slowly with two long steel bars and a great deal of grunting. We finally levered the mill over the edge of the ramp and on to my workshop's floor, where we were able to move it easily into position.

    By that time it was 10 PM and we'd worked through supper - because rain was forecast for that night and I did not want to leave the mill out in the rain. Before closing up my shop for the night, I said to my wife, "Thanks, my little Sampson!" She replied by flexing one bicep and said "You know that a 76 yr. old woman (115 lbs.) shouldn't be doing this kind of thing, don't you?"

    I had estimated that it would take us about 3 hours to unload the mill and place it in position. It wound up taking us double that amount of time to do the job. Working in the darkness of night by the light of flashlights and a portable lamp doesn't make for the wisest of decisions, I learned. The next morning, when I looked over the mill now resting in my shop, I realized that the obstructing junction box was attached to the bottom of the mill's knee! All that was required to move it out of the way was to raise the knee an inch and a half. In my haste, I had plunged ahead and probably prolonged the job by an additional 30 to 40 minutes. I sure am glad that I'm not a heavy equipment mover! John Q. Public also feels the same way!
    Larry

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