would you guys buy this mill?

[Harold_V]

With your permission I could copy the entire statement and paste it here. The speaker has excellent credentials.

So long as the article from which you took the comment isn't copy right protected, sure, post away. I'd enjoy hearing why he suggested such machines were not suited for production. That's exactly where most of them were used.

Harold

[Carm]

The following is an excerpt from response(s) to a post by a fellow, John Oder, quite knowledgable about many machine tools including K&T, and further a very competent designer and craftsman.
I have edited non-salient bits and references to other individuals but his words are unaltered in any way. The remarks pertain to the topic

"Which Kearney Trecker mills are desirable toolroom candidates? "


" Any of the universal were never intended for production. Easy to tell K&T production mills - they have names like MilwaukeeMil and do not look like the knee and column jobs.
Weight is age related. And in K&T we have a interesting twist here. A 1925 2B weighs more than a 1945 2H
To get over 10000 you would have to get a 4CH vertical

Important to realize there are BIG K&T series and there are SMALLER K&T series. The smaller ones even have smaller versions of themselves.

All K, and anything with a K (KM, CK) are bigger, tougher, more powerful than anything with an H (HL, CH, CHL, etc) assuming same size number. There are 2K and 2CK that push on 7000 lbs. There are 1H that barely get over 3000.

The latest ones have no clutch - you just push the button and up to 50HP is like on, man.
TFs were twin knee screw brutes evolved from the big series. These got up to 17K.
What is parts availability? Zero unless you like to buy things like a single gear for more than the purchase price of the whole machine. I.E. , the people in the parts business sell to businesses, not individuals.
Did this model have an Achilles Heel? Sure - like any money making machine 65 years old, it has been exposed to varying persons of varying attitudes, mechanical snap and general consideration for mechanical items.
As to the assumption that being a universal excused it from harsh treatment is absurd. This may have been true at the shop of its first owner, and progressively less true as the years rolled by and new owners came and went. Any lay person would have had to been SHOWN that it was somehow different from a plain.
Any party buying one of these should expect it to be wrecked inside if he has not got around to running in all speeds and feeds prior to showing the seller any money."

[Harold_V]

The latest ones have no clutch - you just push the button and up to 50HP is like on, man.

Yep, which describes the one I spoke of that had transmission trouble (repeated gear crashing because of braking).

What is parts availability? Zero unless you like to buy things like a single gear for more than the purchase price of the whole machine. I.E. , the people in the parts business sell to businesses, not individuals.

Even back in the day when K&T was still in operation, parts were killer expensive. Single gears were in the $400 range, and this is back in the early 60's. I dealt with files in regards to machine maintenance at the time, so I had many opportunities to see the amount of money it required to repair the machine.

As to the assumption that being a universal excused it from harsh treatment is absurd. This may have been true at the shop of its first owner, and progressively less true as the years rolled by and new owners came and went. Any lay person would have had to been SHOWN that it was somehow different from a plain.

That's pretty much my attitude. In fact, one could safely say that small, light duty lathes weren't necessarily intended for use in industry, but that didn't prevent them from being used in that capacity. As for an individual not recognizing a universal from a plain, I agree, it may not be obvious, but there's a ready indicator---the table swivels, so there's a graduation collar that is difficult to ignore, assuming you're looking for one.

Harold