Any Centec owners on here

Discussion on all milling machines vertical & horizontal, including but not limited to Bridgeports, Hardinge, South Bend, Clausing, Van Norman, including imports.

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Fortis64
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2017 2:26 am

Any Centec owners on here

Post by Fortis64 »

I laid my hands on an old Centec2 horizontal mill ,the said mill was left outside to die until I came across it and after 6 months of asking the owner if he would sell he finally said he would ,I paid him £50 for it .
Anyways ,I'm curious if there are any owners on here . I've done an almost complete rufurb on the mill which was in amazing condition considering it was made in the late 40's. I'm in the middle of making a vertical head for it just now ,there are vertical head out there but they command serious money if one can be found .



https://www.flickr.com/photos/99483750@ ... 4093755594

https://www.flickr.com/photos/99483750@ ... 4481603390

Sean
Fortis 4800 (clausing)
Centec 2 horizontal mill
spro
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Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:04 pm
Location: mid atlantic

Re: Any Centec owners on here

Post by spro »

Hello and welcome to the Board! I am neither an owner nor particular greeter. We do all share enthusiasm of milling machines. The Centec had been mentioned a few times here. I'll admit, ignorance about the name until looking further.
Only then did I look at your rebuild process. Yes it was a crusty bugger yet a fine machine underneath. In particular way, there are many facets to each section, forecasting the use of other attachments. It is striking beauty in a machine sense.
I could only take a dose of the progress at this time. There were different vertical head configurations, driven differently.
Altogether, an interesting topic to arrive with.
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NP317
Posts: 4557
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Location: Northern Oregon, USA

Re: Any Centec owners on here

Post by NP317 »

Welcome, Sean.
First Centec I've seen. Good of you to rescue and resurrect it!
Now I don't have to shed any tears seeing how it was mistreated.
Whole again.
Looking forward to reports on how it functions.
~RN
Fortis64
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2017 2:26 am

Re: Any Centec owners on here

Post by Fortis64 »

Thanks for the welcome :) ,in my little experience the Centec 2 performs pretty good to be honest . It's a very basic little machine ,I'm learning every time I use it .

Sean
Fortis 4800 (clausing)
Centec 2 horizontal mill
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Steggy
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Re: Any Centec owners on here

Post by Steggy »

Fortis64 wrote:I laid my hands on an old Centec2 horizontal mill...
Welcome aboard. You did a nice job refurbishing that old beast. Hope you get many years of use out of it.
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RSG
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Re: Any Centec owners on here

Post by RSG »

Nice resurrection and welcome to the board!
Vision is not seeing things as they are, but as they will be.
Fortis64
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2017 2:26 am

Re: Any Centec owners on here

Post by Fortis64 »

Happy new year folks ,
Not sure if this is the correct place to ask for advice but here goes . As you know I have a Centec 2 horizontal mill that I've done a refurb on ,I'm in the middle of building a vertical head (just a basic no frills head) .I'm after some advice ,and I'm also going to insert a link so you can hopefully get an idea where I'm at on the build . The drive for the head will come from a up and over style pulley system same idea as the atlas ( https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=atlas ... bx_Afp7sDM:)

The centec overarm mounts into a dovetail that runs along the top of the mill ,I know it's going to make the adjustment limited but I'm planning on using 1 1/4" x 4" x 12" square stock for mounting (see the link ) I started to make a two part dovetail for this on the idea that I'll drill clearance hole in the main plate and drill and thread the dovetail part of the mount ,in a sense creating a clamping system. The bottom section of the dovetail is a far better fit than the original ,The other part of the head I'm not sure how to go is how to afix the main spindle to the two mounting plates ,large grub screws at the narrowest part of the plate has been suggested but I'm not sure on that .I'm not the best at putting my ideas in words but I'd appreciate any input .
The bottom section of dovetail which has since been mill down to about 10thou lower than the flats either side of them


Here's a link to my flkr of the head .

https://www.flickr.com/photos/99483750@ ... 7904570129

Sean
Attachments
20171029_115134.jpg
Fortis 4800 (clausing)
Centec 2 horizontal mill
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