Gorton Vert Mill

[Doozer]

Hello All,
I think I know the answer to my own question, but here it goes. I have the oppertunity to buy a early 50's gorton vert mill. It is in very good condition and is in origional paint. It even has a war spec. paint finish nameplate on it, says something about the color meets defence dep standards or something. Anyhow the backlash is minimal. The ways, the leadscrews look like they are real good, the table is clean and T-slots good. All movements work well. The mill has powerfeed on X, Y, and quill and I believe the knee also. It is a B&S 10 tapper which the seller has two R-8 adapters made for it, says they were machined with the spindle in the lathe. Spindle spline is nice and tight, looks good also. I think it has some sort of backlash eliminator mechanism. A big 3hp 2 speed motor. (I'd VFD it, so it won't matter). Should I buy it? Three weeks ago, I bought a 70's bridgeport in fair to good condition to complement my Clausing 8520, but this Goton has more levers, knobs and cranks than.. well enough to look really cool! Only minor issue, the seller says he was never able to engage the Y power feed, but the gears appear to turn and the feed motor runs, Just wondering if anyone has parts at all. Comes with a manual from Famco. Are they still around? Any comments on this machine appreciated. I am interested in boring holes with an offset boring head. Even BP's suffer from chatter if S&F's are not perfect. I thought this mill would be way more rigid than a BP. Anyone guess the weight? 4000 lbs?? Thanks--- Doozer PS- I have enclosed a simmilar pic. I don't think the pic has power options like the one I am considering.

[mac_campshure]

Doozer, They are a great mill, I have one not this unit though. Famco is still around but i think they would want a fortune for parts you will be able to make yourself, probably only needs to be screwed with a little and will work fine, just my guess.
How much they asking? mac________

[nebtnj]

I HAVE A REALLY NICE I-22 CHROMED WAYS POWErFEED, VARIABLE SPEED , VARIABLE QUILL DOWNFEED ALSO. IT REALLY IS A BIG STEP UP FROM THE BPORT I HAD. WAY BEEFIER!! THEY ARNT QUITE AS HEAVY AS THEY LOOK MAYBE 3000 3500LBS OR SO I WOULD GUESS. MINE HAS 40 TAPER WHICH I AM FINNALY COLLECTING AFTER USING R8 ADAPTOR THAT SUZ BUT GETS THE JOB DONE.....SLOWLY. 40 taper is way better but adds up $ fast. HAVE QUICK CHANGE COLLETS NOW. THEY ARE VERY RELIABLE AND PARTS AND MANUALS ARE STILL AVAILABLE. THE ONLY PROBLEM MINE HAS IS THAT THE SPINDLE BRAKE DOESN NOT WORK. NEED TO GET IT FIXED EVENTUALLY. THESE MILLS ARE ALSO AMAZINGLY ACCURATE OF COURSE THAT DEPENDS ON THE SHAPE ITS IN, BUT MINE IS NOTHING SPECIAL AND IT HAS GREAT TOLERANCES IF YOU SET UP WELL.

[atex57]

My J-9 quit feeding on the Y for a while. Look at the feed shaft to the left of theY dovetail. Engage the feed and see if the shaft is turning inside the coupling, mine was and it just takes a short piece of SOFT 1/8" round stock for a new shear pin. Ed.

[P.Isaac]

I have an old Gorton O16a which, for my piddling around,
is fine. It takes the Gorton collets but, fortunately,
quite a few accompanied the machine. Yes, mine is worn.
It is however quite solid and adequate for playing around.

My motor was also a 3phase which I have replaced with a
single phase for the time being. I am missing the fine
down feed, which is present on the one you are considering.

P.Isaac

[AAREN KS]

Plane and simple-- Gordans are a good one. They are possabley the closest thing you can come to, to mixing a conventional with a CNC. The extra "levers and wheels" you mention make this machine what it is. In other words Gordon took some of the man out of manule. They incorporated some rapid traveres in simple 2 way levers. So dont let all the "levers and wheels" scare you off. As far as the condtion of the machine is sounds like you have got it nailed. I had the chance to run a Gordon for about 2 years at a plant in Pryor OK. It was great. I loved how I could rapid up to the peice then release the leaver and let the feed I had set run. Simply if there is any thing left of this machine you cant go wrong.

[Doozer]

Thank you all for your responses. That is cool that you all have a high opinion of these machines. I might pick this one up this Sunday. Found a guy with a knuckle boom on his tire truck. Gunna use it to load and unload it from my dad's dump truck, and into my garage. Should be able to secure his services for $100 or less. All those levers and knobs don't scare me, on the contrary. They might intinidate others who see the mill, but I think it is just tooo coool. It is like driving a roadranger with 13 or 18 gears, how many people can drive that!? I like gizmos. I am still wondering about the age of this machine. The seller has a manual from Famco, which says 1953 (Ironicly is the same year as my IHC pickup truck). This machine could be older, as it has a war issue nameplate, says something about defense dep. paint job. Im planning on cleaning her up like new, and gunna try and preserve the origional paint job as best I can. Hard to imagine know one painted her in all those years. When I looked at it, I of corse cranked the handles and looked at the ways and screws, all in very good shape. What sold me on her, was when the seller flipped on the massive 3hp 2 speed motor on into high, and this thing ran true, vibration free and reasonably quiet. All the powerfeeds have settable stops, I did not notice the rapid feed, But as you say, I am sure it has them. I need the owner to give me a lesson before we disconnect the power and move it to my place. I will let you all know how it goes when I get it and start cleaning it up and using it. I can't wait till Sunday! Thank you all again for your input. I hope to post some digital pics when it is home for all to see. Later- Doozer in Buffalo

[David_Brown]

Could be military issue from the Korean War 1950-53. The U.S. military ran down after the Second World War, and one of the early problems with the Korean War was was getting the supply pipeline full again; so I can see that the government would have wanted to direct machine tools to production bottlenecks.
I have read that the current liberation war in Iraq was delayed to fill in some crucial ordinance holes.