slide material

[stephenc]

I think about this a lot .
I am very enamored with old iron .
I look at the skill , craftsmanship and pride that went into the machinery and then I look at what's available now and it becomes painfully obvious we live in a throw away society.

I dearly wish I had the funds to save what's left of the b&s omniversal mill even if all I could do was get it under a roof and out of the weather just to get the rust stopped .
But alas reality is a fickle misstress .

I have tried to do my part to save machines when I can , I have a rather nice peerless power hacksaw I saved from the scrap sellers .
Some guys told me I was crazy for wanting it ... it quickly became my go to machine for sawing .

One day while scrounging at the scrap yard I found a Logan 8 inch shaper that missing its table , compound , Reeves drive and a few other minor things .
Again I was told that I was insane for dragging it home even though the ways and ram was in near pristine condition.
After a year or so and getting stupid lucky digging threw hgr surplus's scrap pile and finding everything else I needed to make a working shaper I finaly proved the naysayers
Wrong with what's now a nearly perfect working machine .

I have a b-s 000 horizontal mill that I would love to get working again , unfortunately it's eluded me to date on finding any of the parts needed to get it working again .
But I haven't given up yet , a person never knows .

The more I think about it most of my shop has been provided by the scrap yard ,
My cast iron work bench / old table saw
my surface grinder , drill press , numerous motors , two rotary phase converters .
My band saw .... the list goes on and on .

[pete]

Check with the Practical Machinist guys on there Antiques forum. There always saving and rebuilding old iron and you never know. One of them just might have some parts or know someone who does for your B & S horizontal.

[spro]

It becomes we are separated by geography but not by thoughts. We know this is history and usable machine tool. Rational ? when was it rational to invest in so may other things which skyrocket? If you are into "old Iron" lol, it isn't always working backward. These machines were on the cutting edge and Had to be. We can see things are never built like that again. The machines Invited the newer ways of measuring and controlling their speed, by the quality they were built.
Then it comes down to slides.