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Thread: baby Conrik horizontal mill
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20th Dec 2023, 02:19 PM #1Senior Member
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baby Conrik horizontal mill
Stoked to have taken posession of this Australian made Conrik baby horizontal mill. Seems to be in close to working condition, probably just needs a wipe down and some basic lubrication, belt replacing, basic maintenance. Seller tells me it was running recently.
I haven't ever seen such a small Aussie built mill. Have found very little about the Conrik machines, only about their lathes. Probably weighs 110-140 kg. Ultimate plan is to construct a vertical milling attachment, but it will be quite useful as is. Haven't figured out what taper it is yet, haven't had the arbor off it. I used to operate a horizontal mill as an apprentice machinist, it was great because no one else wanted to use it and I could get on it to do facing operations, just have to be creative on the work holding methods.
It's very cute. Has power feed, probably just on the horizontal feed, haven't looked closely, only took the cover off it minutes ago.
Conrik side.jpg
Conrik front.jpg
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20th Dec 2023, 02:50 PM #2
Looks like a great project to keep you busy
Looking forward to the restoration.
For the vertical milling attachment, I will suggest you look at the Atlas horizontal mill examples as they are relatively simple to fabricate and are belt powered by the horizontal spindle. You can find several detailed photos of the vertical attachment here : Marvin Atlas Milling and Slotting Attachments
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20th Dec 2023, 04:09 PM #3Senior Member
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Thank you Kafie,
That vertical attachment looks simple enough to actually work!
Fantastic. I may work out an ancillary way (in addition to the bar clamps) to hold things from moving out of tram position, have got a couple of ideas.
Kind regards,
Steve.
Edit: Just had a look at the link to the Marvin vertical attachment for the small Atlas mills, that is actually a pretty cool little read, what a great range of accessories, cool products there from Marvin. Advertisement material also quite entertaining.
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20th Dec 2023, 10:15 PM #4
Looks almost identical to my mill but mine has no branding on it.
…..Live a Quiet Life & Work with your Hands
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21st Dec 2023, 10:32 AM #5Senior Member
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That is quite interesting. I have been looking around the various machining sites on the internet, looking for something similar, haven't found anything quite like it. I will post a few more photos later. The table is deceptively small, its about 120mm deep, 540mm wide (sorry my Imperial brain is spluttering this morning, need more coffee) The slots are very small, so it looks a lot bigger in photos than it really is.
I will post up a few more photos later. You can probably tell that there has been a conversion at some point to add Vee belt pulleys. I'll leave it like that for a while probably. What kind of spindle taper does yours have? I probably won't have time to pull it apart until after Christmas but it will be fun when I get to it.
I was told the mill was used by a fellow who did Rolls Royce restorations. There can't be too many folk doing that around Sydney/NSW so that will probably narrow down its history and origins. He also had a Conrik lathe apparently, 40's vintage. A couple of neat little 1/2 ton or 3/4 ton arbor presses came on the pallet.
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22nd Dec 2023, 02:36 PM #6Member
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You mill was made by MARS of fortitude valley Qld. Its the same pattern as the Tulloch (of Rhodes NSW) mill which I believe is a copy of a very old Tom Senior mill. They are excellent little machines!
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22nd Dec 2023, 03:03 PM #7Member
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I was actually going to buy that mill so that it didn't end up heading to the scrappy but Im really glad its found a good home!
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22nd Dec 2023, 03:26 PM #8Member
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All the ones I have encountered (3) have run a Morse Taper 3
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22nd Dec 2023, 03:43 PM #9Senior Member
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BrazOmatic, thank you!!!!
And thanks for the additional posts, I am really a mechanical and engineering preserver at heart, just love this stuff. I'm glad you are kind hearted enough to be happy for me to have picked it up even though you had your eye on it. The seller was really cool, when he realised that I was serious about it he was happy to drop it off for me at work, which saved a lot of headaches for me, I'd have collected it in my 4WD if I had to but this worked out really well for me. I have seen similar mills go for a bit more than I offered, but without big pockets, I gave him a lower end ballpark figure, hoping he would take it. I think he was relieved to have found someone interested in it, and solve his problem of having a pallet of old mechanical items hanging around. Was a nice old school buying experience.
Look forward to looking up what I can find out about it with the additional information, thanks again, The casting of the main column does kind of look Mars like now that you mention it. Glad to hear that it is likely MT3 since that gives me some affordable tooling options, and some info on how hard to bash it to get the existing tooling out... Seems there is remnants of a broken off drawbar in the spindle. I am thinking it is TRB??? Could otherwise be AC bearings on a little mill but probably not as common for the times...
Kind regards,
Steve.
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22nd Dec 2023, 04:26 PM #10Member
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G'day Steve!
Super happy for you mate! Ive already got two of them so I didn't need them. I saw their loaction and the time of year and figured that they had a REALLY high likelihood of heading to the scrappy. Im a bit like you, a good deal of my machines and tools I've saved from heading to be broken up. Both my mills were made by Tulloch so they may be a little different to yours, but both mine run plain bronze bearings with axial load ball bearings. The arbors haven't been too bad to get out in my experience.
Kind regards
Matthew
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23rd Dec 2023, 09:29 AM #11Senior Member
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Spindle bearing setup in mine might be the same, will find out in time. Looks like a preloaded axial load ball race at a glance.
Thankfully the mill is in pretty good condition, looks like light surface rust but it is really just minor oxidisation that wipes off with a bit of inox MX3. I've rescued some well rusted/frozen lathe slides in the past, glad I don't have to go to that level this time.
Did you need to make custom T-slot nuts? The slots are quite shallow, will need some care not to butcher things by overtightening/overloading the clamping capacity.
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28th Dec 2023, 08:56 AM #12
Here is a link to my mill thread from 5yrs ago
https://metalworkforums.com/showthre...=202096&page=1…..Live a Quiet Life & Work with your Hands
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29th Dec 2023, 12:29 AM #13Senior Member
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Thank you mate. I poked through the last couple of posts and saw one photo, it looks great. Will go back and look at the whole thread in depth. Also interesting discussion about the type of motor and controller possibilities, having gone through the whole pros and cons of a DC motor vs this and that and everything else! 'Time consuming side projects' lol yep. know that one!
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29th Dec 2023, 03:56 PM #14Senior Member
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Today I got the machine mobile, so I can move it around and work on it. Had a record hoarding expedition on the local council cleanup and amongst many other things I picked up a dolly of the perfect size with perfect sized polyurethane wheels, can move it around easily now. The best pile I also grabbed a silent air compressor (I got one of the dual fridge style compressors working, suspect the other one needs a reed valve or disassembly and basic service) another really nicely shop made small dolly, and a shop made table or tile saw, with a 3/4hp Compton Parkinson motor, really nicely made frame, I appreciate the workmanship in it, shame the family (assuming by the wheelchair in the pile that there was a sad ending) apparently didn't see any value in it. Anyway, gone to a good home for future projects if I do say so Also got a 3t trolley jack which took 20 minutes of work to unfreeze things, lubricate, check hydraulic oil and it works perfectly. This was certainly a killer Christmas for me!
Unfortunately I've lost my camera phone so I can't post more photos just now but this mill is looking more and more amazing the more I look at it! edit: just found phone so will post photos shortly.Last edited by Metalmachine; 29th Dec 2023 at 07:11 PM. Reason: in text
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