So a buddy of mine had a lead on a old South Bend vertical mill… so I ended up being the new owner today. Scored the machine, all the end mills, the converter to step it down to 220 for 100.00 bucks. Pretty stoked. Now to clean it up, oil it and start learning how to use it. 

By "end mills" do you mean cutters/bits? I don't have much use for an end mill but for $100 it'd be awful hard to say no. Time will tell how good a score you made. Keep us in the loop please.

Frosty The Lucky.

Great find. If you don't have a manual, here is a PDF which should help.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi_ueGx9sXyAhV1JzQIHTqaBN8QFnoECAYQAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwewilliams.net%2Fdocs%2FHow%20to%20Install%20and%20Operate%20a%20South%20Bend%20Precision%20Vertical%20Milling%20Machine.pdf&usg=AOvVaw07e3xDD1q9nyhsVk5nefD5

Frosty, ya I guess they are one and the same. 
 

IronDragon, it came with the parts catalog but not the manual. I’ll print it today and go over it. Thanks a ton. 

Did you get collets with it? If you need any advice just give me a pm.  
 

           Fly

I learned the "end mill" was the machine you bought and the tooling was the cutters and various clamps and jigs to support and position the work. I never really learned to run an end mill but would be willing to force myself if a beauty like that landed in my shop for so reasonable a price. Tooling can get pricy, ask Fly.

Frosty The Lucky.

  I always understood "end mills" to be a form of tooling.  And machines were either horizontal or vertical.  I'm sure by now they are all... all axis, crazy hybrids that don't require but a fingertip and 011100 to make them go.

This just made my memory pop, horizontal mill and vertical mill as the machine's name!  Aren't "end mills" a type of cutter? I didn't spend much time on the mill in high school shop, I just didn't have much use for it so once I passed the test I was off to other stuff. It was a horizontal mill and I know the cutters had names but they're gone, like smoke on the mind.

Frosty The Lucky.

End mills are the cutters. Two main types of milling cutters- peripheral and face cutters. Face mills designed to cut surface perpendicular to axis of spindle, usually large diameter. Side cutters cut parallel to spindle axis. End mills are a combination cutter that can do both, but usually smaller than face mills.

  I went on a gear cutting fling many years ago.  I bet I never get my money back out of those!  Expensive hobby....  Glad I'm shut of it.

  Some people probably don't realize how machine tool technology changed the way the steel they work with is affordable and possible.  Probably iron too way back when.  

Scott, regarding gear cutters - IIRC each gear tooth size required a set of 8 to 10 cutters - each cutter had a range of the number of teeth which they could cut depending upon how many teeth were required on the gear you were cutting. Cutting gears also required an indexing head. You don't see many of these anymore either.

CNC multi-axis machines have replaced much of the old way of machining. Our newest lathe at my college is part CNC and manual, but there is no compound rest, no thread chasing dial - single point threading can only be done in CNC program mode.

Here is a drill I picked up awhile back. Can’t really use it. 2-9/16 in diameter. It’s still cool to have though, interesting conversation piece.

Make a toilet paper holder from it...

Put it on the toilet paper holder when the in laws visit.

Frosty The Lucky

wow. Whats the taper on that bad boy?

I believe it is a number 5 Morse taper. That would be a big machine to accommodate it.

the cost was only a $1, so I had to get it.

  You are right PHD.  A lot of cutters.  I had a small indexing head but was downsizing for moving and quitting the hobby and tried to sell it but nobody had an interest so I got took to the cleaners on it.  I started out making my own fixtures for cutting gears on my lathe and even made a fixture that approximated a bevel, good enough for my own uses.  That drill bit is a good conversation piece for a buck!  Tell everybody a watchmaker gave it to you.

We have a robo drill at work that has an indexing head and table. I have only run it a couple times, i hate doing it. Parts have to be loaded separately and each part has to be checked. No thanks. I will stick with my old Davenport screw machine, load 5 bars of stock, check 5 parts, then sit on my but till i need to stock it again or an hour to check parts again. Provably why all my britches are to tight now though.