Suggestions for small mill/jig borer?

[Rod Cole]

Have you looked at the Moore Jig Borer, if you find a good one, at a good price I think it would do what you want. I've been in the hobby a long time and have built quite a collection of machines. I have a Pratt Whitney 1E Jig Borer as well as a BCA Mrk-III. I like the Pratt better for noise level (the BCA idler pulleys need new bushings) and room for set-up. Both the BCA & Pratt have hard to find tooling, but the Moore seems to have lots on fleBay. Just a thought, but I found that other than size and weight the Pratt is my favorite machine & the Moores are smaller~

 

[pete]

I'd very much agree about noisy machines. Until I bought my 3 ph mill, I had no idea just how quiet and smooth a 3 ph motor is compared to any single ph machine.

Uhh, the OP is in a third floor apartment Rod. Almost anything can be moved anywhere with enough time, effort and thought put into it. But a Moore jig borer in that situation might be pushing things a touch.

 

[Rod Cole]

I'd very much agree about noisy machines. Until I bought my 3 ph mill, I had no idea just how quiet and smooth a 3 ph motor is compared to any single ph machine.

Uhh, the OP is in a third floor apartment Rod. Almost anything can be moved anywhere with enough time, effort and thought put into it. But a Moore jig borer in that situation might be pushing things a touch.

I thought I read the whole thing, but clearly missed the third floor part. Not saying it couldn't be done but doubt it's a good idea~

 

[clockworkcheval]

And when you are doing your utmost to wring impossible results out of a machine that needs a lot of compensation focus and concentration is important. My grandmother told me once that when her father, my great-grandfather, did an especially precise job on his threadle-lathe she had to operate the threadle, at age 10 around 1904, so he could concentrate on the the job at hand.

 

[Steamchick]

Hi 'Cheval,
I was about 6 or 8 when I was first using my Dad's treadle lathe... powered by my younger sister because I had to stand on the stool to use the lathe and she could hide beneath and do the treadling. My grandfather taught me lathe work as a kid so I made a small screw. Maybe 1.8th in x 1/4in long? It was a treasured item in a tin until my teens - lost the tin many years ago. But his lathe was for watch and clock making. A collet chuck on a mandrel powered by a small electric motor.. and all the cutting was done by hand graving. I remember standing on a box, to do the graving, as his lathe was on his desk... and I was too short to control the graver without the box...
When I did some wood turning as a 12 year old at school, the teacher was a bit surprised when I "cleverly" told him I could do it easily because my Grandad taught me graving... and wood turning was just the same only bigger! Kids know it all - and I have never "growed-up".
K2

 

[clockworkcheval]

About knowing it all.... at age 30 I really knew and understood everything. Since then it only got worse till nowadays I doubt the most basic former truths.

 

[Steamchick]

I have learned since my 20s that the more I know the less I really know, as there is more I now know I don't know than I ever knew. - You know? - Who said "There are more unknowns that we don't know than the unknowns we know, and more unknowns we know than knowns we know we know? - I am there now... lost in a bush in the wilderness of knowledge? All I see is greenery, but I know there is more space than greenery if I can get out of this "bush"!
Or something ...
Probably a mis-quote from Nietzsche - or someone clever?
K2