Hi,

A guy named Gunner suggested I add these pictures and a description of the mill to these archives.

In March 2004, I responded to a craigslist.com ad for a Horizontal Milling machine.  It turned out it was a Vernon Horizontal Miller.  The guy, Phil, was in Antioch/Pittsburg, which is a reasonable distance from my home in Sunnyvale, California.

I had just started looking for a horizontal mill so I could learn about saw cuts for a business application.  Deckel & Hardinge are pricey, so I was looking for an off-brand.  This looked like the one.

I called the guy up, and not having any real tests in mind, just agreed to buy it.  It had some tooling included.  I did a web search and found sources for the Brown & Sharpe #9 taper items, so at least I could do something with it once I got it.

Having moved heavy items before, I saved myself a lot of trouble and rented a box truck with a lift gate and some straps.  No interesting tales of rigging here.  Been there, done that.  Now I just spend the money and get it done without wrenching my back.
I got the thing in my garage, and fired it up.  One of the selling points is that it has a single phase 110V motor.  It had a 3" precision vise on it, so I chucked in an included saw and cut some aluminum.  Sweet.

I put an indicator on, and all the ways were within a 0.001" per travel.  I went to measure spindle TIR, and problems hit.

I couldn't get the 1" arbor out of the spindle.  I did the tapping with a deadblow, and then went to town a couple of times with a deadblow/brass hammer.  The drawbar sheared.  I tried liquid wrench and stronger hammers, but the thing wasn't budging.

Phil, (the guy who sold me the thing), told me about his rigging experience with Gunner (the original owner).  I did a quick search, and found Gunner's website, which still had a picture of the Vernon.

I sent him an email asking about the spindle.  I had convinced myself that there was some necking down at then end of the taper, and hitting on the old drawbar was just hitting the neck, not the arbor.

I got a reply saying sorry, he should have removed the arbor before storing the thing.  If I sent him the spindle, he would get the arbor out.  I had taken out the spindle by this time, because I was worried about the Timken bearings.

I sent Gunner the spindle.  Because of the downtime with the new toy, I decided to paint the thing.  I pulled the knee assembly off, and broke down rest into the top, tray, and base.  I hit them with a course foam sanding pad from Harbor Freight, and then
The knee was a PITA.  All of the connections were tapered pins, and everything was so grimy that I was flushing buckets of grungy Simple Green by the half hour.  It was nice to bond with my new machine, but sometimes you wonder about the time spent.  I ch
About the time the paint dried, the spindle came back.  Gunner said it took 18 tons in a press to get the thing out.  The building shook when it popped.  As always, you need to keep guys who can do things like that in your address book.  Thanks, Gunner!  
I've been hogging on cast iron angle plates to attach a Bridgeport M head.  I got one off of Ebay that has a high speed spindle (12,500 rpm), which is another part of my learning about machining processes.  I threw in a preliminary picture of that, too.

Cheers,
Keith, Sunnyvale, California