ROCKWELL 21-122 milling machine REBUILD

Discussion on all milling machines vertical & horizontal, including but not limited to Bridgeports, Hardinge, South Bend, Clausing, Van Norman, including imports.

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wally318
Posts: 260
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:06 am
Location: Kelowna, British Columbia

Re: ROCKWELL 21-122 milling machine REBUILD

Post by wally318 »

There are 2 on Ebay right Now.
But they're 729 and 800.00 US
You gotta keep a close eye for ones
to come in at lower price. And then you
need to look for an angle.
In my case it was missing the drawbar so
gave me an edge to offer even lower price.
And made the drawbar myself.
Once I realized that bit about looking for an angle,
that was a game changer for me. Showed me I could
pick off the top shelf/top tier stuff.
Happened by accident.
Was looking for a rotary table and after beating my head
on some more lightly built models at way too high prices
I noticed a 10" Yuasa horz/vert. for 400.00 including shipping
(100 pounds) to Oroville,wash. The angle-it had been in a fire.
I took a channce on it after asking a few questions and doing
some homework.
Was still in the cardboard box with the nylon strapping.
The box got water soaked and exploded when picked up.
The dial handle took the bang and bent the end of the worm shaft.
I took it apart. There were some black marks on it that looked
like charcoaled 2 x 4's. A light scotchbrite on the base and table
and it looked like new.
Put the worm in the lathe and straightened the shaft as best I could.
The area inside the rotary table was unaffected, so the worm turned
smoothly. I got the external to within .003-4" So you see a bit of wobble between
the 2 dials. Doesn't affect performance. Even when mounting dividing plates.
So sometimes when you look past/beyond what many will ignore, there
are gems to be had.
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Bill Shields
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Re: ROCKWELL 21-122 milling machine REBUILD

Post by Bill Shields »

Thx

Know of the ebay items...too much $.

$300 more in my price range...until then, will continue with my home brew...a bash up of some British thing from 45 years ago that I married to not quite a Baldor made in ROC motor.
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
wally318
Posts: 260
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:06 am
Location: Kelowna, British Columbia

Re: ROCKWELL 21-122 milling machine REBUILD

Post by wally318 »

This accessory is a BIG X7G spindle speeder.
It multipies ingoing spindle speed 7X to a max of 10,000 rpm.
so for those having a 6300 max speed you would get an
8200 max only on speed 3.
Having a 4200 max speed I get 2 extra speeds 5500 and 10,000
on speeds 3 and 4.
If you're patient you can sometimes find a deal on these on EBAY.
I got mine for 200.00 w/o collets.
Had to make up spindle wrenches/housing stop bar and rebuilt it
putting in a new bearing to get it to run quiet and with minimal
spindle run-out.
In lieu of collets I got an ER11 collet chuck with a 3/8" straight
shank that fits right into the spindle. With an 1/8" and 1/4"
collets will hold most cutters I would need higher speed for.
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wally318
Posts: 260
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:06 am
Location: Kelowna, British Columbia

Re: ROCKWELL 21-122 milling machine REBUILD

Post by wally318 »

For anything I would need even higher speeds for I made a quill adaptor
for my Metabo die grinder. It has variable speed from 10-30,000 rpm.
You can get higher speeds but would require an extremely expensive
spindle speeder(to 40,000 rpm) or an air powered grinding spindle
which are extremely noisy. Especially in my small shop.
I like to be able to hear the sound of the cutting action if at all
possible. The metabo even at top speed is reasonably quiet compared
an air die grinder.
The Metabo-tron logo is a play on the Datron gantry mills with high speed electric spindles.
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wally318
Posts: 260
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:06 am
Location: Kelowna, British Columbia

Re: ROCKWELL 21-122 milling machine REBUILD

Post by wally318 »

Hello all!
I've been meaning to get back and post the last few accessories for this mill.
Just couldn't get the time.
So here goes.
The next one is called a Bridgeport Quillmaster.
It has adjustable angle as you can see in pic 1 & 2.
I found a second collet size on Ebay.
It has a 50% speed increase so my 4200=6300
and the standard 6300=9450 rpm-great for smaller cutters
doing intricate cutting, like corner milling.
And this accessory has an accessory called a QRA
it fits on the end of the Quillmaster and can be rotated to any angle
as can the Quillmaster on the quill of the mill.
The QRA can help get into very tight spots.
Will try to post the next one on Sunday.
Last edited by wally318 on Fri Oct 20, 2023 9:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
wally318
Posts: 260
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:06 am
Location: Kelowna, British Columbia

Re: ROCKWELL 21-122 milling machine REBUILD

Post by wally318 »

Here's the pics
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wally318
Posts: 260
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:06 am
Location: Kelowna, British Columbia

Re: ROCKWELL 21-122 milling machine REBUILD

Post by wally318 »

The next attachment is the Bridgeport right angle head.
Although it was designed to act as a part of a horizontal milling system for
the Bridgeport using the ram and dovetail bracket and horizontal arbor along
with the backgear speeds. This can't be used that way on the Rockwell even if
you did make a ram bracket or utilize the one from the horizontal mill. Without a back
gear you are limited to smaller dia. cutters in steel.
I'll post some pics now and give the explanations later this eve.
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wally318
Posts: 260
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:06 am
Location: Kelowna, British Columbia

Re: ROCKWELL 21-122 milling machine REBUILD

Post by wally318 »

The right angle head was designed to work with Bridgeport type mills that have a 3-3/8" quill dia.
So for a Rockwell@ 2.95" an adapter sleeve solves that problem.
But the bigger problem is that the Bridgeport had 5" of quill travel to the Rockwell's 2.6"
An R8 shank is about 4" long so you would need minimum 4" quill travel for the R8 drive
to seat in the spindle.
My solution was to look for a right angle head that was damaged.
And I found the perfect one and being damaged-for a lot less than the going price
for ones that were older looking with a lot more shop wear.
THis one when you looked at the R8 socket looked like it had never been used.
But ... was dropped? And one side of the casting for the clamping bolts was cracked.
You can see this in pic #2.
So it didn't hurt to mill the quill socket casting about 1-1/2" shorter and then mill off the
clamping ears and shape for an external clamp Pic #3 that I made to replace what was damaged
and removed.
With this setup in the Rockwell you can use smaller cutters in a Stub arbor.
THe attachment has a speed reduction of 4 to 3 or 3/4 of machine spindle speed.
You can also use endmills/cutters in an R8 collet.
So you can mill with the vertical and if staged properly do some horizontal spindle
work on the sides w/o having to tram the vert. spindle.
And if you're doing some helical milling-gears etc you can swivel the right angle head
to the helix angle of a gear etc. But you need a universal dividing head that is geared
to the table feed to accomplish this.
If one needs to use larger cutters or in harder materials-take a look at page 1 of this thread
where I came up with a solution to use this Right angle head on the horizontal spindle
to get the lower speeds with the back gear.
Later on this week I'll post some pics of the head in mock up on the Vertical spindle.
wally318
Posts: 260
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:06 am
Location: Kelowna, British Columbia

Re: ROCKWELL 21-122 milling machine REBUILD

Post by wally318 »

The pic shown is all the bridgeport heads in a pelical type case for storage
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wally318
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Location: Kelowna, British Columbia

Re: ROCKWELL 21-122 milling machine REBUILD

Post by wally318 »

The last attachment I'll be posting is a slotting head off a Parkson horizontal mill.
I hope I can get to that next weekend.
wally318
Posts: 260
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:06 am
Location: Kelowna, British Columbia

Re: ROCKWELL 21-122 milling machine REBUILD

Post by wally318 »

Hello all!
Sorry I didn't get back sooner.
Got a little carried away with my clock project.
Here's some pics of different set ups for using the
right angle head on the vertical spindle.
PIc 1 is cross milling. Done as a demonstration mock up.
substitute your cutter of choice. Endmill etc.
Pic.2 is longditudal milling.
Pic 3 is a mockup of helical milling.
A helical milling cutter was placed in the vise
as mockup only to demonstrate position.
In practice the item being milled would need to need set up in a
universal dividing head and geared to the table for feed/rotation
to create a spiral or helix.
The mock up shows the right angle head set ant aproximate angle
of the helix in the milling cutter. This was done quickly and by eye
for demonstration only. In practise the cutter would be set at a precise
theoretical angle.

The next and last accessory I have set up to this mill is a slotting head.
The Slotting head is from a Parkson(UK) 1N or adapta-mill horizontal
milling machine that I found on Ebay UK.
It cost as much to ship here(even with discounted shipping) as the head
itself. It weighs 75 pounds.
It's been cleaned up and bench tested for function and smoothness.
As well as machined to adapt it to the Rockwell, and holes milled and
tapped in Rockwell column during the rebuild process.
During the period from then till now have searched/found and bought
many slotting cutters an various sizes and shapes.
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wally318
Posts: 260
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:06 am
Location: Kelowna, British Columbia

Re: ROCKWELL 21-122 milling machine REBUILD

Post by wally318 »

So The slotting head is ON.
Pic 1 is .005 thou shim stock crazy glued on the side of the horz. spindle seal plate
for equal spacing and wear sliding on/off during mounting.
Pic 2 is the driving dog for the slotting head.
Pic 3 is the slotting head sitting on the table.
Needs to be lifted up and centered to the spindle
and then slid back onto the spindle and bolts mounted and tightened.
Pic 4/5 are the slotting head mounted w/bolts evenly tightened.
Runs nice and smooth. But will protest if bolts not evenly tightened.
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