Help identifying a milling machine

[Björn EParticipant @bjorne52547]

I just won this milling machine on an online auction in Sweden and brought it home.

It needs a fair amount of restoration and an owners manual would sure be great to have. Unfortunately, the previous owner had lost the manual, and the brand and model of the machine is unknown.

The only clues I have are:

1. The main sign on the mill says "Brännehylte, High Chaparall", which is just the name of an old company in High Chaparall, Sweden. The phone number has changed owners and now goes to the customer service of an amusement park :/

2. The motor is made by Siemens in Germany.

3. The power feed motors are made by "Servo products company" out of California, USA. Two out the three power feed motors look like factory installs, but I'm not sure about that either.

I already spent 4 hours googling around pictures of milling machines by different manufacturers (new and old) but to no avail. My only hope now is to turn to the internet and ask for help!

You can see pictures in this link to an identical post by me on reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Machinists/comments/ljndu2/identifying_a_milling_machine/

Cheers,

Björn

[Björn EParticipant @bjorne52547]

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

Hi Björn,

Welcome to the forum. That looks like a very nice milling machine, a "toolmaker" type may be? I assume you have checked lathes.co.uk?

Thor

[Björn EParticipant @bjorne52547]

Thank you Thor!

I've already gone through most of the milling machine manufacturers on lathes.co.uk but didn't find anything there. I haven't gone through all of the American manufacturers yet though, as I assumed that the costs of shipping and taxes involved would make American machines too expensive for most European customers.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

I notice that the power feed motor is rated at 240V 50Hz, so was an import from the USA, probably fitted after the machine was first used. It certainly looks like a toolroom quality machine, and of European manufacture.

With your permission, I could ask about the mill on the American forum,The Home Shop Machinist.

Edited By old mart on 15/02/2021 20:05:57

[peak4Participant @peak4]

I saw mention on reddit of Abene, so maybe worth sending them a photo.
It isn't shown on Tony's site, both models there seem to have the odd looking sliding inclined plane on the column.

The company still seems to exist
https://vemu.se/en/abene-reservdelar/

Bill

[DC31kParticipant @dc31k]

I think the Abene references are a little misleading. It has only superficial similarity to those – the head on the (opposite) side instead of the front. And that head is on a sliding ram with an additional Y-axis on the knee.

The photos taken from the right hand side of the machine look as if there is an additional vertical sliding surface, perpendicular to the knee ways and perpendicular to the ram ways so the whole head and ram can possibly be raised and lowered. It almost has two Z-axes and two Y-axes.

Google images will be your friend here.You have to try various combinations of 'Swiss milling machine', 'German milling machine', 'European milling machine'. These may give you some manufacturer names for further searches.

From the square shape and design of it (round, plasticated handwheels), to me it suggests late 1970's, early 1980's (compare and contrast the newer Abene models, Schaublin 22, later Deckels). The lathes site is better on the early machines than the later ones.

Another place to ask is anglo-swiss tools and the oldswissmachines io group.

If you remove a few covers, you might find date codes on some of the motors/electrics. That can narrow things down a bit.

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

Might even be Russian.

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