Hello Paul,

I have the smaller Junior machine, which is very similar to the M1. My knee winds pretty much all the way to the bottom so something is wrong on yours.

The obvious candidate is wear in the knee dovetail guides, the more heavily used areas being higher up. Strip and inspect is the way to find out. To get the weight on the knee down to manageable levels it would be wise to remove the table complete, not forgetting to release the cardan shaft on the rear right hand side that drives the table feed via the leadscrew.

A less likely possibility might be that someone has dragged the machine out from where it was with a rope round the vertical ACME lead screw that the table is raised and lowered by and the resulting bend is resisting screwing through the feed-nut. Again, strip and inspect and straighten the screw if bent. It is soft, so will respond well levering against a close fitting hole in a baulk of timber. How do I know? Mine was in that state when I bought it and as a second such job I have straightened a Landrover track rod after some idiot put a tow rope on it!

Regards   Brian

Hello Paul,

At least you have eased it, but not really solved it. That suggests the screw is slightly bent—I suggest you ask your wife to watch it while you raise and lower the knee to see what happens.

I live in Thirsk North Yorkshire and sadly I no longer judge my eyesight good enough to be up to the rigours of modern traffic so have surrended my license. Matters were not helped when I contracted shingles in my right eye in March 2022, leaving corneal scarring in that eye.

I hope you can sort it out. The Senior milling machines are nice solidly built bits of kits and it should serve you well.

Best wishes   Brian

Chris,

I’ve already told Paul how I dealt with mine, being soft they will bend easily with appropriate leverage. I can’t now remember how I removed mine from my mill, it is more than 20 years ago when I acquired it, but I seem to recall it can be done without having to remove the table from the knee.

While I have your attention—you posted something the other day on the Forum which I can no longer find about working out gear ratios, stating that you found those hard to do. I might be able to help but don’t know if we can do PMs with this new system. If you would like some help that is. My email address is wood_y(at) btinternet.com. There is an underscore between the d and y

Regards  Brian

Brian W, I have sent you a PM, I hope you can find it as it is the first one I have tried to send on this new site. Chris c.