Milling Machine Basics and the Kearney & Trecker 2D Rotary Head Mill

[@eduardogarcia3049]

This is by far my most favorite manual mill ever created. I would love to get my hands on one of these one day.

[@zwickauracingworks]

They are a rare find unfortunately but they pop up on ebay occasionally. I also think they are one of the most amazing mills ever produced by anyone, K&T spared no expense developing or building them to be sure!!

[@eduardogarcia3049]

@@zwickauracingworks 100%. I would only be so lucky if someone like you or Keith from vintage machinery sold theirs.

[@Gat_Gobbler3000]

Same!!!

[@dannywilsher4165]

After years of looking and passing on several of these Kearney Trecker 2d rotary head milling machines, I found the "one". I called to buy it and they had sold it an hour earlier.... Back to looking!!!

[@zwickauracingworks]

That is an absolute bummer! I had my eyes on this one for awhile and luckily I managed to snag it and get it home before anyone else realized how rare and unique it is!

[@DAKOTANSHELBY]

Thank you for the video. Very helpful for me as I just purchased a 1963 K&T 2D Rotory Mill. Will take alot of work to make it as nice as yours, but I'm up for the challenge.

[@zwickauracingworks]

It's a huge amount of work to disassemble it and get all the old paint off to do it right, but the end result is well worth it in my opinion. Glad you liked the vid and hopefully you get lots of years of service out of your awesome machine!

[@rui2565]

It´s huge and beautiful

[@zwickauracingworks]

As far as machinery goes, the bigger the more beautiful!!

[@Ideasite]

That's a beautiful mill. I stumbled into a Cincinnati MH2 Universal Horizontal mill with a Vertical attachment. 3800 lbs of case iron glory. I also restored it and used Rustoleum hammered Verde Green spray paint. It has feeds on all three axis & I added a 3-axis DRO. Really love the rotary head on yours. I have a big rotary table, so can cut that stuff that way. Mine has no quill. It adds rigidity, but I need to trig out the feeds for power threading. Unbelievable accuracy because there's no play particularly without a quill. Man, I love these old machines. Would love to know more about your lathe. I also stumbled into a DeValliere H140 tool room lathe. Both machines were barely used & covered in tons of paint that protected all of the ways. I did VFDs instead of the 3-phase converter. Really love the VFDs. Soft start & controllable stop, along with infinite variability on speed really open up a wider range of cutting and takes a ton of wear off the motor. Please keep up these videos. I really enjoy your content.

[@zwickauracingworks]

Thanks for the kind words and it sounds like you have some awesome machines there! I am currently editing the lathe video and it will hopefully be up this week. The reason I went with the rotary converter is because I can use it for both machines without needing separate VFDs for each one.

[@EngineersWorkshop]

Very nice overview of the 2D. The 2D was my first major machine purchase and I've never regretted it for a second. Curious if you've gone through the zeroing procedure for the rotary axis, so that when the spindle is on "zero", it actually is perfectly centered, both in the offset direction and the side-to-side, adjusted by the dual gibs. Mine was in production and the previous owner had it within about .0002", which is good enough for me not to mess with it. Looking forward to more videos with your 2D.

[@zwickauracingworks]

Glad to hear you enjoyed and also get to have fun with one of these beauties! I haven't messed with zeroing the spindle, it has 2 gibs you have to adjust to alter it and it's close as is. I haven't measured runout yet but that may be a future project if I need to get into altering some really precise bolt patterns on preexisting flanges or something similar. This one even has it written in sharpie on the head offset dial housing(probably decades ago) that you have to zero the spindle with the indicator on the 30 taper itself, not a toolholder.

[@mftmachining]

Excellent machine. Keith Rucker also has one in his shop. Where are you located at? Germany? Or elsewhere? Very interesting topic you cover here.

[@zwickauracingworks]

He has a tremendous amount of awesome machinery and his website is where I was able to find so much documentation on this one. There is a huge library there that has everything from manuals to sales brochures. I'm located in the northwestern USA.

[@gsmith128251]

Awesome!

[@MyLilMule]

The 2D is such a cool machine. But, I beg to differ with you on a few points. The Bridgeport and it's clones are far more versatile than the 2D. As you correctly state, the 2D was built for the die maker in mind, not the general machinist or the hobbyist. It is incredibly rigid, and makes it very precise, but it is a very complex machine and is not easy to repair. Parts are no longer being made and are practically non existent. It uses a collet/tool holder that are difficult to find. I would take a room full of Bridgeports over just one of these. I will also add, that using a water based coolant in this machine is a mistake. They are made for oil. Using water based coolant, and you are asking for rust issues. When I got my 2HL, a previous owner had used water based coolant. Took me a while to free up the saddle power feed handle. And the entire inside of the knee was covered in surface rust. Love that big Monarch, BYW. :)

[@zwickauracingworks]

I do understand your complaints but let me offer counterpoints; Everything is built incredibly overkill so repairs are not common, I've broken a couple bolts on one component from misuse and was easily repaired. They are complex but large so it's not like disassembling a rolex, just keep track of your parts. Mine has the standard NMTB 30 taper spindle so tooling is readily available, I should have mentioned that most do have a K&T specific toolholder. Water soluble oil is actually rust preventive, especially if you only use distilled water (which I do). If it is in the reservoir it's no issue and if it is some that has spilled on bare metal the water simply evaporates leaving the oil portion of the coolant as a rust barrier. I will never use oil because of the absolute nightmare it is to clean out of the sump once it sits and turns to mud. It's had water in it over a year now with zero rust issues even in the sump. Thanks for watching and the input!

[@MyLilMule]

@@zwickauracingworks Not complaints, just a difference of opinion. A good friend of mine worked for K&T for 30 years. He and I have had quite a few discussions about this machine in particular. The parts are scarce, since they didn't make very many of these machines, at least compared to the others. Some. of our conversations revolved around how complex and intricate the rotary head is (pun intended). There are something like 100+ ball bearings in there and they are free floating. The torque specs are exacting. As far as the cutting oil, you do what you want, if it works for you. But I have it on great authority that these machines were intended to be used with oil and not water of any kind, distilled or not. Distilled water can still create rust. It's a cool machine. But I stand by my opinion that this is NOT the idea hobbyist machine. The Bridgeport is first on that list, followed by a K&T 2HL or 2H horizontal mill with a universal milling head as a very close second.

[@zwickauracingworks]

Parts are definitely scarce but are also not prone to breakage. These were made for production use and to be durable in that role, for a home or job shop mine will likely never get enough use to even need to zero the rotary head(it has gibs on both sides that you have to run in and out to maintain spindle center while tightening the ways, probably a nigthmare to adjust). A bridgeport is definitely more broadly capable, I just feel for the cost/benefit ratio lies with the 2D. Just a difference of opinion as you said and I always enjoy reading well thought out responses like yours. I do wish there were a way to source some of the extra attachments for this though, the 90* head and cherrying attachment would be phenomenal to have as well as the pto drive system that ran off the table gearbox to run stuff like rotary tables or dividing heads.

[@procyonia3654]

I mean almost every manual machine you get these days has no parts availability. On a machine tool like this you probably won't ever have to fuss with much other than maybe a bronze nut, and maybe some clutch adjustments. All the bearings are Timken, so you can get replacements Any other part you could need you can knock out with a lathe.

[@MyLilMule]

@@procyonia3654 Inaccurate on several accounts. Every part is made TODAY for a Bridgeport Series 1 machine. Every single part. Also, a very good friend of mine worked for K&T for 30 years as a machine rebuilder. There are pieces of that machine, that if there is an issue with it, you're screwed. He has a room full of parts for various K&T machines. What just a few pieces are worth, I can buy a whole Bridgeport for.