Although Azeta, based in Milan, Italy, made a wide range of milling machines, few were exported to the UK and details are sparse. However, one very useful universal miller, the FU-1 did sell in small numbers and was well liked by those who encountered it.
Intended for small repair workshops and factories, training schools and colleges, the FU-1 was a professional-quality machine, heavily built and with its stout, internally ribbed cast-iron column and coolant-holding foot cast as one. The overarm was of typically 1950s appearance having a rigid dovetail base and a pair of large cross bolts to lock it in place. All shafts and gears were of good quality chrome-nickel steel and induction hardened where necessary.
Running in high-precision taper roller bearings, the spindle had either a No. 4 Morse taper or ISA 44 nose and had either six speeds from 35 to 1100 r.p.m. driven from a 2 h.p. motor or, to special order, 12 speeds spanning 25 to 1300 r.p.m. from a 2-speed motor. The motor, held on an adjustable plate within the main column, drove to the oil-bath, speed-change gearbox using two V-belts. The final drive was through a clutch, two operating handles being provided, one at each side of the machine.
Just one table was offered, a 1050 x 280 mm (41" x 11") with three T-slots and a longitudinal travel of 720 mm (283/8"), in traverse of 250 mm (10") and vertically 450 mm (173/4"). The table was driven from a gearbox built into the knee, a sight-glass being fitted to check the oil level. The drive came from a splined carden shaft driven from a pulley mounted on the right-hand face of the column and turned by V-belt from an extension to the main spindle. Twelve rates of feed were provided that spanned 12 to 265 mm/min (0.47" to 10.43"). As an option, the miller could be fitted with power cross and vertical feeds and also, with the addition of another motor, rapids in all directions - the control lever for the rapids horizontal setting being duplicated at both sides of the machine.
Included as part of the standard equipment supplied with each new machine was a simple swivelling vertical head that, unfortunately, lacked a quill feed. Other items included a cutter-holding arbor with spacers, the motor and switchgear, coolant pump and lines and the necessary spanners and keys.
On the options' list were the following items: a slotting head; a universal dividing head with plates and gears; a swivel-base machine vice; a set of bracing bars to go between knee and overarm and an intermediate arbor support bracket..