Now part of the Swedish Modig Machine Tool AB group (established in 1995/6 with the joining of the Modig, Jungner and Demanders companies) Modig were founded in 1948 in the town of Virserum. Over the years they have built a wide range of both traditional and CNC machine tools and became well known during the 1990s for expertise in the area of HSM (high-speed machining). Their products have included lathes, milling machines, drills, radial-arm drills and milling-machine accessories and they became especially well known in export markets for their precision geared-head Mill-drills.
Very similar in design (but superior in capacity and rigidity) to the far better known (and also Swedish-built) Arboga models, the Modig UM3508 Mill-drill was mounted on a compact (almost minimalist) but heavy cast-iron stand into which was socketed, at the rear, a column that could be driven up and down by a long, enclosed screw thread operated by a handwheel working through a pair of bevel gears. The column carried a single-swivelling bracket to which was attached the gear-driven milling head and its built-in (and difficult to change or service) electric motor. The taper roller-bearing spindle contained a quill that could be propelled up and down by hand or power; the hand feeds drove either through a fine-feed worm-and-wheel mechanism or a quick-feed lever connected to rack-and-pinion gearing--while the power option offered a down-only feed at two rates of 0.004" and 0.008" per revolution of the spindle. The feed was engaged through an electro-magnetic clutch (by a push-button switch) and (essential on this sort of fitting) could be set to automatically drop out at a pre-set point through the action of an electric limit switch.
A 2-speed, 3-phase 1.6/1.9 hp (1.2/1.4 kW) motor was fitted as standard and was available with, for safety reasons in training establishments (or efficiency in the general workshop), DC injection braking; in combination with the 4-speed, all-geared head a total of 8 speeds was available that spanned a very useful 70 to 2160 r.p.m. Control was by electrical switchgear (with push-button starters) mounted within easy and safe reach on the font of the stand and two gear-selection levers on the left-hand face of the head.
Because the motor and gearbox were fastened directly over and around the 6.75" (170 mm)-travel quill, it was impossible to fit a drawbar to hold either collets or a collet chuck in the ISO 30 (or 4 Morse taper) quill; instead, as on the Arboga, a system was used that involved a direct-to-the-nose fitting by a screwed retaining ring; whether this arrangement had the same potential for trouble as that used on the Arboga is not known - however, it would only be sensible, before buying one of the machines, to check that the cutter-holding arrangements are complete and functional.
For a machine of this class, the 25.5" (650 mm) long table was unusually wide at 10.5" (270 mm) and formed with a coolant groove around its inner edges and carried three 14 mm T slots. Where the table feed-screws passed through the endplates they ran in ball-races and used full-circle handwheels - thankfully fitted at both ends of the table. The longitudinal travel was 17.75" (450 mm), the traverse 9.75" (250 mm) and the maximum clearance between spindle nose and table 19.25" (490 mm) - these were impressive figures for so compact a miller and made a marked difference to its general usefulness and desirability. Two power-feed attachments for the table were on the (short) options' list: both were self-contained, electrically-driven units one with six feed rates (of 19, 36, 63, 96, 179 and 315 mm per minute) and the other, a more expensive proposition, with infinitely-variable drive and a quick-return setting that could be set up for various types of automatic-cycle control.
The UM3580 stood 2130 mm high with the head fully elevated, was 1520 mm wide over the ends of the table feedscrew handles and 720 mm deep from the end of the head elevation handwheel to the front of the stand's foot. Weight, without accessories, was a surprisingly-heavy 1000 lbs (450 kg)..