email: tony@lathes.co.uk
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Pinnacle Vertical Miller

A Generic Manual & Parts List is available for this machine

Typical of the generic Taiwanese "Mill/Drill" as made from the early 1970s and marketed by various companies including, amongst many others, Sealey, Warco, Whitecote, Excel and Ajax, etc., the Pinnacle had nothing special to commend it - other than the use of metal instead of plastic handles on the table feed screws together with the general usefulness and low price of the type. Lacking the bevel-gear driven elevation to the head that maintained alignment throughout the lift (as as found for example on the superior Naerok and Draper versions) the head on the Pinnacle was lifted by a crank handle whose gear ran directly against a rack free to rotate between its top and bottom holders - the result being that when the head was unclamped it lost its previously-set vertical alignment.
In addition to the elevating head, the quill, which held a No. 3 Morse taper spindle, could be moved by either a handwheel fine-feed control (working through worm-and-wheel gearing with each division on the micrometer dial being 0.025 mm)) or by a 3-spoke, quick-action capstan handle. Power came from a rear-mounted 1-phase 3/4 h.p. motor (the type generally having between 1/2 and 1.5 h.p.) with drive by an "A" section V-belt to an intermediate, self-aligning, 4-step jockey pulley and then to a 4-step front pulley, the arrangement giving 12 speeds that spanned a most useful 90 to 2150 r.p.m. Other versions have been found with a range from 90 to 2000 r.p.m. and some with a higher bottom speed of 200 r.p.m. and a higher top speed of 2500 r.p.m. - the latter making them handy for drilling but less so for tapping and the use of large diameter cutters. 23 inches long and 7.25" wide, the table had a longitudinal travel of 13" and 5.5" in traverse.
Although inexpensive, of relatively crude construction and with a less-than-perfect cosmetic finish, this type of mill/drill is a most useful addition to any workshop. Able to mill to tolerable accuracy with either large or small cutters, it becomes most handy when used as a coordinate drill - the vice being bolted securely to the table and the slides then manoeuvred so as to bring the workpiece exactly into the required location beneath the drill bit.



Pinnacle Vertical Miller

A Generic Manual & Parts List is available for this machine

email: tony@lathes.co.uk
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