email: tony@lathes.co.uk
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lathes.co.uk
Famup
Ingers, Incontrera & Wenninger
"Unimilla" Universal Milling Machine

A catalogue is available for the Unimilla

Other Famup Machine Tools

Manufactured by Famup in Pordenone, Italy, the "Unimilla" also appears to have been distributed, badged as an "Ingers", by an engineering supply company, Ingers, Incontrea & Wenninger, a Milanese trading company who today distribute electric motors and related equipment. In addition, a British company, Belford (Machine Tools) Ltd., also put out a brochure, in which it was hinted that they had the machine built for them "under licence in Italy" (Belford was mentioned in the London Gazette for April 1976 as struck off the Companies House Register having, presumably, gone out of business some years previously). While it is entirely possible that Belford had the miller built to their particular specification, as the main column, foot, knee and table on the Unimilla are identical to other machines in the Famup range - a Famup product it must be. To complicate matters, at least one other version of the Unimilla was made, though this was an ordinary turret miller along the lines of a Bridgeport Series 1 that lacked the swivelling head and knee and inclinable table. 
Of considerable weight - 1117 kg - the Unimilla was obviously intended to replicate (though almost certainly at a very much lower cost) the versatility of a Deckel FP1 - the miller combining the typical functionality of a ram-head machine with a design that allowed the table to be rotated on its vertical axis as well as tilted backwards and forwards. As well as its vertical mode, the Unimilla could also be employed as a horizontal machine, the latter arrangement using a Bridgeport-like 90-degree-drive gearbox connect to the spindle nose with its rearward-pointing spindle taking a cutter arbor - the far end of which was supported on a drop bracket connected to the underside of the ram. One attachment provided by the makers to employ when using the horizontal attachment was not one, but two pairs of bracing struts; one set being deployed in the usual place, to brace the end of the cutter arbor to the knee, while the other, rather unusually, was used to connect the knee to the base.
Mounted on top of the column so that it could be swivelled through 360°, the V-way ram was formed on its end face with a degree-engraved circular boss to which was bolted a swivelling, all-geared vertical head. Flange mounted against the head's top face was a 2-speed, 1.4/2 h.p. motor that gave the hardened and ground, No. 40 INT taper spindle twelve speeds of 63, 104, 126, 180, 208, 294, 360, 485, 588, 840, 970 and 1680 r.p.m. As an option, a spindle-speed increasing unit was available, this attachment giving a range from 2000 to 7000 r.p.m. and so suitable for running very small-diameter cutters or grinding wheels.
Three inches in diameter, the spindle had a travel by hand, or under power down-feed, of 5 inches - control being by both a worm-and-wheel geared fine-feed handwheel with a micrometer dial for boring and reaming and a quick-action lever for drilling. One useful feature was a handwheel to move the ram, this being mounted at the right-hand side and complete with a very large diameter micrometer dial. The throat depth was 19 inches and the maximum clearance between table top and spindle nose 27 inches.
40 inches long, 10 inches wide, fitted with three T-slots together with a coolant trough around its edge, the table could be tilted through 90° towards the column and 50° away from it - positive control of the inclination being achieved by gearing through a detachable, front-mounted handwheel. By angling the whole knee on its degree-engraved support boss, the table could be inclined to the left or right to a maximum of 50° in each direction. Table power feeds, with rapids, could be fitted as an option - the drive coming from a separate 0.5 h.p.  motor flange mounted beneath the table's left-hand end. Three rates of feed were available - 1.5", 2.5" and 5" per minute with rapids set at 40" per minute - the travel longitudinally being 22 inches under power but increasing to 27 inches by hand; cross feed, by hand only, was a useful 11.5 inches. Both longitudinal and traverse movements were equipped with adjustable stops sliding in T-slots.
Electrical controls - push buttons to start and stop the main and standard-fit coolant pump and rotary switches to reverse the main motor and switch between high and low speeds -  were arranged across the face of the vertical head. The table motor had its own controls, these being positioned next to it on the table's left-hand end.
Some versions of the Unimilla are reported to have had a 2 or 2.5 h.p. equipped, variable-speed drive of the expanding-and-contracting-pulleys type. No doubt this would have been identical to that used on some of the Company's other models including the co-ordinate drilling machines, the R.A.G TCSV and R.A.G. 40. With the motor flange-mounted vertically at the back of the head, the drive ran forwards to the spindle though the var1-speed unit to give a range from 80 to 1800 r.p.m. However, a number of confusing options were listed, including the incorporation of an oil-bath lubricated, lathe-like backgear assembly using hardened CrNiMo gears that, while offering usefully  increased torque when in use, did not reduce the slowest speed - the range remaining exactly as before. In addition the makers listed a 2-speed 2.5/1.1 h.p. motor that, presumably available with or without the optional backgears, gave a range with lower speeds down to 35 r.p.m., yet no higher at up to just 1800.
Standard equipment supplied with each miler consisted of a complete electrical installation, power down-feed to the quill, coolant and a telescopic slideway cover. Extras consisted of power and rapid feeds to the table, the horizontal milling attachment, the spindle-speed increasing unit and high-precision dividing heads and rotary table.
If you have a Unimilla, the writer would be interested to hear from you.


High-resolution pictures - may take time to open


Expanding and contracting variable-speed mechanism that gave a speed range from 80 to 1800 r.p.m.

Left: the lathe-like speed-reducing backgear assembly



A catalogue is available for the Unimilla

Other Famup Machine Tools

lathes.co.uk
Famup
Ingers, Incontrera & Wenninger
"Unimilla" Universal Milling Machine
email: tony@lathes.co.uk
Home   Machine Tool Archive   Machine-tools Sale & Wanted
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