Lewis Horizontal Mill

The Lewis Horizontal Mill is manufactured by the Lewis Machine Tool Company. The Lewis Machine Tool Company was located at 3017 North Main Street, Los Angeles 31, California. The company supplied sets of castings and associated parts from which it was possible, given reasonable workshop facilities and a degree of skill. to build a range of powered workshop equipment. The companies more ambitious projects offered were a 10-inch shaper, a small horizontal miller, a mechanical hacksaw and both bench and pillar drills.

The mills castings contain no marks or serial number of any kind. I did some research and the bulletin board at VintageMachinery.org helped me identify this little mill. There is no way for me to know how many where produced, however, I can’t believe that the number is very high. I think the mill was produced after 1935 and before 1941. Without a serial number and online support, its is very difficult to tell.

My Lewis came with a few issues caused by its age. The spindle bearings were leaking and everything was very dirty. I had to replace the motor power cable and the motor will follow at some point soon. All in all, I am thrilled with my first mill. I look forward to learning the craft and building cool stuff.

I am have cleaned the mill to a limit degree. The spindle bearings were repacked with grease. I rewired the power cord to the motor. However it really needs to be broken down and scoured. The vice originally blocking the dial indicator for the Y-axis. I relocated the vice, so now relocated towards the center of the table. The original collet holder came with two collets, so I purchased a set of ER-32 collets to gain some flexibility. For not, the limiting factor with the mill is me, the operator and I look forward to learning everything I can.

Lewis Horizontal Mill Projects

Further Reading

• vintagemachinery.org
• lathes.co.uk