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Nichols Horizontal Milling Machine Rebuild, Part 4:



The frees things up a bit, but there's still a ways to go.



The Y-axis handwheel comes off easy, and reveals that it's packed with grease from the leadscrew mount.



Sliding the wheel back on briefly let me unscrew the saddle and table as a unit, off the knee.
Then, enlisting a burly passerby, we were able to slide the whole thing off and set it on the floor.



The now-exposed knee ways looked downright terrible, and I braced myself to find a lot of wear.



Luckily, however, once cleaned off, the entire top surface showed very minimal scarring,
and still had almost all of its factory flaking marks.



I'd go on to find that elsewhere on the machine- encrusted with gunk, swarf and trash,
but the actual ways, for the most part, looked surprisingly good.



Anyway, with the saddle and table off, it was time to get to the knee.
I first cranked it up to the max height...



Then going by a recommendation from another Nichols owner
online, I used a bar and a strap to support it from the overarm.



That let me drop the 'gib', or technically a dovetail bar, out the bottom.



Which freed up the knee from the column, and that same passerby helped me
grunt-and-heave it off of there and set that, too, on the floor.






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Information contained in these pages is for reference and entertainment purposes only.  Our methods are not always the best,
quickest, safest, or even the correct ones. It's up to you to know how to use your own machines and tools.
Keep your fingers away from the spinny blades o' death and you should be all right.