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Cataract No. 5 bench horizontal miller (complete with the maker's standard-fit 6" dividing attachment) as first manufactured during the early years of the 20th century. This was a very much more substantial and massive machine than the company's first bench millers with a 24" x 6" (working surface 20" x 6") table that carried three ordinary 7/16" T slots; the longitudinal travel was 12" and the cross and vertical both 6". The spindle, of "crucible steel" - a quality endorsement still popular in the early 1900s - ran in 3 degree taper bearings of phosphor bronze that were adjustable for wear and was fitted with a "Hardinge" 5C collet nose with a maximum capacity of 1 inch. The overarm was in hardened steel, ground and lapped to a perfect fit within the casting; the cutter arbor was 7" long and 7/8" in diameter and the distance between arbor and overarm 4 inches. The largest of the 4-step spindle pulleys was 61/2" in diameter and took a 13/8"-wide belt. For bench mounting the miller's base was 26" deep and 12" wide and the machine weighed, in basic form, 300 lbs. By the 1930s the No. 5 miller had been considerably modified and, in line with the company's bench lathes, had acquired an enclosed headstock and a drive system with a 2-speed electric motor controlled by external levers.
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