Van Norman Milling Machine Resources

Van Norman Milling Machine Resources and Links

There is now a Yahoo group dedicated to Van Norman mills. It is the best place to ask questions, gather information, of just shoot the breeze with other Van Norman owners. It is also a good place to go if you want to buy or sell a Van Norman mill or accessories.

Yahoo Van Norman Group

The official supplier of Van Norman parts and accessories is:

Repair Parts Inc.
2415 Kishwaukee Street
Rockford, Illinois 61104
Phone: (815) 968-4499
Fax: (815) 968-4694

Repair Parts Inc. has a limited stock of parts for Van Norman mills. In addition, they have the original part drawings for most Van Norman machines, and can make parts as needed. If you are a home shop machinist, you should be sitting down before you ask the price of parts for your mill. Obviously, parts for "obsolete" machines made in one-off quantities will not be cheap. They also have manuals for many Van Norman mills, and are willing to sell copies for about $50.00.

Sets of 5V collets are available from Tools4Cheap. They are an importer of inexpensive Chinese or similar tooling, and I have no first hand experience with their quality. A friend of mine has bought other tooling from them and is satisfied. At $175 for a set of 10 ($17.50 each) the price is MUCH lower than Hardinge (rumored to be about $80 each).

The following links are machines that are (or were) posted on the Internet by dealers who want to sell them. Many of the links have specifications and/or photos. In fact, some of the data in the "Models" page of this website came from these ads. I expect that as these machines are sold, the ads will be removed and the links will die. I'll try to remove dead links, but don't be too surprised if you find one that doesn't work.

Model #36 - Photo and Specs
Model #38MA - Photo

I would like to have links to machines owned by individuals here. Whether its simply pictures of your mill(s) in your shop, or in use, or perhaps the story of how you restored the machine.

Model #1/2 mill
Bob Haskell's webpage with a photo and specs of his nice pre-WWII Van Norman Model #1/2 (yes, one-half) mill. Bob has also posted scans of a Van Norman accessories catalog that dates from around 1940.

Jeff Greenblatt's model 1/2 mill

Jim Hearne in England scanned in a Model #12 manual. The pictures are quite large and take a while to load, but they are readable, and very useful if you have a #12 mill.
NOTE: It looks like Jim's site is either gone or down for a while. I'm leaving the link here in case it comes back.

Model 1RQ mill
Dave Kochan's webpage with pictures of his model 1RQ mill. The Q stands for quill - it's one of the only Van Normans with a quill for convenient drilling and boring. A very nice machine!