what to do with a free scrap dumpster find ?

picked up a DoAll vs618-1 or what is left of one for free so now what to do with it the grinder has seen better days and after busting down the machine  and finding Rulon film lining some of the saddle ways and pricing the material and finding out it is not cheap by any means to replace it adds to the concern of is it worth it to restore as a grinder? the machine is missing some big price items like the hydraulic pump that drove the table and the magnetic chuck, the machine had a coolant tank at one point but not now. 

after looking at the castings and how the machine was made i am leaning hard in the direction of turning this thing into a horizonal mill which i would have far more use for than a grinder. the spindle would need to be redone but the casting could be modified for a new design on the spindle.

last ting i need right now is another project but this was one of those deals where you take it or leave it and free was hard for me to pass up as is the machine is about 1600 lbs and the two columns are 3 " daimeter thick walled tube with a 3/4 wall thickness. i think the columns are pretty substantial for the size of the machine.

           

I accidentally bought a 2.8kw frameless motor from eBay recently (I thought that it was _much_ smaller) and have been thinking that the 2" through shaft diameter would make a great grinding spindle.

Can you teleport your stuff to me, for free?

the spindle on this was fine as a grinder, it has a 1 HP direct drive 3 phase that can run on 220 or 440 so part of me hates to mess with that part but when you look at cost to bring the rest up to speed that's where i am on the fence

moving it 13 miles was hard enough sending it all the way across the pond would be about impossible these old machines are build well so saving it from the scrap yard was a plus. i'm sure i can turn it into something useful in the end

Do you have the table? It is useful with it, and scrap without it.

yeah the saddle and table are with it the only thing missing was the magnetic chuck that was on it. the saddle has out riggers cast into it that extend around the bearing assembly so i think i can get around 30" x 18" x 16" of travel as a horizonal machine. this grinder has quite a bit of head height @ 18". i was talking to one of the guys at work about travel on the Mazak machines and his only has about a 20" x 20" x 20" envelope. so i could make a small Bridgeport size horizonal i think with close to what the Mazak's at my work have in relation to travel.

Keep it as a grinder. I gave away a grinder 10 years ago and tried to claim it back last week. Eventually you will want a grinder