Hello...and help !

[Selexus]

Hello Everyone.

As a first time poster I'd like to say thanks to everyone for such a great message board. I'm really enjoying reading and seeing everyones machining related stuff.

I'd like to ask for a little help if you don't mind ?
I've got a 9x19 lathe that I've been using to make a few odds and sods. Nothing special. I'm limited to space/budget at the moment so decided to purchase a milling head (for a very reasonable sum) that i can use on the lathe. It's a 3phase unit so I'm going to need an inverter, but first i need to get the damn thing mounted.
This is where I'd like a little advise. As you can see from the picture I've got the milling head mocked up onto the lathe. Things look OK so far. It's the alignment of the mill spindle axis perpendicular to the cross slide that I'm thinking about. Maybe i could mount a large disc on a 2mt arbour for the mill head. insert the disc/2mt arbour into the mill head and lower the head till the disc is on the cross slide. Bolt the disc to the slide, allow the mill head column to "float" whilst doing this, so that when completed i can then mark and drill the mounting holes in the correct position.

Here is a pic of the milling head mocked up on the lathe

Here you can see the angle bracket (faces flycut to be 90deg ) that will tie the milling head/lathe/support plate together

Can anyone think of a better/simpler/more accurate way of doing this ?
I'll be making a spigot for the base of the column to sit on its will be clamped by the column locking bolts thus securing the mill column to the base plate, and the plate is secured to the lathe via the angle bracket.

Comments ?

Cheers
Pete.

 

[hobby]

It sounds like your idea would work,

But your open for suggestions, so here is one sugestion,

Since you have enough table room that your unit is sitting on, you could level up your lathe as best as possible, and then clamp on some temporary braces to the column, and proceed to plumb the column, check for square, and readjust as necessary, then use your method as the final adjustment, and proceed to drill giving yourself adequate hole clearance to make tiny tramming adjustments if neccesary.

The main key is give yourself leeway in the bolt holes for fine tuning,
Then once its bolted, take some cuts, and adjust the column a little at a time until the cutting is at the preciseness, you need it to be.

Then drill one hole as tight as posible with as little clearance as posible to put a locking pin in.

 

[New_Guy]

you could mount it to the bed like a Myford milling attachment does and clamp it to the ways the only hard part would be machining a base plate to mate the prismatic ways you would have to get a machine shop to do that anyway thats ow i would do it

heres a link to show you what i mean
http://www.lathes.co.uk/amolco/

 

[Selexus]

It sounds like your idea would work,

But your open for suggestions, so here is one sugestion,

Since you have enough table room that your unit is sitting on, you could level up your lathe as best as possible, and then clamp on some temporary braces to the column, and proceed to plumb the column, check for square, and readjust as necessary, then use your method as the final adjustment, and proceed to drill giving yourself adequate hole clearance to make tiny tramming adjustments if neccesary.

The main key is give yourself leeway in the bolt holes for fine tuning,
Then once its bolted, take some cuts, and adjust the column a little at a time until the cutting is at the preciseness, you need it to be.

Then drill one hole as tight as posible with as little clearance as posible to put a locking pin in.

Yes, pinning the assembly when mounting is completed is a great idea. I've got a couple of taper reamers here. A couple of taper pins placed to make sure the assembly doesn't move once aligned is definetly the way to go. Thanks.

 

[Selexus]

you could mount it to the bed like a Myford milling attachment does and clamp it to the ways the only hard part would be machining a base plate to mate the prismatic ways you would have to get a machine shop to do that anyway thats ow i would do it

heres a link to show you what i mean
http://www.lathes.co.uk/amolco/

I did consider this arrangment. And from a mounting/alignment standpoint it made a lot of sense. But i'd soon get tired of taking the unit on and off all the time.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[pete]

Selexus,
If it were me, I'd find a fairly thick piece of Aluminum/Steel/Cast iron, Thru bolt that to your bench top, Bolt a heavy piece of angle iron to the top of this, Bolt the mill mount to the angle iron, Shim for final alignment useing a dial indicator in the mill spindle and sweeping the lathe cross slide. Yes this is all more complicated but I'm not a real fan of hanging heavy items off the rear of a lathe bed. The lathe I just bought has a mill hung off the back with integral mounts cast into the lathe bed, Yet I still plan on doing something very similar to the above. If you bolt it to the rear of the lathe bed as you've shown it will be pretty rigid in the left and right direction but probably pretty limber towards and away from you due to the construction of the lathe bed. If you do it the way I mentioned then I would have reinforcements welded onto the angle iron to prevent this same forwards and backwards deflection. However you do it your going to have a pretty usefull machine for smaller milling projects when your done. Your mill looks like it was built by Emco, Pretty nice find.

Pete

 

[hobby]

Pete has an excellent idea.

Building on "Pete's" suggestion,

If you want the mill to be one piece with the lathe, you can
bolt the lathe to a base plate, and fasten and brace the mill unit to the base plate.

 

[pete]

Hobby,
EXCELLENT idea, This would make the whole unit far more rigid, Some 1" aluminum plate maybe? Yes this would cost a few bucks for materials, But if you factor in the costs of what has been spent on both the lathe and mill then as far as I'm concerned if a person is going to do a job like this then it might as well be done as well as possible. The more rigidity you can build into a mill the better. It's real easy to build something a bit too light and end up with chatter and tolerance issues later on. Overkill in design is a good thing for items like this. I have a 1"x 12"x 27" mild steel plate that my Emco compact 5 lathe is bolted to and it made a world of difference when operating it. Heavy as hell tho. around 80-90 lbs just for the steel plate.

Pete

 

[Selexus]

Pete has an excellent idea.

Building on "Pete's" suggestion,

If you want the mill to be one piece with the lathe, you can
bolt the lathe to a base plate, and fasten and brace the mill unit to the base plate.

Great thinking gents. I'll be doing exactly what you've both suggested.
Just got to finish this table that i'm make for SHMBO, and i can crack on with the milling head.

Cheers
Pete.

 

[pete]

Selexus,
I know for a fact you'll see a noticeable improvement in your lathe operations also, Less chatter, Better metal finishes ect. Please let us know how this works out.

Pete