Horizontal mill ID?
- Thread starter Barnbikes
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A horizontal miller is much less useful than a vertical in the home shop. I would not buy one unless I had lots of spare space and it was dirt cheap. Also, the milling cutters, other than slitting saws, have broad cutting edges and impose large cutting forces. IMNSHO, the overarm on that machine is too feeble for anything but the lightest work.
Bb,
I have a small bridgy clone and I purchased a few years ago a right angled head that converted the machine into a horizontal.
I reckon that the difference in usage has been 99%vertical compared to 1% (maximum) horizontal, and that wasn't caused by the setup times. It just allowed me to do certain jobs quicker, but with more time it could just have been easily done by the vertical mill.
I have the same view as Charles above. At one time, horizontal mills were really all you had, in fact my first learning course was using one, but nowadays, I personally would suggest just stick with a vertical one, and if possible, get a right angle head for it to allow you to do those long drillings and boring jobs on the mill.
On the other hand, as already mentioned, with the correct shaped (very expensive) tooling and precision spacers large intricate cuts can be done in one pass, plus if you can gang them together, difficult jobs can be done with ease, like finning
John
I have a small bridgy clone and I purchased a few years ago a right angled head that converted the machine into a horizontal.
I reckon that the difference in usage has been 99%vertical compared to 1% (maximum) horizontal, and that wasn't caused by the setup times. It just allowed me to do certain jobs quicker, but with more time it could just have been easily done by the vertical mill.
I have the same view as Charles above. At one time, horizontal mills were really all you had, in fact my first learning course was using one, but nowadays, I personally would suggest just stick with a vertical one, and if possible, get a right angle head for it to allow you to do those long drillings and boring jobs on the mill.
On the other hand, as already mentioned, with the correct shaped (very expensive) tooling and precision spacers large intricate cuts can be done in one pass, plus if you can gang them together, difficult jobs can be done with ease, like finning
John
Im going to take a different perspective, if you have the room buy it. For one thing i think it is a crime to put classic machine tools in the dump. The same thought comes up when discussing shapers.
On the flip side of comments here, cutters for horizontals are often dirt cheap at auctions and other sales. Probably easier to sharpen too. Ive picked up a few without a scratch on them. At work i got through a task by sharpening a cutter with a diamond stone.
The third issue here is machine stiffness but lets be realistic the vast majority of home shop machines lack stiffness. Even a Bridgeport is lacking rigidity when compared to the big CNCs out there. So like a mini mill you need to work within the machines capacity.
So im not here to say the mill will be your primary machine but it can help you build out a shop. If the price is right, say a few hundred, id buy it as a long term investment.
On the flip side of comments here, cutters for horizontals are often dirt cheap at auctions and other sales. Probably easier to sharpen too. Ive picked up a few without a scratch on them. At work i got through a task by sharpening a cutter with a diamond stone.
The third issue here is machine stiffness but lets be realistic the vast majority of home shop machines lack stiffness. Even a Bridgeport is lacking rigidity when compared to the big CNCs out there. So like a mini mill you need to work within the machines capacity.
So im not here to say the mill will be your primary machine but it can help you build out a shop. If the price is right, say a few hundred, id buy it as a long term investment.
