Mini lathe milling gizmo started...

[dgjessing]

So far, it's a piece of 2 1/2" angle which gets the cross slide rotated 90 degrees, and shoved forwards to be centered on the chuck when the in-and-out slide (whatever that's called :) is in the middle of it's travel.

I've ordered a 1 1/2" vise. The plan is to drill a hole just beyond the fixed jaw of the vise and bolt it to the cross slide where the tool post is normally mounted.

I'm only going to have about 2" of travel each way, but it ought to be a heck of a lot better than trying to mill in the drill press! Just for grins I bolted a piece of aluminum scrap to the tool post hole and cut at it a little with a 1/4" end mill - seems promising!

I'll report back once it's done.

 

[steamer]

Yup...that's been done and it will work just fine for work within its size range.

Can't beat a lathe for versitility! Good Onya!

Dave

 

[briankenyn]

Hi DG,
Nice work on your milling attachment.
I have an 8x14 HF Lathe on which I have adapted a very old Atlas Milling Attachment. Its a rugged piece of cast iron to which I have mounted a 2" screwless machinist vise. I find on my machine that roughing end mills up to .375 dia. work very well provided that cuts are limited to about .015 - .020. For flat surfaces a flycutter works better than almost anything. Of course, the cross-slide travel severely limits the scope of work on occasion, but all in all I've been pretty satisfied with my results. One drawback of a lathe mounted milling attachment is the need to plan your milling operations all together, and to square the fixture each time you mount it. In my initial enthusiasm to start milling, I jumped past that last 'minor' detail. I currently use a parallel bar set between the lathe chuck face and the vise to square the travel. It's OK, but a more elegant and accurate method would be desireable.

 

[dgjessing]

Thanks!

Yes, I can already see that setting it up each time is going to be a minor PITA, but then I could stand to develop more discipline in that area anyway.

Today while I'm waiting for UPS to bring the vise I plan to make a carriage lock for the lathe (why did they leave that out?).

 

[dgjessing]

The vise came!

The vise, by the way, is a #VS-P150 from Victor Machinery Exchange. $12.50, seems to be pretty good. I drilled a 25/64" hole in the middle of the land beyond the fixed jaw, then milled a flat for the bolt head (milled that on the drill press ). Kind of a crumby picture, but here:

I did the simplest of the several carriage lock mods to be found on the internets, but managed to screw it up! Hard to spot in the picture, but I drilled the hole too close to the slide, and the gib screws hit the bolt :'(. Made it it work by grinding the threads off the upper part of the screw.

I'm very pleased with it! Does a nice job in the 4 sq. inches it covers ;D

 

[dgjessing]

How much do you all suppose it would help with rigidity if I were to move the vise about 5/16" further towards the cross slide by milling away the cross hatched portion of it's base I'm pointing to here?:

It would weaken the cast iron vise itself quite a bit... , but reduce the distance from the center of the cross slide by about 10%.

Waddaya think? Worth trying or not?

 

[Groomengineering]

Hi DG! Don't know how I missed this, but I did the same setup several years ago. It works well to a certain point, but you run out of rigidity pretty quick. As to the vise mod, I'm not sure you'll gain enough to make it worth it. I no longer use the mini-lathe because I now have a 9" SB and an Index mill, but I use the little vise fairly often to hold small parts in the mill and the faceplate. Of coarse the little vises are fairly cheap so you're not out much.

Anyway, good luck with the mod and enjoy the freedom to mill! ;D

Cheers

Jeff

 

[prof65]

Hi dgjessing, I think this is an easier way.

Regards

Roberto