My mill (LittleMachineShop Model 3900 HiTorque Mini Mill) has a stop on the vertical column (see picture below - it's the black plastic cylinder located in the middle of the picture, about 30% below the top). In the picture, the mill is raised almost as high as it will go with the stop in place.
This stop prevents the head from rising all the way to the top of the column, by a full three inches (no small amount on a mini mill). Out of curiosity, I removed the stop and raised the head (mill powered off, of course) - it looked to me like the rack and pinion were still fully engaged, and the gibs were fully on the dovetails.
I assume the stop is there as some sort of a safety measure, but why is it set so low? What would be the danger/harm of relocating the stop higher up? What am I missing here?
P.S. My mill is bolted to the work surface, so there is no risk of it tipping over. I point this out because I thought one reason for the stop may be to keep the center of gravity lower to reduce the risk of the mill tipping.
Also, one would not want to raise the head so high that the pinion went past the end of the rack, but so long as the top of the gibs do not go past the top of the dovetail, that does not seem to be an issue.
This stop prevents the head from rising all the way to the top of the column, by a full three inches (no small amount on a mini mill). Out of curiosity, I removed the stop and raised the head (mill powered off, of course) - it looked to me like the rack and pinion were still fully engaged, and the gibs were fully on the dovetails.
I assume the stop is there as some sort of a safety measure, but why is it set so low? What would be the danger/harm of relocating the stop higher up? What am I missing here?
P.S. My mill is bolted to the work surface, so there is no risk of it tipping over. I point this out because I thought one reason for the stop may be to keep the center of gravity lower to reduce the risk of the mill tipping.
Also, one would not want to raise the head so high that the pinion went past the end of the rack, but so long as the top of the gibs do not go past the top of the dovetail, that does not seem to be an issue.