Thread: Build a Mill?

Originally Posted by gallegos

Set up a saved search in gumtree and ebay and keep an eye on the machinery auctions and something will turn up eventually that suits you and is the right price . Even starting with a damaged or incomplete machine may be a better option as its easier to make some replacement parts that it is to start from scratch... Ultimately it comes down to how many other projects you have on the go and how much you value your time.

Yeah - i'm just keeping an eye on gumtree/ebay - but ebay bargains seem to be well and truely a thing of the past - not like back in the late 90's early 2000s before Ebay really got popular (and stupid!)

Originally Posted by steamingbill

This seems to be well documented

Home made Milling Machine

Bill

Yeah, I've seen that site - he made some "interesting" choices early on - seems to have developed into something better since though.

Originally Posted by slhouetteV8

My thoughts on the matter... If you were going to build a bench mill there's already heaps of small bench mills that fit the bill. If you were to build a knee mill it would be to get a more rigid machine than available into the footprint required.


After much thought I came up with this idea...


One could pick up a pantograph mill for under $500. Then with little effort one could rig up a ram type head using the existing t-slot arrangement or modify the head of an existing machine to fit. While researching pantographs I stumbled upon this. The machine in the below link is exactly that... A pantograph mill converted to a vertical mill by the manufacturer.

Attachment 294702

#And I thought I had an original idea! Just something to think about.

I can't say I've ever seen a Pantograph mill before - either in photos, real life or for sale!!
But yeah - if one could be had for ~$500, they would be a good basis.

Thanks for the input guys.

Originally Posted by franco

Years ago George Ewen built a neat little horizontal bench mill using an engine block for a very rigid main casting. I can't find the article I was looking for, but there are a couple of photos which show some details of the mill, and some comments on the design from George here:

Engine block mill shaft?

I seem to remember there are more photos and discussions somewhere on this site which I didn't find with this search, and a reference to where the original article describing the building of the mill in detail is given in the thread linked to above if you should be interested in getting further information.

Frank.

Been thinking about this - if it was built around a Jag or Falcon 6cyl block (92mm bore or so, quite sizeable lumps of cast iron)), and the top-most bore used to support a vertical head (to allow tilting the head)... Apart from cutting gears/splines *very* occasionally, I don't think I'd use a horizontal mill much. I guess if you packaged it nicely, the vertical head could also hang an outrigger and a horizontal spindle could be installed in the number 2 bore.

Pity you're not 1700 Ks closer. I've got a spare 1928 4 cylinder Chev block which I will probably never use sitting at the back of one of the sheds buried under a heap of other bits which you could have had to play with. This is a substantial block of cast iron 490mm long, with the bolt-on cast flywheel cover (handy for mounting it vertically) adding another 70 mm to the height. The beauty of iron cylinder blocks for a project like this is that besides the built-in weight and rigidity, there are heaps of already tapped holes to attach the various bits to. If you ask around you might come across something similar closer to home. FWIW Chevs from 1929 to well after WW2 were 6 cylinder, so had a longer block, and were very common, so there are probably plenty of survivors out there somewhere. Cylinder blocks tend to survive while all the lighter parts rust away. As you say, the Falcon and possibly Holden should be other obvious and readily available contenders.

Frank.

Originally Posted by franco

Pity you're not 1700 Ks closer. I've got a spare 1928 4 cylinder Chev block which I will probably never use sitting at the back of one of the sheds buried under a heap of other bits which you could have had to play with. This is a substantial block of cast iron 490mm long, with the bolt-on cast flywheel cover (handy for mounting it vertically) adding another 70 mm to the height. The beauty of iron cylinder blocks for a project like this is that besides the built-in weight and rigidity, there are heaps of already tapped holes to attach the various bits to. If you ask around you might come across something similar closer to home. FWIW Chevs from 1929 to well after WW2 were 6 cylinder, so had a longer block, and were very common, so there are probably plenty of survivors out there somewhere. Cylinder blocks tend to survive while all the lighter parts rust away. As you say, the Falcon and possibly Holden should be other obvious and readily available contenders.

Frank.

I found a copy of the original article on the Yahoo groupd multimachine forum - nice little article.
Having hefted around both early 60's pushrod falcon motors (177ci springs to mind?), an old grey motor, and OHC ford sixes, the grey motor is easily the weediest of the bunch!
One of the other great things about the engine blocks is that the machined surfaces are pretty damn close to 90* to each other.
I have a couple of contacts who might have Jag blocks lying around. Thanks for the offer of the old Chev!

Nah you don't want a jag block it will leak oil, break down or both....(just ask my driveway!)

You'll need a pre 86 block, after that they went all alloy.

I'll post a link to the vernier when I'm inside off the phone.

Ew

Originally Posted by Gammaboy

I found a copy of the original article on the Yahoo groupd multimachine forum - nice little article.
Having hefted around both early 60's pushrod falcon motors (177ci springs to mind?), an old grey motor, and OHC ford sixes, the grey motor is easily the weediest of the bunch!
One of the other great things about the engine blocks is that the machined surfaces are pretty damn close to 90* to each other.
I have a couple of contacts who might have Jag blocks lying around. Thanks for the offer of the old Chev!

I recall a long time ago a machinist demonstrating to me the difference in stiffness between a Holden grey motor block and a Jag twin cam block - I had the engine out of my MkI 2.4 (again).

He put an internal micrometer in one of the cylinder bores parallel to the crankshaft and adjusted it so it would just hang in the bore. He then squeezed the sides of the block with his hands. The micrometer in the grey motor fell out, the micrometer in the Jag engine stayed in place.

I was quite impressed with the demo at the time, who knew that lumps of steel or cast iron could have so much movement in them?

Mk1 Bob, nice! I just did away with the HMO system on our XJ40, and put in a full metal radiator....a day later and the water pump gasket decides to fail

Anyway, back on topic, the Vernier, https://www.woodworkforums.com/f65/ve...achine-164063/

Ew

http://www.neme-s.org/Model_Engineer...ine%20%231.pdf

Originally Posted by steamingbill

http://www.neme-s.org/Model_Engineer...ine%20%231.pdf

What a cute little mill!
Love seeing these sortd of old articles, thanks.

Some further googling reveals that the above Westbury Mill evolved into the Dore Westbury Mill - lots of google hits on Dore Westbury

Dore Westbury Vertical Miller/Driller

Plans available at above site and from the Yahoo Dore Westbury Group

Yahoo Groups

Bill

Another very impressive home build is this one from 5 bears. Apologies if it has already been linked to, but a quick run through this thread has not revealed it to me. Keep us all in the loop, and include the pictures, if you go ahead and build a mill yourself, even a small and simple one will be a big project for home. Good Luck,
Rob.
5 Bears - CNC Bench Mill

Well, currently looks like it would be a *very* long term project - I'm banished form making noise in the man cave while bub is sleeping - so while my drill press is quiet enough when it's running, the start up "thump" is loud enough to startle bub if she's transitioning... it's taken me 4 weeks to get a set of oil cooler mounts half finished... once the oil cooler mount is sorted, getting the Mars up and running is first job on the books...
Having the workshop under the house seemed like a good idea at some time...

O.K.Gammaboy, this is what you need to do to reclaim some shed time in the face of a recalcitrant young lady. Get a small stereo system and connect an MP3 player, iPod etc loaded with suitable music, ( and here I would suggest Pink Floyd, The Stones, Queen, Led Zeplin or INXS or other music to your taste so long as it has plenty of loud content,) and place the system near her cot, turn the volume up a bit and set it on continuous rotation. Then when you are working below, and you make a bit of noise, it will be below the noise threshold for her, and she won't notice. If she does hear something at some stage, just turn up the volume on Freddy Mercury, and she will drop off again. When I was a young bloke I had friends with a young baby daughter, and her bassinet sat alongside their high powered stereo speakers, and I can tell you that child would sleep through a train wreck. You will be able to take up blacksmithing if you want. Regards,
Rob

Hah, yeah, that should work, but at the moment we're working on re-aligning her sleep patterns and getting her to sleep through - so keeping the noise down is more in the interests of keeping the wife happy - should be able to make a little more noise in a few weeks... but for now working while she's awake or out of the house seems to be the only way to go.