Thread: Home made milling attachment

Looking good. Keep us informed Bob. I'm very keen to get some milling capability on my 260. My compound doesn't have a T slot, but I suppose I could always buy one.

This may be of interest:

Toolmakers Vice, Converted Drilling Vice 01

http://www.homews.co.uk/LrgDrill2TMVice07.jpg

Chris

Thanks for the links on the vices Chris.

I like the idea of a T-slotted plate as well, maybe another project?

Of course this creates an added avenue for acquiring more toys like collets etc.
Might have to borrow some from work until next Bday or Xmas . . . . .

Cheers

Just a follow up on the lathe milling attachment.

I've made a vice that sits in the T-slot of the second compound rest.


It has a jaw width of 100 mm and opens to about 95 mm without the secondary jaws added so it will be about 75 mm with the secondary jaws.

It's just made from black flatbar steel, mainly 16 x 40 pieces for the jaws and 10 mm plate and 16 x 16 bar for everything else. No mill was used in its construction so is is not a precise device but it will be fine for what I need it for.

This is the back.

To fit the vice to the secondary compound rest one of the nuts that holds the whole vice together has to be removed and can be replaced once the vice is installed. However, I don't plan to remove the vice from the secondary compound rest T-slot but to remove the whole thing from the primary compound rest.

Here is the front.

The jaws and the top vice nut are welded from 2 or more pieces of 40 x 16 mm flatbar
The bottom jaw and the top vice nut are each attached onto the frame using 4 x 8 mm high tensile allen bolts. The frame and T-Piece are held together using 6 similar allen bolts.
The main screw is the same 5/8" all thread that I used for the primary T-Piece locking nut.
The top jaw has 25 x 32 x 16 mm thick T slot piece bolted underneath it that helps that jaw stay square and to reduce racking. That bit was a real bugga to fit for reasons that are too complicated to explain in less than about half a page. I kept blaming everything else and grinding more and more away from where I though it was contacting and jamming and eventually I found it.

The T-Piece can also be swapped to two other places as indicated by the green arrows so that a wider height range can be accessed.

The top position is likely to be less useful as the vice almost reaches the bed when the middle T-Piece location is used

Here is a close up of how well the jaws align.

The gaps at the corners are mostly caused by using a linisher to clean up the flatbar. Belt sanders and linishers are notorious for removing stuff at the edges of flat pieces when these are place on belts. If I wanted to get more precise, then a mill or even a file could be used to make the jaws better align. I will probably make some secondary jaws from some more precise pieces of steel.

I also still need to make a handle for the all thread rod and maybe paint up the exposed bits.
It runs moderately smooth considering it has no grease or oil on it yet.

As usual I could make a really good one now and might make a bigger one for my drill press sometime.

I don't have any slot cutters to try it out with so all I could try it out with with was a router bit on some 12 mm ally plate. It jumps around a bit more than I'd like - I think I will have to gusset the angle bracket on the first compound rest.

Bloody nice improvisation Bob. Right up my alley
One suggestion I might provide is to weld triangular gussets onto the sides of your 10mm thick angle plate fir added rigidity and to stop some vibration. That piece of angle will "ring" (resonate) at a particular cutting edge frequency (revs per second x number of cutting edges) and produce horrible chatter.
It is likely to distort a little form welding. I would put the finished angle plate in a fire until its evenly red/orange and then let the fire go out (unless you have access to an annealing/normalising furnace). After that, you may want to machine, grind, file or scrape it to as precisely a right angle on the faces as you can.
Cheers,
Joe

Originally Posted by jhovel

Bloody nice improvisation Bob. Right up my alley
One suggestion I might provide is to weld triangular gussets onto the sides of your 10mm thick angle plate fir added rigidity and to stop some vibration. That piece of angle will "ring" (resonate) at a particular cutting edge frequency (revs per second x number of cutting edges) and produce horrible chatter.

That's definitely part of my plan.

It is likely to distort a little form welding. I would put the finished angle plate in a fire until its evenly red/orange and then let the fire go out (unless you have access to an annealing/normalising furnace). After that, you may want to machine, grind, file or scrape it to as precisely a right angle on the faces as you can.

I do have access to a furnace so I will probably do that.

Cheers
Bob

I borrowed a 3/8" slot cutter from work so I could test it out on some steel and the first thing I made with it was a handle for the vice screw.
I also milled the flats on the handle locking collar.
I like it when a jig or tool contributes to its own making.




I also tightened up everything on the vice and compound rest which has really reduced the vibe to the point where light cuts can be taken with a bit of confidence. I will stiffen up the angle bracket and see how that changes things.

I am definitely learning a lot from this exercise.

You have done a great job there Bob and there is no better way to learn.

Phil

Good on you Bob. Well done.

When I first tried it out about ten years ago, it opened up another world of machining. I could contemplate things that no longer had to be round. And having power feed, just fantastic.

BT

Cheers guys. I've been using it some more and while it's a looooong way from using the well maintained Bridgeport at work, for small tasks it's still a very useful gizmo to have in my home shop.

Eventually I will try to get a small mill. I'm looking to retire in less than 12 months so I will then have time to look around and see what I can find.

I used a compound drill vice like this https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/V120 mounted vertically on a piece of 6 inch X 5/8 inch angle 8 inches long similar to this setup. The angle was not square so I bought an angle plate, from you know who and used it to mount the angle on my lathe face plate with some counter balance weights and a spacer to even out the out of square of the angle to maintain maximum thickness and strength. About faced 1mm off both outer faces.

The milling attachment works very well and gives me vertical and horizontal movement over and above the cross slide. I am planning a plate / table to clamp stuff down flat instead of in the vice.

I have also just seen the price of 3MT / 4MT taper collet holders and sets from CTC. This will enable better milling cutter holding although my lathe spindle is 5MT. I have a 5MT to 3MT adaptor and the tailstock is 3MT but I am wondering about holding the collet holder in the spindle with these adaptors.

Dean

Originally Posted by Oldneweng

I used a compound drill vice like this https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/V120 mounted vertically on a piece of 6 inch X 5/8 inch angle 8 inches long similar to this setup. The angle was not square so I bought an angle plate, from you know who and used it to mount the angle on my lathe face plate with some counter balance weights and a spacer to even out the out of square of the angle to maintain maximum thickness and strength. About faced 1mm off both outer faces.

Thanks for the lead on this interesting solution

I bought one of those vices for my DP 6 years ago and based on my experience with it on the DP, I didn't think it would be rigid enough for the lathe so this is why I decided to make my own. Maybe it was the particular vice I bought but I found the cross feeds are just not positive enough for milling.

The other advantage I'm finding of using a lathe compound rest is that it can be rotated around the lathe work axis which means I can orient the work reasonably accurately parallel to the front back axis of the lathe

I found a couple of photos of a convoluted set up I used when I made a vice a fair while ago for my Hercus vertical milling attachment. I had to groove the underside of the vice body to accommodate the sliding jaw retaining plate. I had machined most of the body using my shaper, I can't remember what lead to my decision to use the lathe for this particular operation.

I replaced the standard cross slide with a boring table and fixed to it the extended cross slide from my ARL by means of an angle plate. The vice body then sat on a length of ground rod which basically determined the position of the groove. The groove had to be milled in two stages because it was longer than the extent of the cross feed.

A bit Heathish but it did the job. A job I have to deal with is remachining the vee ways on my tool and cutter grinder. A challenge because the ways are more than twice the length of my mill's table travel.

As Bob has illustrated, improvisation has no bounds.

BT

...

BobL.

Now I know where those fancy handles came fron for your bandsaw. I don't have a knurling tool yet.

I also wish to make a vertical table arrangement but am unsure how to mount it. It would have to locate on the ways of the vice. Maybe some way to clamp a block against the ways then tighten up the vive to hold it. Would be interesting to see how accurate this could be milled. I tend to face on the lathe face plate if I can. My main issue is how repeatable the mounting position would be.

Dean