Atlas Lathe Milling Attachment Vs. Mini Mill

cdhknives

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Any of y'all use both? I have the Atlas milling attachment and find it difficult to use, hard enough that I was looking into a mini mill. No, I don't have room (or budget, or need realistically) for a full size mill, benchtop machines only in my shop.

Anyway, how much improvement in rigidity, squareness, and capacity should I realistically expect with a mini mill over the Atlas lathe milling attachment? Looking at these in particular:

http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_category.php?category=1387807683
 
Although I don't have an Atlas, my little G0602 which I got used, had a Palmgren milling attachment with it. I tried to use it but found it extremely limited for even small work.
I also have a G8689 mini mill that I got thrown in with the lathe (and tons of other stuff) I really didn't think at the time that I would even set the mini mill up, but after sitting on
a back table in my little home shop, I finally decided to try the little feller out. It's no Bridgeport (actually far from it), but I've found it to be a very useful tool that I often use it more
than my lathe. If I had my 'drothers I would like a bigger table with more travel, but the mini lathe is far and above the little milling device that came with the lathe. This isn't like a
lathe/mill that actually has a mini mill built on top of the lathe the Palmgren is basically a vise that can be moved vertically and when mounted on the cross slide of the lathe can be moved
from front to back and from right to left. x,y,z.

CHuck the grumpy old guy
 
A few added accessories and you can do a lot with your Atlas lathe. It depends on what you need to get done.
I used the Atlas milling attachment to cut a Woodruff slot on a 3/4" shaft, very successfully. I have also cut V-grooves in small brass and aluminum vise jaws with excellent results. Another project was indexing mounting holes in a round flange. Gearcutting is another possibi8lity but I have not attempted that yet.

Some other tasks required more elaborate attachments. The MLA A-11 is one. But that is available only as a raw iron casting and requires full machining. I did that with assistance from a friend who has a Bridgeport.

As I get more projects that require more milling than lathe work I find myself wanting a mill. Hence my recent acquisition of a grubby old Atlas MFC mill. This will be my spring-time resurrection project. So if you are challenged to use the Atlas Milling Attachment that stands tall on the compound then perhaps you will be looking for a small table-top mill.

Spiral_Chips
 
The main disadvantages of the milling attachment over a small mill are work holding (especially on large parts) and the fact that ever time that you remove the compound and mount the milling attachment you have to spend 20 minutes tramming it in in two dimensions (getting the throat of the vise perpendicular to the spindle axis and the holding end of the vise parallel to the ways). You can improve the work holding capability by acquiring one of the moderately scarce tables off of the Universal Compound Vise, and/or acquiring one of the rare work holding attachments with the T-slot.

On the other hand, the lathe with milling attachment has essentially unlimited headspace. If you had a 36" long bar that for some reason you needed to cut a slot across the end of, or drill off-center holes in, you would need to remove the tailstock but otherwise you could do it if you had to. You could also do it on a horizontal mill. But not on most vertical mills without a right-angle attachment.

Most home shop milling applications will be more conveniently done on a mill. So if you can afford and have the space for both, you are better off with both. But if you can only have one or the other, a lathe with milling attachment will do more than just a mill.
 
I have used my Atlas milling attachment to make a t-nut for my QCTP, and tried to use it for one other small project. I found it extremely frustrating to use, to get squared, and to keep from vibrating the shop apart when cutting. Granted I was using 2 flute mills, but the very light cuts I had to take probably exaggerated the chatter issue. I also had to plunge a carbide ball endmill through a hardened steel knife handle to enlarge a hole and chatter was so bad the mill edge chipped out repeatedly, all but destroying the endmill after that one use.

For general hobby use, like making folding knives and pistol gunsmithing, I just can't see the lathe attachment getting it done...but will a mini mill cover these tasks adequately? OR, do I need to wait and save up for a $1500+ benchtop mill. A full sized mill just isn't going to fit in my shop, so even used equipment is out of the question there.
 
Since I have both the milling attachment for my TH42 and a bench mill, I'd like to throw in my $0.02. The milling attachment is far better than nothing. You have to realize its limitations as to size and stiffness, but within those, it can be used for small work. I never had any trouble tramming mine, though. I just ran it into the chuck and tightened the locking screw and I had it perfectly square to the headstock. Then I placed a piece of flat stock on the bed and lowered the vice down with a small piece of flat stock in the jaws and that gave me perfect level with the bed. I actually found that it could make a smoother cut than my bench mill, but with all of the limitations of size. Once I got my bench mill set up, I've never used the lathe mill again. So, it is better than nothing, by far.
 
That's a couple of good ideas for tramming the milling attachment.
 
I've used a milling attachment on my atlas a few times before I got my benchtop mill. It was ok for smallish things and you had to really take your time, too much flexing. On my small (not mini) benchtop mill I can easily hold things much bigger than I would on the lathe and I could cut much faster. It's much simpler to do repeatable setups, angle setups, all sorts of things.
 
I am currently using my 6" Atlas milling attachment to make a new compound rest tool post slide (the cast iron one broke.) Trying to mill 1118 steel is a chore due to the lack of rigidity. I would much prefer to have a mini-mill.
 
I had a South Bend 9C that I used a Palmgren milling attachment on. I bought a spare cross slide on ebay and drilled and tapped holes in it to mount the milling attachment directly to it. I also mounted a large counter weight to the back of the attachment for added stability. I had to use shims to get the work parallel. It worked well enough that I could take cuts up to about 0.005".

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It worked well enough when I had no mill. But it was slow going. My space is also quite limited and I despaired of finding an old benchtop mill so I bought the Harbor Freight mill/drill #44991 and added the pulley drive from LMS. It's much easier to use and has greater tool capacity.

Then I lucked out and found an old Garvin horizontal mill. I still have the HF mill up and running as it takes up very little space.
 
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