Setting up the Mill on smithy 1220

[mac1911]

Any tips on this,
How do you get the mill head aligned correctly when you swing it over the bed?

What if any tools gauges could speed up alignment especially after you swing the head out of the way.

 

[Dataporter]

During your initial set up, the height of the head is the most important decision IMO. If you want the maximum distance from the mill spindle from the lathe spindle you would want the head of the mill parallel to the ways of the lathe.

Now if you want to repeat the alignment of the mill head relative to the rest of the machine here is what you can do:

First make sure your machine is level, which you always want anyway.

Securely attach a laser pointer, even a cheap one, to the mill head and point the beam of the laser horizontally at the wall across your shop. The further from the machine the better.

On the wall where the dot of the laser hits draw a vertical line on the wall.

With this method you can the return the mill head to the same position, even after moving the head up or down.

If you do this carefully, it is pretty darn accurate. You can do this with any round column mill or drill press.

I hope I have made myself clear! Dave

 

[markba633csi]

You might find a cylinder square to be helpful. A cylinder square can be as simple as a short piece of round stock about 1.5" diameter and maybe 2" long, faced on both ends. You stand that on your mill table and mount a piece of drill rod in the mill spindle. Then you move the table till they touch side by side, and look for light coming thru between them in both x and y directions.
No light means the mill spindle is perpendicular to the table

 

[Dataporter]

You are unable to tilt or nod the head on this particular machine.

Another idea is to put a center point in the tail stock and a point in the mill spindle. Or you could put a dial indicator in the tail stock and something in the spindle.

 

[markba633csi]

Kinda have to specify the definition of alignment here- x,y or z (or all)