When / why would you swing the head on a mill?

[Aaron_W]

On a milling machine where the head can tilt and swing when would you want / need to swing the head?

I can imagine a few situations where tilting the head could be preferable to using a tilt table, and I can see why you might move the head in or out in the Y axis to gain additional Y travel which seems to be the most restrictive on most machines. I'm not really seeing any reason to swing the head side to side.

It doesn't seem like that gains much vs table travel or re-positioning a long part in excess of the X travel, both of which seem easier to do since swinging the head will move it through an arc, not a straight line.

Ok, the last part I could see being potentially useful, but swinging it through an arc wouldn't be very precision, unless indicated throughout and that seems fairly inefficient. Certainly there are better ways to do that?

 

[mmcmdl]

When mounting a long part on the back side of the table . Do it all the time as it's easier then running a 90 degree head . You also swing it when you have a long part that possibly has a long length of holes and your machine travel is not enough . Swing the head , pick up your last hole and move on . Another great reason is if you have more than just your vice mounted on the table . I used to keep an indexer and small rotary table on either side of my vise .

 

[Tinkertoy1941]

Great Answer!!

 

[Waterlooboy2hp]

On a milling machine where the head can tilt and swing when would you want / need to swing the head?
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Also, on a Bridgeport mill, You can attach the broaching head to the rear of the ram. Then swing the head 180 degrees to position the Broach over the table. ----- John

 

[Karl_T]

+1 on swing. I do long parts off the back of the table fairly often.

Think twice before ever tilting the head. Reason, its dang near impossible to get it back perfect to make a fly cutter skin cut a surface. I do this often.

 

[Flyinfool]

When mounting a long part on the back side of the table . Do it all the time as it's easier then running a 90 degree head . You also swing it when you have a long part that possibly has a long length of holes and your machine travel is not enough . Swing the head , pick up your last hole and move on . Another great reason is if you have more than just your vice mounted on the table . I used to keep an indexer and small rotary table on either side of my vise .

+1 on swing. I do long parts off the back of the table fairly often.

Think twice before ever tilting the head. Reason, its dang near impossible to get it back perfect to make a fly cutter skin cut a surface. I do this often.

These are both very good reasons that I also use. I do have one part that I occasionally make that requires me to tilt the head. Yes it is very much a PITA to get it trammed in straight again. Especially since the head on my mill has a gear tooth broken off right at center where I am trying to make those tiny adjustments.

 

[Tinkertoy1941]

To get around a broken tooth just change the position of the broken tooth to the other side

 

[Aaron_W]

When mounting a long part on the back side of the table . Do it all the time as it's easier then running a 90 degree head . You also swing it when you have a long part that possibly has a long length of holes and your machine travel is not enough . Swing the head , pick up your last hole and move on . Another great reason is if you have more than just your vice mounted on the table . I used to keep an indexer and small rotary table on either side of my vise .

I think, I'm thinking small.

I was thinking it would be easier to just re-position the part in the vice or on the table, but I'm picturing something maybe a foot longer than the travel.

So I guess if the material is stiff enough you could actually do a part 2-3x the length of travel centered on the table by starting the head swung one way, run out the table, reset the head to the middle, run out the table, then swing in the other direct reset and keep going? Moving the part might make things unstable with so much overhang all on one end.

I may also by overestimating the difficulty of moving the head and re-aligning everything. I expect as with everything, practice makes things easier.

 

[Dabbler]

On my first mill, I had to run a cutter in the table slots (they were .005-.007 undersized for the hold down kit I wanted to use.) By swinging the head to 45 degrees, I could mill out the slots right to the end, swivel the other way and finish the cuts. Without the swivel, I could only reach about 80% of the table surface.

Also I have had a need to drill/tap into the end of a 10" X 18" X 2" steel plate. I mounted it on the SIDE of the table, and swung the head around and did the operations. Far better than putting it on the table and cranking it all the way down, and trying to support it with angle blocks.

It is a feature that you don't need but once or twice, and when you need it, nothing else will do!

 

[Aaron_W]

On my first mill, I had to run a cutter in the table slots (they were .005-.007 undersized for the hold dow kit I wanted to use.) By swinging the head to 45 degrees, I could mill out the slots right to the end, swivel the other way and finish the cuts. Without the swivel, I could only reach about 80% of the table surface.

Also I have had a need to drill/tap into the end of a 10" X 18" X 2" steel plate. I mounted it on the SIDE of the table, and swung the head around and did the operations. Far better than putting it on the table and cranking it all the way down, and trying to support it with angle blocks.

It is a feature that you don't need but once or twice, and when you need it, nothing else will do!

That makes sense, I didn't even consider that the ends of the table do not line up with the spindle when the head is centered.

I was thinking small, thank you.