Why a horizontal mill?

RandyWilson

RandyWilson

H-M Supporter - Gold Member
H-M Supporter Gold Member
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Aug 29, 2016
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This is kind of a "talk me in/out of it" post. I have heard rumors of a table-top horizontal mill available locally. Brand/model unknown at this point; the rumor-spreader guessed the table size at 5x15", so it's small. I keep waffling on whether I'm going to go see it or not. I already have a Cincinnati 1B vertical mill. What must have operation can a horizontal do that my vertical can not? I can see optimizing the machine for the job in a production environment. But what about general dedicated tinkering? Why should I look at this?

Thanks!
 
I'm seeing the horizontal as being easier to setup in applications like gear cutting, stuff like that where you do machining to a piece held between centers. Also, work done to the ends of long shafts.
 
I would say get it if it has a cool factor . Ie : like a atlas MFC . I would not buy if it is something like a Barker , which is a production machine and was made for industry and is IMO not very good to look at . As far as what you can do with a horizontal , as opposed to a vertical . A few things come to mind , but with enough tooling a vertical will do probably 90% of the jobs you need . Really your last part of your post nailed it I think , do you need it for dedicated production ? I kind of don't think so . However if it were me (a hobby machinist) and I had the room/money and the machine has 3 axis , and is way cool to look at I would not hesitate .
 
There's always a second operation on small runs of work for a mill, a small horizontal would save tear-down and set-up times in that (second) case. I'd have on one on hand should it present itself (and I could find counter space for it.!)
 
Okay, okay. I'll go look at it. I pulled up some pictures of Atlas mills. The rumor-spreader pointed to the one with the offset/angled Z-axis handwheel and said it was just like that.

I've been building up this workshop. It was originally meant to hold two cars being worked on, and storage for a third against the wall. I'm already down to one car and storage for a bicycle. I really am running out of space. And I still haven't had the first car inside. Sigh.
 
For some of the same reasons that modern horizontal mills are popular in production environments.
Chip control.
Ease of part or fixture handling,
Coolant control.
 
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