# What is it? Milling Attachment?



## DaveInHouston (Jan 16, 2019)

Okay folks, I need your help. I was surfing EBay (very bad habit) looking at Milling Attachments and came across the attached. I don’t want to pay $300 for a genuine Atlas attachment and thought this might work. He was asking $100 for it, I offered $75 and he took it! He didn’t know what it was and his photos in no way accurately portrayed the size of it. It’s big and heavy. Easily 20-25 pounds, maybe more. It’s made different than other milling attachments I’ve seen in that it doesn’t have gibs to keep it aligned but has two machined shafts keeping it tight and aligned. It has NO slop in it. Very smooth and precise. It looks a bit like Heinrich vises I’ve seen but the only id on it is a cast “H”. Also don’t know what the little locking lever on the side is for. I’m going to make a vise and modify the base and make a milling attachment out of it but curious what it started life as.
Thanks, Dave


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## Cooter Brown (Jan 16, 2019)

That is a Bad Ass T-slot milling attachment for a lathe...


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## DaveInHouston (Jan 16, 2019)

Cooter,
I couldn’t believe how big it is versus how the photos looked. I’ve been surfing the web looking and apparently it’s a Huron, but that doesn’t mean anything to me. I’m going to make it work on my little lathe.
Thanks,
Dave


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## Diecutter (Jan 16, 2019)

Looks like you caught one hell of a wave when you were surfing.


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## DaveInHouston (Jan 16, 2019)

Diecutter said:


> Looks like you caught one hell of a wave when you were surfing.


Thanks, I hope so.


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## DaveInHouston (Jan 17, 2019)

I turned down the mounting plate today on my mystery milling attachment and mounted it on the lathe. It looks pretty good. I’m going to make a set of t-slot clamps this weekend, chuck up a milling bit in a collet and try it out. The little attachment has 5 inches of vertical travel. I think I need to slot the mounting bolt hole and move the attachment back closer to the compound.


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## Cooter Brown (Jan 17, 2019)

That is Awesome!!! Now you should look for a collet chuck for holding end mills... Like an ER32 or ER40... Now you can mill 80%ers with your lathe...


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## DaveInHouston (Jan 17, 2019)

I’ve got a drawbar and 3at collets that I got in the pile of stuff I got with the lathe. I’ll see if I can make them work this weekend. I’m pretty pleased with the way the attachment mounted.


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## Diecutter (Jan 18, 2019)

Keep in mind when you lengthen the mounting bolt slot that you need some clearance so the  attachment can be rotated for angle milling. Looks like a nice setup.


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## DaveInHouston (Jan 18, 2019)

Good point.


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## wa5cab (Jan 19, 2019)

It looks to me like it's two unrelated assemblies.  The milling attachment is one.  And I definitely would not attempt to use it without replacing that thick washer with a properly fitted T-nut.  If you do, you may break the T-slot out of the compound.

The other part looks like half of an X-Y table.


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## DaveInHouston (Jan 20, 2019)

Got the mystery milling attachment mounted. Made a new mounting plate and bolt to make it more solid. Turns out it is a Huron which was made in an “assemble it yourself” kit form specifically for the Atlas Craftsman. I mounted a little vise to it but I’m going to make a set of clamps out of 3/4” square stock and bolt them to the little t-slot table. Turns out the t-slots are non-standard 3/8” slots so I made a few t-slot nuts and bolts. It works fine within the limitations of the little lathe.


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## Latinrascalrg1 (Jan 20, 2019)

DaveInHouston said:


> I think I need to slot the mounting bolt hole and move the attachment back closer to the compound.



Maybe try filling the gap instead of slotting the mounting bolt hole! You will gain most of the stability you are after without permanently modifying the tooling.


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## wa5cab (Jan 21, 2019)

One thing that you need to do PDQ is to get a thread protector.  It will only take one incident to totally spoil your day.

The milling attachment looks like it will be quite usable.


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## DaveInHouston (Jan 21, 2019)

I agree completely. I ordered one yesterday. I wanted to make one but thought it might be more prudent to go ahead and order it. Thanks.


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## wa5cab (Jan 21, 2019)

Good move.


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## minsk (Jan 24, 2019)

wa5cab said:


> One thing that you need to do PDQ is to get a thread protector.  It will only take one incident to totally spoil your day.
> 
> The milling attachment looks like it will be quite usable.


i was just going to say that.


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## DaveInHouston (Jan 27, 2019)

I think I’ve done all I can do, with my limited skills, to improve my little “mystery milling attachment”. I didn’t like the little cheap drill press vise I was using (too much slop), so I fabricated a set of clamps to mount to the little t-slot table. I replaced the coarse thread mounting bolt with a fine thread grade 8. I made a couple of alignment spacers to fit the compound slot to minimize lateral movement. All in all it works okay but I think the original Atlas milling attachment that replaces the compound is a much better, more rigid design. But I’ve had fun with this one.


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