# Mystery Milling Attachment



## Olddaddy (May 21, 2017)

My Craftsman lathe, 101.07403 came with a ton of stuff, cutters, following rest, drills, chucks etc.....and a milling attachment.  I pulled it out today to set it up and realized it may not be for this lathe.  It does not have a swivel base and although it fits the bevel on the carriage it sits 90 degrees off from the face of the chuck.  It's too large for the bevel on the cross-feed also.   Not likely to work very well.  Any ideas on how to adapt it to my carriage?  Any idea what machine it's for or how I could trade/sell it for the one I need?


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## kd4gij (May 21, 2017)

looks home made for a special  purpose.


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## JimDawson (May 21, 2017)

kd4gij said:


> looks home made for a special  purpose.



And a nice job too!


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## wa5cab (May 22, 2017)

My guess would be that it was used for horizontal boring, turned as shown in your third photo.  There appears to be a clamping bolt for clamping the attachment to the carriage dovetail.  I would agree that except for the vise, it is shop made.


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## whitmore (May 22, 2017)

Looks like the intent is to remove the compound and cross slide, position the jig so that a cutter held  in
the spindle engages the work held in the vise.   Then, the vise can be translated up/down
to make a groove, or the work can be fed into the spindle using the carriage.

What kind of calibration does the vertical translation have?   If there's none, look for provisions
for a dial indicator, or think about adding a digital readout.

It is a tad odd that the cross slide is removed (that'd be a useful motion to have available).
Also odd that the vise presents sideways to the spindle.

It'd find lots of uses; the vise is only one way that a workpiece might be secured.  
Milling a tee nut would be an easy job; the vise can hold something that small.


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## Olddaddy (May 22, 2017)

I was thinking of modifying the bottom to fit the cross slide which would make it a useful milling tool.  I could fill in the "dovetail" slot and cut a new smaller one that fits the cross slide so it would face the chuck straight on.


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## wa5cab (May 23, 2017)

I would leave it as is and start looking for a standard Atlas milling attachment.


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