"a small bench miller"

[pacman101]

not sure if this is the right place
has anyone ever built "the small bench miller" from the mach 1921 issue of popular mechanics?

Popular Mechanics

Popular Mechanics inspires, instructs and influences readers to help them master the modern world. Whether it’s practical DIY home-improvement tips, gadgets and digital technology, information on the newest cars or the latest breakthroughs in science -- PM is the ultimate guide to our high-tech...

books.google.com

how well does it work, if at all?

 

[matthewsx]

I'm sure someone has, maybe not on this forum though.

Are you wanting a machine to do work on, or a project?

Welcome to the forum

John

 

[pacman101]

maybe a project, I'm not sure what I'd do with a horizontal mill, but a 14 inch bed isn't to bad for a bunch of scrap

 

[darkzero]

I didn't know mills were ever called a miller. When I saw the thread title I was expecting to see a mini compact size blue welder.

Would be a fun project. As far as practically I'm not sure unless you mainly work on tiny stuff.

 

[NortonDommi]

I have fond memories of Popular Mechanics I think it went downhill around the mid 1970's.
You can download Popular Mechanics Shop Notes,(basically a year book),from the Internet Archive for years 1905 through to 1961. Some very interesting reading and really makes you appreciate what we hobbyists have easy access to today.
Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

 

[Choiliefan]

Recently someone posted pics of a lathe or mill he was making using poured concrete for the main casting.
It can be done.

 

[matthewsx]

maybe a project, I'm not sure what I'd do with a horizontal mill, but a 14 inch bed isn't to bad for a bunch of scrap

Recently someone posted pics of a lathe or mill he was making using poured concrete for the main casting.
It can be done.

It would be interesting to try but IMHO, something like this would be a bad first project. If you already had a shop and several working machine tools and just wanted to give it a go then why not? But, there are plenty of small horizontal mills out there that can be had fairly cheap and would still be a significant project with much greater chances of ending up with a serviceable machine tool. Starting from scratch to build an unconventional tool without a really solid plan (there is much left un-specified in the Popular Mechanics text) is very likely to end with an unfinished project that never makes chips.

I'm four months into my Vertical CNC Mill Drill project, basically assembling existing bits and fabricating whatever pieces I need. I have a working lathe, drill press, grinders, sanders, welders, and various measurement tools along with a lifetimes worth of hand tools and I still have to farm out some of the work to our local machine shop. I have it working now but am currently rebuilding the Y axis and incorporating improvements on the rest of the machine. If I didn't have plenty of time and prior experience I would find it extremely frustrating and probably would have given up by now.

Post up a picture of your current shop and some of the projects you've done as well as thoughts on what you would like to do next if you want. If you don't have any machine tools now I would honestly suggest starting with a lathe like you said in your other post since they are the basis of pretty much all machining operations. Good used ones are available pretty cheap and even if you want to try and build the Popular Mechanics Horizontal Miller you probably need to start with getting some lathe skills before you dive into it.

Let us know what machine you're saving for since it's possible to buy something that really won't do much as another new forum member recently found out. I bought my Seneca Falls 9x5 for $300 and it does pretty well now that I've put some effort and $$ into it. You've found the right place to ask questions and get advice which is a great start

Cheers,

John

 

[pacman101]

I have fond memories of Popular Mechanics I think it went downhill around the mid 1970's.
You can download Popular Mechanics Shop Notes,(basically a year book),from the Internet Archive for years 1905 through to 1961. Some very interesting reading and really makes you appreciate what we hobbyists have easy access to today.
Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

the entire backlog from 1902 to 2005 was released for free back in 2009, on google books and of course the Internet archive has many of those issues as well