Does the Vertical Mill Column for the Sherline Lathe actually work

Model-99

Model-99

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It's hard to find information about anyone using the Sherline 3050 Vertical Mill Column to convert the Sherline 4000 lathe to a mill let alone a review. I could see replacing the lathe crosslide with the 13" one for milling but is the lathe bed big enough for milling? TIA
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Does it work? Yes. Is it as rigid as their dedicated mill? From what all their information online says, as well as directly from the late CEO's book, no. If you have the 8 inch lathe, your Y-travel/throat will be similar to the 10" mill I believe?

I have personal experience with the vertical milling slide. I got it because I didn't want to disturb the alignment of my lathe's headstock. While I don't have personal experience with the milling column, I would recommend it over the slide. The slide just lacks so much rigidity, anything would be better. But also, even the full Sherline mills will require much more conservative depths of cut than their lathes. You can take 0.050 cuts in 12L14 on their lathe with the right cutting tool, but won't get close to half of that with the mill, much less the milling column, from everything I've read.
 
The milling column is the same part as on the Model 5000 milling machine. Sherline even sells the milling machine base without the column, so that people who bought the milling column can later upgrade it to a stand alone mill.

Used on the lathe it will not be as good as one of the Sherline mills, but it is a better milling set up than a lot of the combo mills, or milling accessories, size and mass aside (better design than something like a Smithy but a Smithy is a lot bigger which does give it an advantage).

If you are familiar with the Unimat lathe / mills, the milling column basically turns the Sherline into a similar little combo machine.

I Have a Sherline 4400 lathe and a 5400 mill, but I bought the mill when I found I had a use, I skipped over the milling column. I am happy with the mill, but at $180 vs $1000 I totally get why the milling column is an option.

That said I wouldn't spend much money on upgrading a converted lathe / mill, as that quickly gets to a point where you may as well get one of the mills. I thought that they used to offer the mills without a headstock the way the do the lathes, but not seeing that option on their website.

Edit, figured it out, you can buy the column and the base to give you a mill without the headstock, that gets the price of a mill down to around $500, but you have to swap the head between the lathe and mill.
 
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I'm using one with the 8" lathe, works fine for my small-scale modeling projects. It helps to have the base extender to get a little more reach. It takes me about 30-45 seconds to switch between lathe and mill.

I got it for two reasons: 1) cost, and 2) I don't have room for two machines in my small shop.
 
Aaron_W said:
Edit, figured it out, you can buy the column and the base to give you a mill without the headstock, that gets the price of a mill down to around $500, but you have to swap the head between the lathe and mill.
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Yes, I discovered that's how to configure an ER mill or lathe which is also something I was considering, A 12" mill base with 15" column is #5420 for $833 and an ER16 Headstock and motor/controller is #3308 for $598 so ,,,, about $1,431 just for the basics.
 
Model-99 said:
Thanks. About how much space does the combo need? Also, for your modeling work, do you prefer to stand or sit?
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I store it on a short bookcase, takes about 30". To use it I move it to my workbench, about 2' away. Here's a pic:

DSZ_9109.jpg

Store lathe/mill under the window, workspace where I use it is under the green tray. I keep the lathe/mill assembled as such, saves storage space.

I've done all my machining to date sitting in the blue chair.
 
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