Doing Lathe Operations On A Mill

I've turned OD with a boring bar in the mill. It works great and I didn't have to make any special tooling grinds. I am really confused by the discussion about the rotary table use when holding work in spindle of mill. Can't see why you would rotate cutter in relation to work turning in spindle. Is my imagination lacking? I've used my lathe as a mill, and used a horizontal mill as a lathe. Never thought of using my verticle as a lathe. Interesting concept.
 
timvercoe said:
I've turned OD with a boring bar in the mill. It works great and I didn't have to make any special tooling grinds. I am really confused by the discussion about the rotary table use when holding work in spindle of mill. Can't see why you would rotate cutter in relation to work turning in spindle. Is my imagination lacking? I've used my lathe as a mill, and used a horizontal mill as a lathe. Never thought of using my verticle as a lathe. Interesting concept.
Click to expand...
I got off on a tangent. I see now that spindle mounting the boring head is the way to go. But just for the mental exercise: :) suppose I have a rotary table already mounted horizontally on the milling table of a vertical mill. Suppose the rotary table has a MT3 center hole. Now suppose I have a boring head with MT3 shank. I don't see why I couldn't mount the boring head vertically in the centering hole and mount the workpiece in the mill spindle. So, (locked down)rotary table becomes lathe tailstock and mill spindle becomes lathe head stock . I suspect the problem is there is no easy way to remove the boring head from the rotary table. Would have to unbolt the rotary table, turn it to vertical position and knock out the boring head from the small end of the center hole taper. Still, a pretty secure way to hold the boring head - in a situation where it is easier to hold workpiece in the spindle than on the mill table. Has anybody run across such a situation? Just curious.
 
I'm confused why do to need a boring head at all unless you are mounting it in the spindle.
 
barnstormer said:
I got off on a tangent. I see now that spindle mounting the boring head is the way to go. But just for the mental exercise: :) suppose I have a rotary table already mounted horizontally on the milling table of a vertical mill. Suppose the rotary table has a MT3 center hole. Now suppose I have a boring head with MT3 shank. I don't see why I couldn't mount the boring head vertically in the centering hole and mount the workpiece in the mill spindle. So, (locked down)rotary table becomes lathe tailstock and mill spindle becomes lathe head stock . I suspect the problem is there is no easy way to remove the boring head from the rotary table. Would have to unbolt the rotary table, turn it to vertical position and knock out the boring head from the small end of the center hole taper. Still, a pretty secure way to hold the boring head - in a situation where it is easier to hold workpiece in the spindle than on the mill table. Has anybody run across such a situation? Just curious.
Click to expand...

Why in the world would you want to do that ? You're just creating a much more complex and flimsier way of holding a cutting tool rather than just clamping the cutter in the vise ! Machining, as in almost everything, works best when the K.I.S.S. rule is followed, no offense :)
 
yup - I'm rusty. forgot that the R8 uses both a key and drawbar to secure the tool in the spindle... much more secure than a knockout morse taper. thanks
 
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