Horizontal Mill question

[Earl]

I have acquired a very nice and complete Atlas MHC horizontal mill. While playing with it the other night, and cranking it up to 3200 rpm, it occurred to me that I could mount a grinding wheel in place of the milling cutter and use it as a surface grinder. Is this a bad idea? The one thing I would have to do is to fabricate a guard for the wheel. Those things scare me.

Earl

 

[dickr]

That might be a little hairy. 1st I'd also wear a plastic face guard and depends on how well you can adjust the down feed and the x and y feed. Naturally you gotta fasten it down securely. Then you need to pick the correct wheel. Any big reason why you would want that other than it's a fair question to ask and ponder. You're thinkin in the right direction.
dickr

PS You would also wanna fasten that machine down really well

 

[atwatterkent]

Do you really thing it's a good idea to put all that fine grit into the ways and bearings of your mill? You, also, have to move your table's x axis swiftly back and forth fast or the piece being ground will heat up, warp and burn. .0005 to .001 is the most you would want to take off at a time and I don't thing your Z axis is precise enough for that. I think it's a bad idea all the way around.
Just my humble opinion but I wouldn't sacrifice my horizontal mill this way.

 

[Earl]

OK I'm convinced. It is a bad idea. I'll go back to figuring out what I am going to do with this cute little horizontal mill.