Horizontal milling on the lathe

[strantor]

I had an idea, and for once I can't find any example of it being done before, so I'm assuming it's probably a dumb idea. But I thought I'd run it by you all anyway. I need to mill a long groove, and I thought it was probably a good job for a horizontal mill, but I don't have one. Then I thought, a bar between centers on the lathe (live center in the tailstock), with an arbor cutter mounted on it, basically is the same concept as a horizontal mill. Lock the carriage, take the toolpost off, mount the workpiece to the compound, and feed in with the y-axis; sound feasible?

 

[David S]

Sure. Don't know what size lathe you have. Depending on the dimensions of the groove, you may also be able to put a slitting saw blade/with arbor in the headstock and do the same. With my Atlas I remove the compound and replace it with a milling vice, which gives Z axis as well.

 

[Syaminab]

I had an idea, and for once I can't find any example of it being done before, so I'm assuming it's probably a dumb idea. But I thought I'd run it by you all anyway. I need to mill a long groove, and I thought it was probably a good job for a horizontal mill, but I don't have one. Then I thought, a bar between centers on the lathe (live center in the tailstock), with an arbor cutter mounted on it, basically is the same concept as a horizontal mill. Lock the carriage, take the toolpost off, mount the workpiece to the compound, and feed in with the y-axis; sound feasible?

Could you please post a pic?, also conventional lathes have Z and X axes. Y axe would be adjustable height on toolpost.
Sounds interesting, try and if it works then is a good idea.

 

[SE18]

I think David's idea is better, to put slitting saw in HS. If you are running between centers that puts a lot of force there, although I've seen a pipe mounted between centers with a threading bit mounted in the pipe to cut half threads (sort of like a fly cutter)