How Does a Lathe Milling Attachment Work?

[ChazzC]

Yep, as people have said, there has been a lot of very, very fine work done on a lathe using vertical slide attachments (AKA milling attachment).

Certainly over here in the UK in the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's, the Myford vertical slide attachment would have been considered part of a reasonably well equipped workshop that had a Myford ML7 or Super 7 in it. Same would probably have been true for the Boxford milling attachment in a Boxford lathe equipped workshop.

That said, even with those lathes (which are considerably more rigid than say, a Chinese mini lathe), the moment a model engineer could get their hands on a dedicated mill (the Dore-Westbury was one of the first small benchtop mills available in the UK) or at least a milling head (the Amolco milling head was popular), they'd jump at the chance.

There are things one can do to improve the rigidity of the Chinese mini lathes, which will make a vertical slide attachment more useful, but there limits to the improvements you can make.

Generally speaking, if you can fit a milling machine (even a small Chinese benchtop one) into your shop, and can afford the purchase, your milling capabilities will be orders of magnitude greater, than with a vertical slide attachment for your lathe.

I have to agree with everything you say, and yet I bought one of these when a similar version was pointed out on one of the forums and thought it could come in handy one day, even though I have a Mini-Mill:

https://a.co/d/8gxu6Na

I chose this one because it was designed (is that a reasonable term when discussing 7x lathe attachments?) to fit in place of the compound (top slide to you), reducing a source of lack of rigidity.

Reading your post got me thinking: this thing has 3 (maybe 4) axes of rotation - why not clamp it in my milling vise and use it st an ultra adjustable fixture block-ish? Another item added to the “After Shoulder” list.


Thanks, Steve!!

 

[SouthernChap]

I have to agree with everything you say, and yet I bought one of these when a similar version was pointed out on one of the forums and thought it could come in handy one day, even though I have a Mini-Mill:

View attachment 513613

https://a.co/d/8gxu6Na

I chose this one because it was designed (is that a reasonable term when discussing 7x lathe attachments?) to fit in place of the compound (top slide to you), reducing a source of lack of rigidity.

Reading your post got me thinking: this thing has 3 (maybe 4) axes of rotation - why not clamp it in my milling vise and use it st an ultra adjustable fixture block-ish? Another item added to the “After Shoulder” list.


Thanks, Steve!!

I expect there will be times when you have a setup in the mill but you need to do some light milling on something else.

You're equipped for that occurrence with that vertical slide.

I like the idea of the vertical slide as a flexible fixturing solution on the mill. Obviously, you'd be adding further points of 'unrigidity' to the system but for light work it may enable some operations that otherwise might be hard to set up.

 

[ChazzC]

I expect there will be times when you have a setup in the mill but you need to do some light milling on something else.

You're equipped for that occurrence with that vertical slide.

I like the idea of the vertical slide as a flexible fixturing solution on the mill. Obviously, you'd be adding further points of 'unrigidity' to the system but for light work it may enable some operations that otherwise might be hard to set up.

For mounting in the milling vise (maximum degrees of freedom) definitely light cuts. However, the mounting holes in the base will allow it to clamp directly to the table using the T-Slots (just need to make M6 T-Slot Nuts (also on the list), and still light cuts

 

[stupoty]

A milling attachment will get the job done, but is a poor sustitute for a real mill.

I was very surprised how good milling with my lathe was when I needed to do the odd slot in something when my rf25 was broken before my rf30.

But as an alternative to a mill , it would get very dull very quickly.

Stu

 

[savarin]

I built this for my lathe, it doesnt take the place of a dedicated mill but it sure is handy within its limitations.

Thread 'A Vertical Slide For A 9x20 Lathe'

Aug 20, 2016

My first vertical slide was a bit small in what it could hold so I have decided to build a larger one.
It should look something like this (but not in these colours)

I faced and edged a chunk of hot rolled scrap for the front plate.
I will drill and thread a matrix of holes in this for a variety of mountings.

All four edges were also faced off in a similar manner and ended up within 0.001" of square on all sides and faces. It took a couple of attempts to get it this good.

the next job was to soak the 12mm plates for the angle and swivel...

• savarin
• Replies: 59
• Forum: SHOP-MADE TOOLING

• 

Its not as rigid as a real mill and as long as you can recognise this and take light cuts it works very well.

 

[Aaron_W]

I was very surprised how good milling with my lathe was when I needed to do the odd slot in something when my rf25 was broken before my rf30.

But as an alternative to a mill , it would get very dull very quickly.

Stu

Yeah, I did some milling with my lathe when I didn't have a mill. It worked, but also went a long way towards convincing me that I did in fact need to get a mill.

 

[Nctox]

Yeah, I did some milling with my lathe when I didn't have a mill. It worked, but also went a long way towards convincing me that I did in fact need to get a mill.

Me too, exactly. I tinkered with angle blocks, square blocks and a few other items, no pics now, but the use of the milling attachment sold me on the "want" for a mill of some sort.

 

[woodchucker]

Hello folks,

I fear the answer to the this question will make me slap my head, but here goes...

In my quest for a starter lathe, I've seen many ads for 'milling attachments' for use with a lathe. I can't seem to wrap my head around how something like this would work. Is it an x-y table that attaches to the bed way, to be used in conjunction with a cutting bit somehow attached to the lathe spindle? That's the only scenario I can conjure up.

Thanks in advance!

so I hope we are talking a MILLING ATTACHMENT and not A COMBO MILL / LATHE.
They are two different things.
I still have my milling attachment for my SB9 lathe. I used it a bit, but honestly it was not very good. There's not enough rigidity on my old lathe.
There were a lot of the end mill walking out, because of too big a cut, or too little rigidity. So I scrapped a lot of parts.
These days I might do better as I learned a lot with my mill.
Here's my milling attachment

 

[SouthernChap]

a lot of the end mill walking out, because of too big a cut, or too little rigidity.

How were you holding the endmill?

 

[woodchucker]

How were you holding the endmill?

when I say walking out, I mean up and down .. not out of the holder.
I was using tool holders. so if I were putting a slot down the length of a shaft it would jump up and ... well you know, you destroy the part, break the cutter, and the utter disgust. My tool holder were 3mt with a 3/8 end mill holder and a drawbar. Not pulling out