-
Welcome back Guest! Did you know you can mentor other members here at H-M? If not, please check out our Relaunch of Hobby Machinist Mentoring Program!
Lathe milling attachment or milling machine
- Thread starter DiscoDan
- Start date
I have a good sized SouthBend mill attachment (I believe it was the largest one that SB offered) that I set up on my 15" Enterprise lathe. Strictly speaking it is probably the solidest lathe milling set up a person it likely to find. Granted the 15" Enterprise is not a heavy pattern machine, but it is a respectable mid-sized lathe. Over all, with the mill attachment it is probably more robust and would have more capacity than what you would arrange for your 12" Craftsman. In conclusion, it was lengthly to set up and only practical for very limited milling set ups.
Yes, it is "possible" to perform limited milling operations with a lathe mill attachment. Do not confuse "possible" with it being a good plan. Nearly any small, old, worn out, off shore, junk mill will be more satisfactory than setting up your 12" Craftsman with a mill attachment. The Atlas MFC will be very limited compared to a modest knee mill - but a big step above the lathe mill attachment.
David
Yes, it is "possible" to perform limited milling operations with a lathe mill attachment. Do not confuse "possible" with it being a good plan. Nearly any small, old, worn out, off shore, junk mill will be more satisfactory than setting up your 12" Craftsman with a mill attachment. The Atlas MFC will be very limited compared to a modest knee mill - but a big step above the lathe mill attachment.
David
Well, you did ask ...... and will get any number of opinions, including mine. Opinions are like *******, everybody has one and they all smell bad. Though, sometimes you can pick out worthy details by reading everything.
I also have a Craftsman 12X36 (101.27440) and an Atlas MFC mill. In response to the query, I can only say that a milling attachment on the lathe, while worthwhile, is for (very) light work. It can get you by in a pinch, but too light for real milling. I do have a milling attachment for mine and use it occasionally. But the work I do is primarily model building in a small scale. It is a little easier to set up than the MFC, read faster. Not a Craftsman, it's all homebrew.
The MFC is a whole 'nuther ball of wax. The spindle is a Morse Taper #2, it will accept a drill chuck from a large drill press. But should have a drawbar arrangement to keep it from falling out. Same with rotary milling tools, I have a number of MT2 tool holders and rigged a reversing switch on the motor. It states somewhere in the documentation that it will not yeild good results for "climb" milling. I am assuming you get a mandrel and drive with the machine.
I do occasionally use mine for drilling, with a right angle block. It's a pain in the wazoo, I have several drill presses. But occasionally have a specialty drill / mill /drill some more where it pays off. The bottom line here is that for the price given, I think the MFC, while light, would be the better buy. Assuming you get the pieces to use the mill in horizontal.
You speak of the vertical head; A good addition, wish I could lay my hands on one. Just be aware it is not made by Atlas, it's an after-market device. I would assume it also is fitted with the MT-2 socket. It ain't a Bridgeport, but is small enough for a bench and uses much of the tooling from the lathe. All in all, my opinion, smelly as it is, is go for it. Worst case, you can sell it later and get most of your money back.
Afterthoughts:
Both the milling speed and the table feed are adjustable. Watch out for broken teeth on the zamak gears, but they are replacable. I would highly recommend rebuilding from the git-go. The back gearing supposedly requires a special "wrench". I sort of jerry rigged a way to enable / disable it. I don't need slow speed for tough metals, I need it to see what I'm doing.
The page [http://www.lathes.co.uk/atlasmiller/] has a good write-up on the Atlas miller. Several of the photos (colour) are of my machine as I was rebuilding it.
I also have a Craftsman 12X36 (101.27440) and an Atlas MFC mill. In response to the query, I can only say that a milling attachment on the lathe, while worthwhile, is for (very) light work. It can get you by in a pinch, but too light for real milling. I do have a milling attachment for mine and use it occasionally. But the work I do is primarily model building in a small scale. It is a little easier to set up than the MFC, read faster. Not a Craftsman, it's all homebrew.
The MFC is a whole 'nuther ball of wax. The spindle is a Morse Taper #2, it will accept a drill chuck from a large drill press. But should have a drawbar arrangement to keep it from falling out. Same with rotary milling tools, I have a number of MT2 tool holders and rigged a reversing switch on the motor. It states somewhere in the documentation that it will not yeild good results for "climb" milling. I am assuming you get a mandrel and drive with the machine.
I do occasionally use mine for drilling, with a right angle block. It's a pain in the wazoo, I have several drill presses. But occasionally have a specialty drill / mill /drill some more where it pays off. The bottom line here is that for the price given, I think the MFC, while light, would be the better buy. Assuming you get the pieces to use the mill in horizontal.
You speak of the vertical head; A good addition, wish I could lay my hands on one. Just be aware it is not made by Atlas, it's an after-market device. I would assume it also is fitted with the MT-2 socket. It ain't a Bridgeport, but is small enough for a bench and uses much of the tooling from the lathe. All in all, my opinion, smelly as it is, is go for it. Worst case, you can sell it later and get most of your money back.
Afterthoughts:
Both the milling speed and the table feed are adjustable. Watch out for broken teeth on the zamak gears, but they are replacable. I would highly recommend rebuilding from the git-go. The back gearing supposedly requires a special "wrench". I sort of jerry rigged a way to enable / disable it. I don't need slow speed for tough metals, I need it to see what I'm doing.
The page [http://www.lathes.co.uk/atlasmiller/] has a good write-up on the Atlas miller. Several of the photos (colour) are of my machine as I was rebuilding it.
Bill Hudson
Last edited:
Well, it looks like most everything has been covered. But, in my opinion milling attachments are no match for an actual mill. Even a small clean used mill would be my choice over any milling attachment. Especially considering that a quality milling attachment can be pretty pricey.
Coherent, you are correct, the Atlas/Craftsman milling setups for 10" and 12" lathes are $500. I did find one in California for $250 but I will probably just go the mill route and do it right. I'll probably end up with a small vertical but I tend to geek out over the older American iron.
I was sort of down your way last week. My daughter goes to ASU so I was in Tempe getting her ready to start classes this week. Damn if it wasn't 111 the first two days. I honestly don't know how people live in that heat. And don't give me that old line "But it's a dry heat"!
I was sort of down your way last week. My daughter goes to ASU so I was in Tempe getting her ready to start classes this week. Damn if it wasn't 111 the first two days. I honestly don't know how people live in that heat. And don't give me that old line "But it's a dry heat"!
If ya can't stand the heat, git outta da kitchen.
I live in the Phoenix area (moved from Oregon) and hear that silliness all the time. My reply: So's a convection oven!
... not to mention that, now that the Monsoon season has started, we do have some goodly humidity going on!
lol.. I live in the Sedona area about 100 miles north of Phoenix and work daily in Flagstaff, so a bit cooler up my way than Phoenix. I just bought a new bass boat a couple weeks ago and took it to a Phoenix area lake for it's maiden voyage and initial motor break in. ... by 10:30 am it was time to go home. I'm really looking forward to cooler weather!
I'm wondering about this too. I want to cut a flat on my toolpost and only have a lathe. How long would it take to chuck a simple flycutter in the 4 jaw and just buzz it off. Could it maintain a decent DOC? Or would it be faster to do with hacksaw and files? I once had a contest cutting 2" 4140 round. My opponent had a Milwaukee red chop saw. I had a Starrett hacksaw with high tension frame and a special order coarse blade. I beat him by a wide margin, almost a factor of two. He really took it personally, and he immediately bought a horizontal bandsaw. No way I can beat that. The problem is that he had the wrong blade. It was for cutting steel studs, and it glazed really badly.
I would think that if you can mount the toolpost well in your 4 jaw chuck or on a plate with the area you need to put the flat in "out" you should have no prob just using the lathe to cut the flat with a regular bit? The bandsaw would cut it faster but no where near as precise (if precision is needed). Maybe the bandsaw and clean it up on the lathe?