Pratt & Whitney #3 benchtop miller

[Aaron David]

I kinda figured the two holes were for a plate of some kind, it shouldn't be too difficult to make a replacement. As far as collets go, I have a couple wooden boxes, for recipes I think, that are going to be repurposed for that as soon as I find time. And I was able to get the hole for the back plunger unplugged, and I noticed that the shive on there has cut outs for it. So I will need to make one up there. Right now I am trying to put together some sort of counter shaft that will allow me to change speeds easily while not looking to half-assed. A unit from an Atlas shaper is on its way, and I thing that is going to work pretty well.

 

[ballard26]

By the way the indexing attachment you got with the mill looks like the one that Hardinge sold for their bench-top millers http://www.lathes.co.uk/cataract miller/index.html

 

[Aaron David]

update:
For the last few weeks, I have been working on some sort of counter shaft system to power the mill, and after much trial and error (along with waiting for things to be delivered) I have what I think is the solution:

There will be some final tuning, and a thicker, nicer looking piece of wood, but this is the general idea. The counter shaft assembly is from an Atlas shaper that I found on eBay at a decent price, and the metal riser is from a Delta table saw/jointer combo I scrapped (also keeping the table that I use here). The motor will go back behind everything, and I will need to make some sort of safety shied for the front pulley. Also, an extra half inch of wood will give the belt more clearance, as it currently sits it is just missing the cast iron.


Another shot of the counter shaft assembly. I still haven't settled on the position of the drum switch, as I want to keep it away from the mills controls, but not have it somewhere it will get bumped.

While waiting, I have been going through the motor I intend to use, cleaning contacts and putting some extra length in the wires

Nothing fancy, just a 1/2hp cap start Dayton.

And, yes, my bench is a mess.