Thoughts and ideas welcome for Home made stand alone table top vertical mill base.

Stan the Man

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Hello to all:
I have a first generation Smithy CB-1239 XL 3 in 1 which I plan to pull the milling head off of and turn into a stand alone milling machine. One idea is to place the lathe portion on a new flat work bench and mount the mill behind and centered to the ways of the lathe so that I can use the lathe and the saddle as my x-y axes and to mount my milling vice, rather then buy an after market x-y cross feed table

I am looking for ideas, thoughts, cautions,warnings anything to assist this build. Or if you ever thought If I had only known this or thought of that when I was building my Mill, I would have done (fill in the blank) as to the best way to go about mounting the column of the mill to the table top.

All I have at the moment is the milling head and motor and column app 3" dia plus the 6" x 8" x 1/2" plate used to mount the column to the top of the lathe gear box.
I am thinking of some kind of metal plate with a corrosponding hole for the column to sit in with a pinch arrangement to hold the column and then a 3-4 inch coller in hight with 4 circumference holes around the hole for the column to bolt it to the base/table plate.
If any one would care to comment or provide other ideas and or pictures I would apprechiate it very much.
Thanks in advance.
Stantheman55
 
I have built a base for milling here:


I can tell you two things:

One, building your own X-Y table is possible but not easy.
Two, the ones you can get from China are not very good.

Here's something for you though....


Yes, on the wrong side of the country for you but probably just what you need.

John
 
Did you buy the one from Craigslist, I noticed it's gone.

John
 
Stan, can you post some pics of what you have? That would help us to help you.
Hi mike
I will post some pics as soon as I can, at the moment I have stuff piled up floor to ceiling infront of the lathe due to my current project of insulating and finishing the walls of the new shop. But as soon as I can I will, thanks for your reply.
Stan.
 
I have built a base for milling here:


I can tell you two things:

One, building your own X-Y table is possible but not easy.
Two, the ones you can get from China are not very good.

Here's something for you though....
seariously

Yes, on the wrong side of the country for you but probably just what you need.

John
Hi John,
Thank you for the link to your pictures that’s one Seriously robust base. I could see that under the steel plate idea I originally was thinking about. It looks to be the correct size for what I am looking to place above it. as soon as I can get some pictures ill post them so this discussion can continue, thank you again.

Stan.
 
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