VEVOR 7X14 Lathe converted to a dedicated horizontal mill.

[D.sebens]

This angle would not been adjustable. It would be the angle of the block that the milling attachment is bolted to. Hard to explain but if it was not 90* in rotation when bolted down your result would be the opposite of what you have

 

[steelcat]

This angle would not been adjustable. It would be the angle of the block that the milling attachment is bolted to. Hard to explain but if it was not 90* in rotation when bolted down your result would be the opposite of what you have

Now may head hurts!
The milling attachment is bolted to a flat ground plate that uses the compound attachments points. There is one hole for the stud and two bolt holes. I added a third bolt because I was concerned about it spinning.
I will post pictures tomorrow. I am not sure we are on the same page.

 

[D.sebens]

This angle is what I’m talking about. Hopefully that makes sense. Should be able to tell though. Do a full set of passes moving the table vertical and measure your material.

 

[steelcat]

Ok I see now.
That pic is the old attachment but I see now.
I will check it out. Thanks

 

[homebrewed]

Ridges when milling horizontal would suggest that your milling Vice is leaning one way or the other causing the cutter to cut one side deeper than the other. When going up and down you wouldn’t see the ridges but I would expect to see one end thinner than the other.

Excellent point! It all depends on the orientation of the ridges. If they're parallel to the cross slide motion, that's a good indicator of a tram issue. I was thinking in terms of vertical marks but they probably would be semicircular in appearance.

It doesn't take much of a variation to produce a visually apparent issue, but the resultant step may not be all that significant in terms of functionality. Something to check out.

 

[steelcat]

Well I resurfaced both sides of the block and measured them. If I did it right the horizontal measurements were about .01mm/.0005 difference
The vertical measurement was .42mm/.0205 difference. I measured the block at the two Hs and had 0.0005 difference.
I then measured at the two vs and got 0.0205 difference. See pictures.
It looks like the vertical needs to be shimed a little??
There's no adjustment for this.
Can the milling attachment be shimed to get this closer?

 

[D.sebens]

Yeah you would have to shim it. When used as a lathe this angle wouldn’t matter. It’s possible it’s all the way at the carriage level. It’s not really something they would need to dial in. It would change the height of the lathe tool if you rotated the compound but most people aren’t running the tool facing the tailstock(outside of setting its height which would be the wrong height if the compound is at an angle)

Edit:
After thinking about it, your block is cantilevered over the side, it could be the weight of everything. You could also run it how it is if you could always orientate it in a way that you could run it horizontal and then sand the ridges down after.

 

[steelcat]

Yeah you would have to shim it. When used as a lathe this angle wouldn’t matter. It’s possible it’s all the way at the carriage level. It’s not really something they would need to dial in. It would change the height of the lathe tool if you rotated the compound but most people aren’t running the tool facing the tailstock(outside of setting its height which would be the wrong height if the compound is at an angle)

Edit:
After thinking about it, your block is cantilevered over the side, it could be the weight of everything. You could also run it how it is if you could always orientate it in a way that you could run it horizontal and then sand the ridges down after.

Thanks!
I can play around with it now I know the problem. I wonder now if it might be as simple as paint bleed on the bottom of the attachment?
Na... that would be to damn simple!
In your opinion what would be exceptable tolerance for the vertical adjustment taken into consideration what I am using.
I feel the horizontal is fine but I don't really know.
I want to thank you again for the help it's really appreciated!!

 

[D.sebens]

Not really sure sure what to expect out of it. Theoretically you could tram it in to zero. When I had my mini lathe I got a milling attachment and to be honest it was a bit puckering using it. There’s so little rigidity. I know they aren’t in the same class but my bridgeport gives so much more confidence. You can start with bolting down your milling attachment with a shim under the back or front whichever gets you the right way. Once you get it set out you can either leave the shim or find a way to machine that much off of the other side to bring it in tram

 

[steelcat]

Well I have had a few days to play with this thing and after shiming the vertical slide in both directions I couldn't get it any better than using no shims at all. The surface profile after shims only got worse. But I did get good results when I worked on cross slide. I tighten up the Gibbs and got (to me) exceptable results.
.0005 horizontal difference and .0008 vertical
difference BUT this thing is NO fun to crank!
I guess a total rebuild and refit of the cross slide is in order.
I have a extra cross slide that I dissected today
And found two obvious issues one being way to much back lash as stated by HomeBrew and the other issue was poor fitting gibbs.
They looked to me like they were at least 1/8" to narrow. As it stands now I don't know if fixing this one or buying a upgraded cross slide would be better?