What is it? Milling Attachment?

[DaveInHouston]

Okay folks, I need your help. I was surfing EBay (very bad habit) looking at Milling Attachments and came across the attached. I don’t want to pay $300 for a genuine Atlas attachment and thought this might work. He was asking $100 for it, I offered $75 and he took it! He didn’t know what it was and his photos in no way accurately portrayed the size of it. It’s big and heavy. Easily 20-25 pounds, maybe more. It’s made different than other milling attachments I’ve seen in that it doesn’t have gibs to keep it aligned but has two machined shafts keeping it tight and aligned. It has NO slop in it. Very smooth and precise. It looks a bit like Heinrich vises I’ve seen but the only id on it is a cast “H”. Also don’t know what the little locking lever on the side is for. I’m going to make a vise and modify the base and make a milling attachment out of it but curious what it started life as.
Thanks, Dave

 

[Cooter Brown]

That is a Bad Ass T-slot milling attachment for a lathe...

 

[DaveInHouston]

Cooter,
I couldn’t believe how big it is versus how the photos looked. I’ve been surfing the web looking and apparently it’s a Huron, but that doesn’t mean anything to me. I’m going to make it work on my little lathe.
Thanks,
Dave

 

[Diecutter]

Looks like you caught one hell of a wave when you were surfing.

 

[DaveInHouston]

Looks like you caught one hell of a wave when you were surfing.

Thanks, I hope so.

 

[DaveInHouston]

I turned down the mounting plate today on my mystery milling attachment and mounted it on the lathe. It looks pretty good. I’m going to make a set of t-slot clamps this weekend, chuck up a milling bit in a collet and try it out. The little attachment has 5 inches of vertical travel. I think I need to slot the mounting bolt hole and move the attachment back closer to the compound.

 

[Cooter Brown]

That is Awesome!!! Now you should look for a collet chuck for holding end mills... Like an ER32 or ER40... Now you can mill 80%ers with your lathe...

 

[DaveInHouston]

I’ve got a drawbar and 3at collets that I got in the pile of stuff I got with the lathe. I’ll see if I can make them work this weekend. I’m pretty pleased with the way the attachment mounted.

 

[Diecutter]

Keep in mind when you lengthen the mounting bolt slot that you need some clearance so the attachment can be rotated for angle milling. Looks like a nice setup.

 

[DaveInHouston]

Good point.