Lathe milling and work holding?!

[Kram]

Interested to know what anyone else uses to clamp work up for milling. I cut up and drilled a few scraps of 5mm mild steel.. not much good - they all bent! So need to make some more, and some parallels.

Decided to drill and tap some holes in the vertical slide, using the lower T slot wastes a bit of travel.. So now I can clamp a bit lower. I got a lump of tool steel off ebay, so I made vice jaw to bolt on. Took an hour to hacksaw through it and carbide cutter to get it flat.

I guess a fly cutter would give a better finish, so that might be next job.

 

[DanielW]

I'm guessing this is the small lathe? my idea of a milling attachment on a small lathe in the pic is a futile attachment for steel(aluminium maybe as its more softer) but the reality is that the attachment is unstable fitted to the crosslide.

A more suitable arrangement would be to have the lathe bolted to a piece of 3/4" steel plate to which a home brew crosslide bed can be also bolted to the steel plate for milling when needed.

Basically the milling attachment is like a box sectioned gantry that fits over the lathe bed which won't interfere with the lathe bed? and then the gantry could have a home made two axis clamped vice.
Ridgidness is paramount in milling steel and if you don't have that then rough milling will be evident in the steel job.

 

[ronan]

Buy a clamping kit and a set of parallels from the likes of rdg tools, arc eurotrade or one of the other model engineer suppliers. Parallels need to be hardened and surface ground for straightness and a fine tolerance.

 

[DanielW]

Something on my list in the new year for a milling attachment.
Super X1L Long Table
http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catal...del-Super-X1L-Mill/Super-X1L-Mill-Accessories

 

[Pete.]

That little lathe is too small and light and bendy for what you're attempting. It's like trying to clear snow off your garden path using a plastic teaspoon.

 

[doubleboost]

Some fine work has been achived with a vertical slide
As long as you take small cuts & realise the limitations of your set up

 

[Kram]

The clamp kits look a bit big and thin? not seen them in person just looking at the pics. Step blocks are going to be hell to set up on vertical slide.

Im happy with the drummond cross slide mounted on the angle plate. Its not finnished yet, but its quite rigid... just clamping work to it thats a challenge. The carriage rack is a bit coarse, so I need to get a hand wheel fitted on the leadscrew!

It was no problem 1.5mm cuts in O1 tool steel with 12mm cutter. Good enough for what I want. 1000 rpm was a bit slow? I can swap the belt for high speed but not tried yet.

 

[optima21]

this is part of the set of clamps from 1/4" thick bright bar and M6 threaded rod that I made about 20 years ago.

 

[optima21]

I'd probably have used a flycutter and clamped the machined piece directly to the cross slide (if you have enough travel to allow the flycutter to clear both ends. another option might have been to machine it flat on a faceplate on the lathe. either of these setups would also be more rigid than using the vertical slide.

it also helps when you're machining parts to lock all the slides apart from the one that you are moving, especially on the smaller machines

 

[addjunkie]

it also helps when you're machining parts to lock all the slides apart from the one that you are moving, especially on the smaller machines

This is a good tip, i do this on both lathe and mill when i want the best finishes. Used to do it out of nescessity on the old small gear now do it out of habit on my bigger stuff.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

I wouldn't use hex nuts in the T slot, it will ruin the slot or even break it out. Either get some proper T nuts or use drilled and tapped strip.

 

[MrFluffy]

The drilled and tapped strip is in optima's photo, but it is still worth pointing out.
I would order a clamping kit, they come in a massive range of sizes to suit whatever machine. Measure up the size of your teeslots and match it up.
Also, you can buy vertical slide milling vices designed for this very task, most people with a mill use a vice for the general parts and only break out the strap clamps when things get awkward to put in a vice.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RDGTOOLS-...441453?hash=item43b3729bad:g:XpQAAOSwBahU2dK9

I was disappointed with the performance of a vertical slide setup on my harrison but its better than no milling capability at all.

 

[DanielW]

Take a look at the 80mm/100mm jaw radial milling vice below in the link,same price as the rdg tools one but better quality,plus you get a vernier scale dial.

Halfway down the page,the blue vices.
http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Workholding/Machine-Vices

 

[Kram]

I do have and use T nuts - I wanted everything M8 so had to turn to fit these slots. The hex nut in there.. Seemed a good place to put it. I keep loosing them somewhere in the chip tray.. And I might have lost a T nut in swarf bin..

Dont want to spend 50 quid on a vice.... Might get rotary table instead. The tool maker type look like they fit best but limited jaw travel. So instead might cut another jaw to bolt in T slot with clamping screws like a tool post. It will take longer to set up each job, but lets me put any size work.

 

[addjunkie]

Rotary tables, get as a big a one as you can, the small ones dont leave room for clamping anything

 

[MrFluffy]

Small grinding vice might work for you too in this situation. They cover a wide range but you have to move a pin in the body of the vice every 5-10mm or so of movement so theyre a bit slower to use. Advantage they have is that the moving jaw isnt as prone to tipping when you tighten it up as its pulled down into the body of the vice not just squeezed horizontally to the other jaw.
You might outgrow this setup one day, but you will never outgrow having spare grinding or machine vices.

 

[Kram]

Not certain about moving jaw. I could add some guide holes in the top jaw to keep it square. Or three clamping bolts and no jaw. Going to buy some countersunk bolts..

 

[optima21]

I'd mill a slot in the moving jaw and bolt it directly to the vertical slide (if you're not worried about drilling holes in the vertical slide). also I'd tend to stick with cap head screws like you have (rather than countersunk), but counterbore the holes that they are in so the heads are flush. you can buy proper counterbores for a few pounds, but I just use 4 flute end mills instead, just line them up with the centre of the hole and cut the counterbore.

http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Cutting-Tools/Counterbores#HSS-Straight-Shank-Counterbores

 

[Kram]

Good idea I will counter bore them. Next thing I want is a longer cross slide lead screw. Seems 14mm with 2mm pitch is not common I'd like to keep 2mm pitch, so either 10mm or 16mm diameter http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/311357552380 In theory I can use some of the extra length to make a tap, to make a brass nut..

I wanted to mount the angle plate better. This is what I had, just two bolts. Its has only moved when I broke a 2mm cutter, but I did not notice, put new cutter and ruined a small part

Now has 5 bolts. Im going to use the 10mm tool post locating hole and might add another 6mm dowel. Added two access holes for oiling. Pulling on the top of angle with a lot of force Im getting under 0.005mm movement

 

[optima21]

are there two bolts near the front edge of the base of the angle plate,if not you risk cracking the rear t slot if too much force is applied from the front. (it looks like you've cut some slots so you could use a stud and nut in the t slots at the front.