modified Van Norman 12

[revmopar]

This should be interesting, I purchased my first mill, a Van Norman 12, with these modifications in place. The previous owner, a seasoned machinist, wanted more height between the spindle and the table so he made and installed the extension. What are your thoughts on this.....

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I just realized you cant see it to well in this picture but you can tell just above the table waht I am talkin about. i will try to get a better shot uploaded

 

[Cal Haines]

This should be interesting, I purchased my first mill, a Van Norman 12, with these modifications in place. The previous owner, a seasoned machinist, wanted more height between the spindle and the table so he made and installed the extension. What are your thoughts on this...

I've thought about doing something like that. My No. 16 has a universal table, so the vertical milling capacity is very limited. I'm very interested in the details of your riser and some more photos.

Did he use a dovetail on the bottom of the riser?

What's the height of the riser? It looks like it might be a bit too tall and that you might have trouble getting the table up high enough to mill with an endmill in a collet directly in the spindle.

Cal

 

[revmopar]

Cal,
He did use a dovetail on the riser as shown in these pics, it is 8" tall and the table will get to within 2-3" of a 1/2" end mill in the spindle. It came with a fairly big vice so I have had no issues as of yet with that. Here is a little better pic of the side and the back.

 

[Cal Haines]

Cal,
He did use a dovetail on the riser as shown in these pics, it is 8" tall and the table will get to within 2-3" of a 1/2" end mill in the spindle. It came with a fairly big vice so I have had no issues as of yet with that. Here is a little better pic of the side and the back.

Thanks for the pics.

It looks like it's made from a couple of pieces of 8" channel, set on edge, with plates to fill in the ends and the between the channels. Does that seem to be the case? How thick is the channel? It's nicely done.

If you ever take the ram off, see if you can tell if there are any internal gussets, etc.

Cal

 

[revmopar]

I will talk to him and get the details of it for you, he is a super nice guy and loves to talk so it should be easy to get.

 

[Todd]

very nicely done, been wanting to do it myself just wasnt sure how i should go about it. him using the channel was a very good idea though. i think when i do it though i might only mae is something like a 6 inch riser, that one looks just a tad too tall IMO. the next mod you will have to do to yours is adapt one of the over arm styles like the cincinattis or K&T horiztontals have, where instead of using a dead center to support the end of the arbor is has a bushing that it rides in. I also want to do that modification, i think it would really increase the rigidity of the mill when doing the horizontal milling.

Nice lathe though, and like cal said if you ever do take the ram off make sure to get plenty of pictures for us, you dont want to be greedy )

Todd