Centec 2 horizontal mill

Fortis64

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New to the milling world ,a bit overwhelmed to be honest but gingerly getting there . Tooling ,or lack of is my biggest bugbear up to date . I'm from an agricultural background so I'm making do for now .

Got myself some end mills ,face and side cutters ,a slitting saw blade . Done some modifications to the mill ,it's a very basic machine but I'm finding out very capable indeed . ..

Here's the Centec 2 before and after a refurb ....

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Wee update , since I last posted on here I've built a very basic vertical head for my wee Centec2. As I've said earlier I'm from an agricultural background and this is reflected in the way I've built the head . Had a wee trial run last night and it works and runs like a charm , very rigid. Just needs some fine tuning .

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Looks strong- how did you fashion your tool holding arrangement? Is it a collet and drawbar?
Mark
 
Looks strong- how did you fashion your tool holding arrangement? Is it a collet and drawbar?
Mark

Yes I'm pleased how rigid it turned out ,I made the spindle with a mt2 taper and drawbar it suits the rest of my tooling...ie...MT2 collets,ER32 collets with MT2 holder ,it's not perfect I have 0.001 " run out when I indicate a drill rod clamped in a collet ,but close enough for what I do though ;) .

Sean
 
You must have a large lathe hiding in the corner to do MT2 tapers- not an easy task- did you make a custom boring bar for that operation?
Mark
 
Lol... I used my old Fortis 12x24 ,I've done internal MT2 tapers before , they are not the easiest to get right that's for sure ,for me anyways . Boring bar was made from an old broken drill I had (light cuts when nearing size ) , believe it or not they make great boring bars ;). I used a MT2 reamer for final sizing .
 
I use drills for boring bars too, they work quite well
Mark
 
Fortis,
A Centec is a lovely little mill for the home shop situation, Intrigued with your vertical head , Are you going to drive it usin a variable speed motor and a combination of belt speeds, ?
 
I've tried one option already but it's not going to work . I'm going to try the up and over setup that the little atlas mill uses except I'll be utilising the pulley at the back that wa used for the original centec vertical head .

Sean images.jpeg
 
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