Craftsman 101 6in lathe end mill setup

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wazzabie

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I have some end mills that I would like to use with the Craftsman 6in 101 lathe. I'm missing the arbor shank and brushing collet from the diagram below. I'm not sure how this works. Is this the best setup for end mill work on the 6in lathe or should I be looking for some other attachments so that I can run this lathe as an end mill?



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Any time you use a tool holder in the head stock, it's good practice to secure it with a draw bar. Draw bars are super easy to make, you just turn a long bolt out of a piece of rod, thread the end for 7/16, and make a spacer/draw-in bushing to center the back end in the spindle. No handwheel needed, I usually just drill a convenient cross-hole through the drawbar's head end and use any random tool to tighten and loosen it.

If you want to mill parts with your 6" lathe, Atlas/Craftsman made milling attachments to make it possible, but other ways to skin that cat are supplied in the fun old machine shop books from the pre-war days, if you don't mind reading up.
 
You need to figure out what the inside taper the lathe spindle is. Hopefully someone here can let you know. There are several people on the form that run similar lathes. It should be a Morse taper , if so it is just a matter of buying the proper collet or end mill holder. I wold use collets. That way they could double as work holding in the spindle
 
The Craftsman 6" lathe has an MT2 socket on the headstock. The MT2 collets that I have use a 3/8 16 tpi drawbar.
 
The other half of the setup for milling would be a milling attachment.

The drawing you show is for holding endmills. The Milling attachment holds the work. Here is a photo showing the complete set up

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Without the milling attachment you have limited options for holding the piece you want to mill. Even with the milling attachment, you will be quite limited vs an actual milling machine, but still adequate for many basic milling operations.

Ebay is the most likely source for both, but the milling attachments seem to sell for decent money, $300-500 seems common and you can almost buy a mini-mill at the upper end of that price.

As far as holding endmills, a collet will also work. I use ER32 collets to hold endmills on my Sherline mill and MT2 collets on my Clausing mill.
 
I have the milling attachment used to hold the work piece. I'm still not sure what I need to hold the end mills.

The end mills I have look something like this. Some have a flat indented surface.

The factory drawing uses a set screw. So with the MT2 collets or ER32 collets I would not need a set screw?


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Set screw probably helps with large mills, but small mills with 1hp or less I haven't found an issue with collets slipping. My "big" mill is a Clausing 8520 with a 3/4hp motor and it uses MT2 collets. Most people seem to run 1/4-3/4hp on the Atlas 618 so don't see why a collet would pose any issues.

Lots of mills use collets to hold cutting tools, MT, R8 and B&S types being the more common on Bridgeport size mills and smaller.

You do want quality collets and keeping some collets dedicated for endmills is often recommended as endmills don't tolerate much run out, and cheap or worn out collets used for material holding may create excessive runout.

Since you have most of the holder, the arbor shank shouldn't be too hard of a job to make yourself. Seems like a good lathe project. I have a milling attachment for my Craftsman 6x18", but didn't get the endmill holder parts with it. I have making one on the project list but as I have a milling machine it is rather low on the to do list.
 
Here's a photo of a Morse #3 draw bar and bushing that I made when I had a 10" Atlas. The attachment actually goes through the spindle facing the other direction, I just set it there for a picture (as I recall, it's been a while). I used some scrap 300 series stainless round bar that was previously set aside from tearing out a fence gate- point being, it doesn't have to be fancy or cost you money. It's also a 30-minute job, tops. The arbor pictured is a ER32 collet holder, good for holding work or tools at either end of the lathe. That's as close to a one size fits all setup that I can come up with.

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pontiac428 said:
Here's a photo of a Morse #3 draw bar and bushing that I made when I had a 10" Atlas. The attachment actually goes through the spindle facing the other direction, I just set it there for a picture (as I recall, it's been a while). I used some scrap 300 series stainless round bar that was previously set aside from tearing out a fence gate- point being, it doesn't have to be fancy or cost you money. It's also a 30-minute job, tops. The arbor pictured is a ER32 collet holder, good for holding work or tools at either end of the lathe. That's as close to a one size fits all setup that I can come up with.

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Can a 6in Craftsman 101 lathe handle stainless round bar? I have just a 1/4hp motor on the lathe.
 
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