Drilling on mill with no quill

[Ben17484]

Hi All,

In my never ending search for a good priced well made milling machine, Ive come across some good deals on older universal milling machines with vertical heads that have no quill. My concern with these is using the machine for drilling. In the This Old Tony video where he gets his new mill, he mentions the lack of quill and says he will have to use the z axis power feed for drilling. That’s the only time I’ve really seen/heard people talk about it. Does it work? Is it effective? Will I break drills as I don’t have the feedback through the quill handle if something is going wrong? Should I just ignore machines without a quill?


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[Scra99tch]

I own a Van Norman and struggle with this also. Not that I've used it much for drilling I find that its not that bad especially with the power feeds.

I am looking into actually making a copy of the bore/drill attachement which would be a fun little project. You might find that you'll have better control over sensitivity when dealing with smaller drills.

 

[Eddyde]

Personally, I'd be lost without the quill. I think it would be difficult to drill using only the Z axis, especially with small diameter drills or peck drilling and tapping would be impossible. I suppose if you also had a good drill press you could manage but if only one machine, I'd hold out for a quill.

 

[markba633csi]

If you're gonna have one mill, get one with a quill
It's not an unnecessary frill, nor is it overkill

 

[Ben17484]

Message received. Thanks all.

I was pretty sure I knew the answer anyway, but wanted to get the answer from the experts before dismissing some seemingly good priced deals on eBay.


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[Forty Niner]

Hi All,

In my never ending search for a good priced well made milling machine, Ive come across some good deals on older universal milling machines with vertical heads that have no quill. My concern with these is using the machine for drilling. In the This Old Tony video where he gets his new mill, he mentions the lack of quill and says he will have to use the z axis power feed for drilling. That’s the only time I’ve really seen/heard people talk about it. Does it work? Is it effective? Will I break drills as I don’t have the feedback through the quill handle if something is going wrong? Should I just ignore machines without a quill?


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If you get a great deal on a mill without a quill, you can still mill with it. And it likely will be quite rigid, which helps with milling operations. If you have a good drill press, then it is not as important to drill with your milling machine. Depends on what you are making and what tolerances you need to hold.

 

[tailstock4]

When I was looking for a heavier duty vertical mill, I also wanted to find one with a quill. I came across this Sajo which is a Swedish machine of high quality. It has a 7” quill with 4” travel and a #50 taper. The machine has 3-way rapids and a wide range of power feeds for the quill. This one is 7.5 hp.

It is possible to find a fairly heavy-duty machine with a quill. This one weighs about 5,000 lbs. and doesn’t take up much more room than a Bridgeport. And the best part is I found this one for $700.

Below are some pictures of the machine and some of its tooling for those that aren’t familiar with a Sajo.