Homemade vertical mill drill

You have to wonder how the first mill or lathe for that matter was made without benefit of either a mill or a lathe. It is one of those things that keeps me awake at night. If they were able to do it, then it is possible so what is stopping me?

Two appropriately spaced trees and some animal gut I've read;)
 
One of the things I'm concerned about is attaching to my base with enough rigidity. Currently it has an aluminum plate with three 1/4" screws holding it on. What I'll probably do is weld a thick-walled square tube to the base and cross bolt it down. Some well placed screws should allow for tramming it to the table.

The way the Taig handles it is one bolt going through the center of a round bearing surface - allowing the column to tilt, but also making it east to knock out of trap. The column and the base are square tubing, maybe 2-3" (I haven't checked). The table is bolted into the base.

A weld would certainly work, but you should consider at leat bolt-then-weld. You don't want that getting knocked a hair out of alignment during welding - the base wouldbe aligned to the column, but the table wouldn't.

Obviously the biggest area I'm compromising on is the x-y table. I

Check out the scraping threads on this forum. Way too much skill involved to just dive into, but it gives you a look at what's possible down the road.

The table will be fine for milling, but not very precise. I'd be surprised if the one I have on my drill press holds 0.005. Should get you started though, and any engineering process is one of continual refinement.
 
Hi DiscoDan,

Maybe we can work something out, how much does it weigh?

John

Hey John, I see you are in Elk Rapids. I'm not from MI but I did graduate from WMU in 1988.

The table is currently in pieces. I was going to clean it up and paint it and try to replace the y-axis nut or try to fix it because it is different than ones I have seen before and probably not easily obtainable. A guy on ebay is parting out a machine and wants $100 just for the nut and no guarantee it will be any better. I think this one could be bored out and insert a new piece of brass/bronze and then re-threaded. Let me see if I can figure out a shipping cost. It is heavy, so probably pretty expensive.
 
I will try and get some pics today but one thing to be aware of is that it is a single t-slot table.
 
I am trying to do the semi-homemade mill thing on the cheap too. I started out with a drill press and an import XY table. I think that I paid too much attention to the Internet naysayers who warned that the chuck would come off due to side loading. It never did, but all kinds of other bad things happened. The main problem was the quality of the import XY table. I am now using a Burke table, just like discodan, but this is still a little bit sloppy. I have to take a good look at the gibs. The other problem was the Z movement and tram. Anyway, the setup is making real parts which are doing real work, so that's good. My next step is to put a better vertical head on the machine. I just got a junk wood lathe headstock...
 
I am trying to do the semi-homemade mill thing on the cheap too. I started out with a drill press and an import XY table. I think that I paid too much attention to the Internet naysayers who warned that the chuck would come off due to side loading. It never did, but all kinds of other bad things happened. The main problem was the quality of the import XY table. I am now using a Burke table, just like discodan, but this is still a little bit sloppy. I have to take a good look at the gibs. The other problem was the Z movement and tram. Anyway, the setup is making real parts which are doing real work, so that's good. My next step is to put a better vertical head on the machine. I just got a junk wood lathe headstock...
Yes, I did the angular bearing and er32 collet chuck held in with a set screw mod to my drill press. But I still need the press for making holes in stuff and was wary about putting too much more into it. When I found the column I figured why not give it a try. The powered spindle is key for my build since I don’t have to worry about tool holding or pulleys and belts.

Did you cut down your column and mount the table on the base?

Cheers,

John
 
John, I forgot that you can see pics under another of my posts titled
Identify my tool flea market finds
 
I just went to the local steel supplier and picked up some off cuts. The idea is to weld a section of the 3” od square tubing to the channel at a 90 deg. angle and slide the column over that. I’ll secure it with bolts and have screws going into tapped holes in the column that I can use for fine adjustment. Whatever xy table I end up with will bolt down to a base fabricated from the c channel.

Cheers,

John
 

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I will try and get some pics today but one thing to be aware of is that it is a single t-slot table.

Yes, I probably want a little larger table. I’m still hoping to find something from a decommissioned CNC machine that I can adapt.

Another possibility would be a combination rotary/x-y table.
 
...
Did you cut down your column and mount the table on the base?

Cheers,

John

I used the whole horizontal mill and put a vertical head on the overarm. Somebody hit the horizontal drive countershaft with a tractor.
 
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