Horizontal Vs Vertical Milling.

[sdelivery]

You have the best of both worlds, problem is when you have the best of both worlds you compromise some.
Truly you can set up and do most anything you can imagine and without breaking down the setup convert to vertical mill.
Or use an over arm to align bore or,or.
With horizontal work you will need some right angle plates.
I have a BP and they are the most versatile of the milling machines.
But I definitely want a horizontal but not a typical knee mill.

 

[great white]

Full disclosure: I've never owned or run a horizontal mill.

How do you make something round (or round-ish) on a horizontal mill?

Maybe with a rotary table on an angle plate?

Even then, seems kinda "iffy" to me.

Vertical mill and a rotary table makes round parts much easier (seems to me) than you can on a horizontal.

Or what about a part that has some round shapes along with straight shapes in it?

Maybe something to think about?

 

[Ben17484]

Full disclosure: I've never owned or run a horizontal mill.

How do you make something round (or round-ish) on a horizontal mill?

Maybe with a rotary table on an angle plate?

Even then, seems kinda "iffy" to me.

Vertical mill and a rotary table makes round parts much easier (seems to me) than you can on a horizontal.

Or what about a part that has some round shapes along with straight shapes in it?

Maybe something to think about?

Yeah, I’d thought the same. I even put my rotary table on the mill to see if I could envision a way to do it. I can’t.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Aaron_W]

Full disclosure: I've never owned or run a horizontal mill.

How do you make something round (or round-ish) on a horizontal mill?

Maybe with a rotary table on an angle plate?

Even then, seems kinda "iffy" to me.

Vertical mill and a rotary table makes round parts much easier (seems to me) than you can on a horizontal.

Or what about a part that has some round shapes along with straight shapes in it?

Maybe something to think about?

You have to turn your brain sideways. Really that is the hardest part, I think most of us have had our brains taught by drill presses to think like a vertical mill.

You can run endmills, face mills, drill bits etc in a horizontal mill spindle the same way you would in a vertical mill. If you have a horizontal / vertical rotary table you could make parts the same way as a vertical mill only on its side. You could also use the rotary table with a milling cutter on an arbor.

The biggest difference is really how much travel you have in each axis. Essentially vertical mills have a greater spindle to table distance, and horizontal mills have a larger spindle to column distance.

 

[great white]

You have to turn your brain sideways. Really that is the hardest part, I think most of us have had our brains taught by drill presses to think like a vertical mill.

You can run endmills, face mills, drill bits etc in a horizontal mill spindle the same way you would in a vertical mill. If you have a horizontal / vertical rotary table you could make parts the same way as a vertical mill only on its side. You could also use the rotary table with a milling cutter on an arbor.

The biggest difference is really how much travel you have in each axis. Essentially vertical mills have a greater spindle to table distance, and horizontal mills have a larger spindle to column distance.

Hmm, so I guess you would install some type of collet holder in the horizontal mill shaft "hole" and then the Y axis basically becomes the Z axis?

Still need a right angle plate as well I assume?

Seems like you'de be doing most of the work "blind" as well, I woudl think the angle plate would be in the way of clear sight on the workpiece. Again, probably because I've never used a horizontal mill, but that all just sounds like a bit of a PITA compared to a vertical....

 

[sdelivery]

I the boring mill world we used a tool holder with an arm, the tool was in the end of the arm.
If the tool pointed in you finished the outside of a round projection if the tool faced out you were i.d. boring....

 

[Aaron_W]

Hmm, so I guess you would install some type of collet holder in the horizontal mill shaft "hole" and then the Y axis basically becomes the Z axis?

Still need a right angle plate as well I assume?

Seems like you'de be doing most of the work "blind" as well, I woudl think the angle plate would be in the way of clear sight on the workpiece. Again, probably because I've never used a horizontal mill, but that all just sounds like a bit of a PITA compared to a vertical....

Depends on your rotary table, mine can be set either way without an angle plate. No doubt a vertical is easier for vertical work, but a horizontal has advantages as well. Slotting or removing a lot of material to flatten a piece for example. I wouldn't only want a horizontal mill, but they can be handy once you can get your head around them. If they were superior across the board then they wouldn't have made vertical heads for them.
They also tend to be relatively inexpensive because many people think they are obsolete and useless.

 

[JPMacG]

I use my horizontal mill with an end mill more often than I use it with an arbor cutter. It is just a vertical mill turned on its side. And I could use a rotary table mounted on its side if I needed to.

The work envelope is different. Some work pieces fit better on a horizontal than a vertical, and vise versa. And visibility is definitely better on a vertical.

Still given a choice, I would prefer a vertical.

edit: corrected spelling

 

[Parlo]

Horizontal attachments with right angle heads are available for specific tasks on a vertical mill.

The right angle head can also be used without the arbor.