Milling head for Atlas Craftsman 101 (12 in) lathe to 2 in 1 conversion?

C

CPO Ted

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I'm in the middle of watching Blondihacks,and Quinn mentions "3 in 1 machines". As it happens, I am in the middle of buying material to build a milling attachment for this machine. The drawback I see to these milling attachment is a very limited (6 1/2 in. total) in /out (cross slide) axis travel.

Yes, I know that Mr. Pete just did a 2 part series on building a offset base adapter plate for the south Bend lathe. I could do that for my Craftsman 101 but I don't think the offset would be very well supported. There is a lot of flex in that carriage assembly to begin with.

I know I don't want to try to do a drill press conversion. I know that a add on head would be a light duty kind of deal ... but in line with the capabilities of the lathe. I know that I would not be able to raise or lower the mill table.

NO! I cannot afford a proper milling machine. And NO I don't want to buy something cheap from over seas.

I'm kind of wondering if there might be an affordable Mill head from one of those 3 in 1 machines that might bolt on my Craftsman lathe ... and why this might be a bad idea. Mounting the head to the lathe base would just take doing it. Small slotted mill tables are available and fairly inexpensive. The Atlas/Craftsman already has a power feed.

Ever seen anything like this done on this type of machine?

Got suggestions where I might find a milling head assembly that might work?

Is this the craziest thing you ever heard of?

Thanks.
 
You'll be running into limitations no matter what. And the milling head from a 3 in 1 machine is "something cheap from overseas"
Even the smallest mini mill would be better

-M
 
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markba633csi said:
you'll be running into limitations no matter what. And the milling head from a 3 in 1 machine is "something cheap from overseas"
Even the smallest mini mill would be better

-M
Click to expand...


Thought this forum had rules about disparaging comments.
 
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Within your stated contraints (nothing Asian), the only options that I can think of that would include the ability to move the head in the z-axis would be a the milling head and column from an Austrian EMCO 2-in-1 machine, a Rusnok milling machine without the X-Y table, or a Dore-Westbury milling machine without the x-y table. Below is an example of the EMCO. You would have to fabricate a structure for it to mount to which would be mounted to a flat and stable base under the lathe. The system would need to allow for shimming to square the column to the x and y axes of the lathe.

www.ebay.com

EMCO MILL Attachment 3 PHASE, model unknown, maybe maximat v10 or super 11? | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for EMCO MILL Attachment 3 PHASE, model unknown, maybe maximat v10 or super 11? at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com

You would also need to make a milling table with t-slots to mount to your cross-slide in lieu of the compound.
 
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CPO Ted said:
Sigh.

Thought this forum had rules about disparaging comments.
Click to expand...

@markba633csi may be blunt, but didn't disparage you or your objective. For rigidity and the ability to take a reasonable chip, you need mass and structure.

A lathe of any kind, even my 4000 lb LeBlond cannot do milling effectively with a milling attachment. It's just not rigid enough.

You can take a small chip using your lathe as a mill - I've done it on my 12X37 lathe - but it convinced me to buy a medium sized mill after the second or third job. Much later I sold my commercial milling attachment to a fellow on another forum.
 
Many have been down this path before. Best advice is to add up everything you’ll need to accomplish what you want to do and make some hard choices.

John

Owner of a drill press with annular bearings, several X-Y tables, various milling attachments for lathes, home built CNC mill/drill. And finally a RF30 clone, what should have done in the first place.

Wouldn’t trade the experience I gained from each of these projects but only the RF30 is actually a mill.
 
You did not ask a stupid question, it is a dilemma many of us have faced and learned the hard way; Milling on a lathe doesn't really work all that well. Besides the limited work envelope its vey prone to chatter. As Dabbler pointed out, a lathe isn't rigid enough to mill. More specifically, lathes aren't rigid in the directions milling forces present. If all you want to do is occasional light milling on small work, you can get away with it. Otherwise, you'll need dedicated mill.

Also, don't underestimate machines built overseas, My mill is Taiwanese and every bit as capable as a Bridgeport.
 
Nobody's being hard on you. It's just a matter of practicality and econimics. Premodern has the first hitch in the plan to add a milling head, which is that if you rule out anything Asian, there's not much left, and what there is (if it's in useful or repairable condition) goes for real money. After all, this is where most of the magic happens, if it's a useful milling head, well, it's a useful milling head. It has high value. Which immediately brings up Matthewsx's point, which is to sit down and add up everything first, and see where that leaves you. It's not the big things that are going to make or break the project (although they could... but time and patience will find you something), it's all the little, inscessent, neverending details that are going to stack up and make the project less and less practical.

I spend a long time drooling over the 3 in 1 machines, as I really like a lot about them. The multipurposeness of the machines in a very small space, the relationship of the work to the machine in so many setups and operations. On paper, it's a wonderful thing, and the possibilities of what you can do with it are endless. I spend hours and hours reading up on them. There's countless people who own them, who have done very, very nice work with them. Then, there's all the rest of the posts that show up as the newness of the idea in my mind wore off. Rigidity issues are huge, as lathe beds aren't as stout as one would like to think. Space issues, travel issues, and all the projects to make them better. Adding up what it takes to make a factory one better pretty much adds up to way more than a brand new basic bench top mill.

Another item from a long time of searching and determining which 3 in 1 I might be looking for is this. There's two basic ways to get that done. Either the milling head's column is built into the lathe headstock, or it's mounted to the back. I see from hours and hours of reading that the ones with the milling head on the lathe headstock do an awful lot better. And I see the smaller ones with the milling head mounted under/behind the lathe bed have an awful lot of projects around them to remove the milling head, and set it up on it's own base with an XY table.

Add to this, now that I have a lathe (without a milling head), I can tell you first hand, that yes, you can mill with a lathe. Barely. It's not that good of an experience. With a milling cutter directly in the lathe headstock, and a workpiece directly mounted to the cross slide so that it's a rigid as it can possibly be, a lathe bed isn't rigid enough for any practical milling project. There are forces in directions that the lathe can't account for. There is more tool pressure than it would ever see in any turning situation short of a full on crash. It's workable, to a point, you can do "some" things, but it's a battle to get acceptable work.

So in my mind, if you add a milling head, on a column, which mechanically speaking is a giant lever arm, it will just serve to exacerbate the problems. I fully expect that you could do this. You could build the mount, the column, the work holding table, get a small milling head mounted, and make the whole thing turn on, I think the end result will cost more than a small mill, and I don't think the results are going to be very satisfying.

WIth that said- If you decide to go forward with this, even though the initial opinions (including mine) are skeptical, I think you'll find that even the skeptics (including myself) will happily to follow a build thread, and while still skeptical, will be more than glad to offer advice and experience along the way as the project goes along, to help you make the outcome be as good and as practical as it possibly can be. Despite my skepticism, I do know from a lot of experience, even if something is just barely workable, there is a great satisfaction in using tools you've made, instead of running out and buying your way out of a problem. That's worth something. I believe my overview of this is not "universal", but very common on this forum. I'm skeptical, but if you do it, Good, Bad, or Indifferent, I'd be rooting for you all the way.

I still say though, the first thing is to sit down with a pencil and paper, and add up everything. Literally everything. From the biggest ex[ense, right to the littlest detail.
 
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