Why a horizontal mill?

i don't think anybody has asked...
WHY NOT A HORIZONTAL MILL ????? :grin:

just because a man like blondes, it doesn't mean he can't appreciate a brunette or a red head ;)

i have both horizontal and vertical milling machines (2 of them are both horizontal and vertical)
i like to deep slot with the horizontal mill, it can do it in one pass
slabbing is nice on a horizontal mill too.

IMO the work seems a bit slower with the horizontal mill, but the finish can be very good.
i can imagine that a lot of work is better done on a vertical mill,
but it doesn't hurt to have the capability to do more, by having more tools
 
Larger and more powerful and rigid horizontal mills make piles of chips, and can be often left unattended while cutting, putting most vertical mills to shame and letting other work get done at the same time. They are more versatile in some ways, less in others. The truly well equipped shop should have both, like Mike said.
 
I have found a small horizontal mill is better than a drill press with an x,y table. But then one sometimes has to do with what one has. Unless someone lends them a machine.
The Atlas I have here was lent to me. I know someday it will be leaving here. And because of that I have limited myself to quick projects on it.
 
Used to own a No. 3 Brown & Sharpe horizontal mill, an old over head driven mill. Pulled the old spindle and replaced with a smaller compact Timken equipped spindle with a No. 40 NMTB mount. Used to run a 4" face mill on that mill and did lots of slabbing and roughing out on that old mill. We had a large right angle plate with a visse mounted to that allowed us to hold just about anything for milling. There's been days I wish I still had that mill! Last seen on Craigslist in south Houston!
 
Need for mill, most horizontal mills come with power feeds, on the bigger, better ones the power is to all directions. With rapid traverse. Wish I had a bigger one . But my atlas will do for one .
 
4gsr said:
Used to own a No. 3 Brown & Sharpe horizontal mill, an old over head driven mill. Pulled the old spindle and replaced with a smaller compact Timken equipped spindle with a No. 40 NMTB mount. Used to run a 4" face mill on that mill and did lots of slabbing and roughing out on that old mill. We had a large right angle plate with a visse mounted to that allowed us to hold just about anything for milling. There's been days I wish I still had that mill! Last seen on Craigslist in south Houston!
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We scrapped a Cinci. #5 early this year, what a pain running that machine was, the spindle center was 60" off of the floor.
On the good side you could put a 10" twelve insert face mill in it and knock 1/4" of steel off per pass, excellent machine for roughing stock for later finishing in other machines.

I do not miss it however, cumbersome and cranky at best. They had a 30" Bullard VTL which they should have kept.

Still have this old cranky 48" radial drill press though, the owner appears attached to it.
 
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Horizontal mills excel at making multiple profiles on a single pass or single setup. With a vertical mill each slot or profile has to be milled individually. This means there is more room for possible error in all dimensions, Length Depth and Width. With a horizontal mill multiple cutters can be installed on the arbor. As long as all the cutters are the same diameter and width all the slots will be identical. Also as previously mentioned it can be setup with slab mils that can make a considerably wider path across a piece of stock than a similarly sized vertical mill.

Another advantage is that you can work on multiple surfaces with a single setup of the material. You can mill two vertical surfaces, the top horizontal surface with a single setup, and drill or bore one vertical surface without ever repositioning the stock.
 
The only thing I miss on my small horizontal mill over my vertical mill is the lack of a quill when drilling.
I use an angle plate on mine a lot to put the work in a similar position as a vertical mill and use endmill holders instead of the horizontal arbor and overarm.
 
I had a Burke #4 which I sold. I would love to have a small bench top horizontal mill like an Atlas or similar specifically cutting small gears and clock wheels.
 
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