Horizontal mill users

[John Rudd]

Any of you posses a horizontal mill?
I bought an Ajax machine (not sure if its an AJ7 or AJ8)

I fear this may be a white elephant and is not as versatile as a vertical mill....

Cutters seem in short supply...I remember using a slab mill cutter on a horizontal mill when I was an apprentice..The machine I've bought came with a selection of cutters, but seem to be of the slit saw variety,there are one or two side/face cutters but not much else...

Care to share your experiences of yours?

[philf]

Any of you posses a horizontal mill?
I bought an Ajax machine (not sure if its an AJ7 or AJ8)

I fear this may be a white elephant and is not as versatile as a vertical mill....

Cutters seem in short supply...I remember using a slab mill cutter on a horizontal mill when I was an apprentice..The machine I've bought came with a selection of cutters, but seem to be of the slit saw variety,there are one or two side/face cutters but not much else...

Care to share your experiences of yours?

John,

We had one at work. It was set up permanently to put slots in screw heads - nothing else.

Does yours just have a rack and pinion drive to the x-axis? If so, it's not really worth trying to add a vertical head to it.

Phil.

[John Rudd]

John,
We had one at work. It was set up permanently to put slots in screw heads - nothing else.
Does yours just have a rack and pinion drive to the x-axis? If so, it's not really worth trying to add a vertical head to it.

Phil.

Phil,
I believe this machine has a standard lead screw arrangement for the X axis...not sure about the table lift...I need to have a better look at what I've bought...

[PekkaNF]

I have average size horizontal mill with universal head. Never used it horizontal (MT4 arbor and I have only one about 600 mm long....) although I have the beam and bearing. When I'll get "real" one I'll convert this to horizontal when I have to groove/saw slab mill...Now I just have to find 70-150 mm OD saws/slabmills.

Mine looks like this, but very grey:
http://static.multipino.com/photoOffer/p/161204_p.jpg

Pekka

[BillTodd]

I found my little Haighton as least useful as a horizontal as it is a vertical.  In fact there's not a lot that can't be done 'sideways'

As mentioned above, when it come to cutting slots - it cannot be beaten.

Bill

[Meldonmech]

I have an old Cowells Horizontal which has 4 x 1/32inch cutter permanently mounted for screw head slotting, and general material cutting.

                             David

[Pete W.]

Hi there,

I have a mini horizontal mill.  Here (I hope) is a picture:



I'm sorry that the picture is so big - I know there's a post explaining how to resize photos but I couldn't find it.

I hope to get it working as described on another thread. 

Best regards,

Pete W.

[Davo J]

You can put Collete chucks in instead of the arbour, nearly as versatile as a vertical mill.
I have a Horizontal/vertical mill and often use the horizontal with a collet chuck in it for jobs..

Dave

[John Stevenson]

Got a Victoria U2. the U stands for universal in that the table can swivel so you can do helical milling.
Cutters you can often get cheap in job lots as no one wants them any more.
They are brilliant at hogging.

That's not a posed picture, that's removing 1/4" from the top face of the block in one pass.
The picture was taken to show how useful it is to have the vises mounted in trays.

For the last few years though it's been setup as a gear hobber and has probably made close to a thousand gears of one form or another.

[vtsteam]

I have an Atlas Horizontal mill.

With a good sized angle plate for the work bolted to the bed and an MT2 taper and collets it works quite well with end mills and drills to do most anything I can do on my newer vertical mill.

I also have used it with a mini 3 jaw chuck for lots of little odd jobs. Gravers and an improvised tool rest make it a free form lathe.

I have also mounted a Chinese  5C collet spinner as an indexer on the slide, and using a homemade 5/8" arbor type boring bar in the head collet, with a lathe tool ground to a gear cutting profile, cut gears on it, quite cheaply and simply.

Think of the mill head as a lathe headstock and the slide as a nice big cross slide, and the knee as a really solid vertical milling attachment for this unusual lathe -- and it might free up the imagination to use it in ways that are not obvious as a "horizontal mill" only.

Indeed, the mill head IS a lathe headstock, I believe on the Atlas line at least --  with interchangeable parts for their smaller lathe.

ps If you don't have an X travel ability consider going to an auto scrapyard an buying an older windshield wiper motor -- it's got a nice powerful geared DC motor,

[John Rudd]

Well I just took delivery of two nice side and face cutters from a guy on Ebay...first one was 2 1/2" * 1/2" thick and the other 4"* 5/8", both with an inch bore...
all for the bargain price of £15....brand new to boot....

Looks like I'll be making swarf on my new machine..

[vtsteam]

Nice score!


I forgot to mention this last post, but if you have a toolmaker's vice and you mount it on edge, it has the same positional relationship to a horizontal mill that a regular milling vice has  when mounted upright on a vertical mill. And you can do the same operations with it using the same types of end mill held in a collet.

 

[John Rudd]

if you have a toolmaker's vice and you mount it on edge, it has the same positional relationship to a horizontal mill that a regular milling vice has  when mounted upright on a vertical mill. And you can do the same operations with it using the same types of end mill held in a collet.

Que...?? Not sure I follow what you mean...
Mebbe its me...Im not as bright as I used to be..

[DavidA]

...Mebbe its me...Im not as bright as I used to be..

I never was.

I have a miniature horizontal mill.  Never used it.  I'll try to get a picture.

Dave

[vtsteam]

Apologies for the quality of this but it is getting dark and this stuff is in storage.

But a picture is worth a million words.....

Of course you can orient the vice upright as well and even on end, like a vertical milling attachment on a lathe.

A toolmaker's vice is nice because it is square all around, and can be clamped with toe clamps in most any position. This one isn't clamped -- I just put it on the table for a quick photo.

You can also move it to the near edge of the table so a piece can extend below it. Or you can block the vice up off of the table. There are a lot of combinations for setups.

[John Rudd]

But a picture is worth a million words.....

Ahhh.understand now....thanks for sharing

[philf]

But a picture is worth a million words.....

Ahhh.understand now....thanks for sharing

John,

Any chance of a picture of your machine?

Phil.

[John Rudd]

Phil,

Sure of course...I'll get the camera out and take a snap or 2...

[DavidA]

Here are a few pics of my little mill.


As you can see,  it's just as I dragged it out from under the bench.



Looks as if it was last used to hob gears.



Dave.

[vtsteam]

Whoa, David, I love that little mill of yours. That is so cool!  Makes me want to build one like it.

[DavidA]

It looks as if may have been made from a kit of castings.
Maybe they are still available.. Anyone recognise it ?

Dave.

[philf]

Hi there,

I have a mini horizontal mill.  Here (I hope) is a picture:



I hope to get it working as described on another thread. 

Best regards,

Pete W.

Pete,

Is the mill as small as it looks? (Or is it a giant can of peas?)

What is the size of the arbor?

Phil.

[Pete W.]

Pete,

Is the mill as small as it looks? (Or is it a giant can of peas?)

What is the size of the arbor?

Phil.

Hi there, Phil,

Well, peas are one of my favourite vegetables:             

     'I eat my peas with honey,
     I've done so all my life.
     It makes them taste quite funny,
     But it keeps them on the knife!'
                                                                                       

We buy peas frozen and packed in a plastic bag nowadays.  What looks like a pea tin is actually a joke waste paper basket.

The mill is a Flexispeed Mark I  (see Tony's web-site, http://www.lathes.co.uk/flexispeedmiller/ ) that I plan to renovate.  The first step is to contrive a counter-shaft and motor mount.

The arbor is 1/2" and the headroom beneath the top bar only allows the use of 3¾" cutters.  Since posting my other thread about this mill, I have acquired a few cutters and some dial hand-wheels.  (My measurement of the lead-screw thread pitches was way out - I plan to repeat it to confirm that my machine is the same as the description on Tony's site.)

I posted my picture with my tongue in my cheek but that's in no way any disrespect for the other posts on this thread.  John S's picture of his horizontal mill in full chat is most impressive and David A's little mill looks as capable of useful work as I hope mine will be.

Best regards,

Pete W.

[philf]

Hi Peter,

It's a nice looking machine. With a little TLC it should be quite useful. Looking at lathes.co.uk the MK2 Flexispeed looks a more workmanlike machine. I didn't know that Flexispeed had made mills as well as lathes.

I have seen a smaller version than yours:



 

Phil.

[AdeV]

Someone has too much time on his hands..... 

[AndyB]

Hi guys,

I have got a Centec 2A and my mate has got a 2B but neither of us have used the horizontal capability yet; my mate is too used to vertical milling and I am a complete newbie so trying to learn vertical milling first...not very successfully

I have got some old books that all show horizontal milling and the capabilities seem to be almost endless.

Give it time and the instruction that might follow this thread and I might have a go.

In anticipation

Andy

[vtsteam]

I'll try to show some setups I've used with my horizontal mill here. Can't get to some of the things I need right now -- blizzarding out. But I would strongly suggest anyone interested get David Gingery's book on building a horizontal mill from scratch.

The process of building the mill actually uses the mill to perform many operations, as well as building accessories to make it more useful. It therefore shows in very practical fashion ways of working with it nd ways of thinking to make it more versatile than just running the standard slotting and surfacing cutters. Even if you already own a horizontal mill, rather than wanting to build one, there are many things you can add to your mill using ideas in the book and the same -- or possibly different construction methods