I have a lathe and have started a project

I think I'm going to need to do some milling...which I have never tried before

I know jack about milling tooling so need some pointers before I go blowing money on stuff that will not be suitable

I think there are going to be 2 types of cut I will need to make (and I will try to describe them)

type 1 - where I will be "slotting" some holes that are open at the end (drilled hole elongated)
type 2 - where I will be slotting....but the end of the bit will be into material....bottomed out...flycutting stylee so I have a nice square cut

Would/could the same sytle "tooling" be used for both operations?

Material is quite soft aluminium alloy at the mo but I /may/ change to brass if my prototype works (although see no reason why it wont be suitable in alloy)

Size wise I need 5mm dia for the slotting tool that will be used for type 1
and 2mm dia for the type 2 (and some of the type1 cuts)

I'm not removing any great depth of material (2mm deep for the flycutting/bottoming operation) so I will be keeing the tooling as physically short as poss

will try and post pics as re-reading my explaination even has me confused!

Regards
Rob

I have been having a play with milling cutters today on my lathe and drill press...


The weak link is the morse tapers that hold the chucks in...

I managed to cut a blind 16mm diamter hole 4mm deep into some brass in my drill press, but it didnt like it! Reallllly want a proper mill!

End mills need to go into pre drilled holes before you can move them sideways unless you start outside of the material. You will need a 'slot drill' if drilling into then slotting, besides I'm not sure you can get end mills that small but I stand to be corrected.

quote:

---

Originally posted by tegwin
I have been having a play with milling cutters today on my lathe and drill press...


The weak link is the morse tapers that hold the chucks in...

I managed to cut a blind 16mm diamter hole 4mm deep into some brass in my drill press, but it didnt like it! Reallllly want a proper mill!

---

Description

This is what I mean by type 1 ...the three holes in the base, drilled then slotted (5mm, all the way through the material)

and the "castellations" is the type 2 cutting (2mm wide and 2mm deep)

Description

I guess I'm going to have to get inventive on how to arrange it so I can rotate the work for the slotting around the central point (or buy a rotary vice) and use the chuck to hold the milling tooling

Any pointers appreciated

looking at the following tooling for the job

5mm dia (type 1 )
4 flute End Mill TiN coated - 5mm diameter | eBay

Says suitable for slot milling so I guess that should be OK

the 2mm dia
2 flute End Mill HSS - 2mm diameter | eBay

Is what I describe as type 2 cutting called "pocket cutting"?
(and is that tool suitable for what I want from it?)


Regards
Rob

OK so I would need to drill pilot holes for each of the slots first ...then slot away
Didn't know that - and has possibly saved me some frustration /broken tooling and another delay waiting for replacements ...so thanks for that

(glad I asked now)


any advantage / dissavantage as to how many flutes the tooling should have??

Regards
Rob

[Edited on 3/12/11 by robocog]

[Edited on 3/12/11 by robocog]

Unless you spend a fair bit on the rotary vice ie more than £150 you will struggle to get any thing rotates smoothly. You really need a rotary table to give you a fine enough turning ratio to make a smooth cut. Have you considered posting this on a hobby/live steam engineering forum? I know it will be a lot safer than using a pillar drill and a vice.

I've used milling bits in a drill chuck in a pillar drill and as said, it's not ideal! The sideways motion on the bit/chuck causes the tapers to loosen then the whole lot falls out and munches it's way through your workpiece or whatever else it grabs hold of. In my case, it destroyed the ally diving lamp I was modifying before making a dash for my sleeve.
I've also (mis-)used my lathe for milling operations either by mounting the milling bit in the chuck and clamping the workpiece to the tool post, and vice-versa.
For those pieces in the piccies, I agree that to make an accurate job of things, you'll need an indexing table and a proper milling head.

I have some sketches of "ideas" of how to hold and rotate the work (and a poor mans dividing device so I know when to stop rotating)

I will be using my lathe as I know its well out of the scope for my pillar drill (but it is good at self centering over a punch mark and drilling ovals!)

Kind of up for the challenge including building the work holding and rotating device so farming it out is not yet being considered
Sure if I make a pigs ear of it I will either be looking at prices for someone else to do it for me (only if it can be done for pocket money prices) or abandon the project completely

At the moment I need to build 4 of these "thingys" which are not mission critical to my life...just a bit of tinkering fun/learning curve

I have started the first 2 and at the stage of the making holes and slotting
I have a bit more alloy bar left so a screw up at this stage will be no biggy as I reckon I can reproduce what I have done so far in 1/2 the time its taken so far (and maybe a tad more accurately)

I have made a lot of swarf so far as the only bar I had was more than double the diameter required...shed is overflowing with the stuff...LOL

Regards
Rob

How did the milling operations go using the lathe?
I guess it has to be better than a pillar drill?

I'm only going to be taking very light and slow cuts (and theres minimal material to be removed)

Interested to hear how it went

Regards
Rob

Hi

You can get end mill holders to use in a lathe and make a couple of split bushes to hold your slot drills.

LINKY

Remove the chuck and fit the holder with a drawbar. This is a much more rigid setup than holding the cutter in the lathe's chuck.

With a bit of imagination you can do loads of milling in a lathe



Milling tube bender dies.





Boring out a set of yokes.

HTH

Neil

For a cheap supply of end mill ect you can use ordinary hss drill bits with the end ground flat rather than pointed. It works very well believe it or not. A friend of mine who is into hobby engineering uses them when the drill bits are too short from years of sharpening.

I just ordered a couple of 3mm carbide tipped end mills for a small CNC machine yesterday , they will be in the Trend catalogue somewhere, roundabout £16 each
atb
Mike
Edited to ad: We have found Chronos to be an excellent supplier of milling accessories- rotary tables, collets etc so worth having a look at their stuff foir inspiration too

[Edited on 4/12/11 by trextr7monkey]

Should I be looking at going up in sizes in steps? (like pilot drilling and slotting before using the final size) rather than taking the 5mm off in 1 go for the bottom half - or should it be OK in one step?
(its not as if I'm taking off shed loads of material)
ditto for the 2mm slots and end milling for the top piece with castellations...

Lathe is an old M type and I /think/ it may have a morse taper under the chucks threaded nose...but will more than likely be MT1
Tailstock is MT1 and is just about usable..though It could well be the tailstocks chuck taper that is not quite right rather than the tailstock itself

Will take a look next time chuck comes off as I'm now doubting myself and it may be just a straight bore
I know the drawbar (assuming I have a taper of some sort behnd there) would need to be a skinny affair as the through bore is annoyingly narrow

Regards
Rob

I have found that the headstock is usually one size larger morse taper than the tailstock.

Neil

Robocog, have you checked out the Debrix emulators? They are pretty cheap.

quote:

---

Originally posted by MikeRJ
Robocog, have you checked out the Debrix emulators? They are pretty cheap.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by owelly
I've used milling bits in a drill chuck in a pillar drill and as said, it's not ideal! The sideways motion on the bit/chuck causes the tapers to loosen then the whole lot falls out and munches it's way through your workpiece or whatever else it grabs hold of. In my case, it destroyed the ally diving lamp I was modifying before making a dash for my sleeve.
I've also (mis-)used my lathe for milling operations either by mounting the milling bit in the chuck and clamping the workpiece to the tool post, and vice-versa.
For those pieces in the piccies, I agree that to make an accurate job of things, you'll need an indexing table and a proper milling head.

---

I have a worm and wheel setup if you fancy a go at making a simple dividing head.

Neil

Seems to have an MT1 (in poor condition) behind the chuck
Both my dead centers and tailstock chuck do go in...and kind of locate but badly
I may try and clean it up with a bottle brush with thinners/wd to see if its just crud causing the nasty fit

Certainly would be better off using the 3 jaw self centering chuck as it stands
the runout using the morse taper as it stands is as good as using a hand drill on a rocky boat

Noted to use the cross slide rather than toolpost

Regards
Rob

Thanks for the kind offer Niel
Will shout up when it gets to that bit if my first idea fails dismally

Regards
Rob

OK Rob

Neil