MetalworkingFun Forum

spindle support for horizontal cutters, makes your machine twice as usefull

Neat mill, 'cept for the back door looking like a coffin. Yikes!

Your last picture of the arbor and support - if you need to remove a lot of metal, that's the ticket. Cutters are expensive, but they go and go and go. You can also run a fair sized flycutter in that horizontal spindle, made from scrap and using a lathe bit. Speaking of lathes, you can mount a faceplate or chuck and have a large swing lathe of sorts.

Very interesting little knee mill. Thanks for posting the pictures.

Ed

Cool little mill, I don't think I've seen one if those before (that don't mean much though). What is the brand name of it?

Shawn

(04-28-2014, 08:27 AM)Sunset Machine Wrote: [ -> ]Neat mill, 'cept for the back door looking like a coffin. Yikes!

Your last picture of the arbor and support - if you need to remove a lot of metal, that's the ticket. Cutters are expensive, but they go and go and go. You can also run a fair sized flycutter in that horizontal spindle, made from scrap and using a lathe bit. Speaking of lathes, you can mount a faceplate or chuck and have a large swing lathe of sorts.

Oh, i see :) Would love to see some examples of how i can make a set up like that. Sound like something i should experiment with.

(04-28-2014, 12:38 PM)Shawn Wrote: [ -> ]Cool little mill, I don't think I've seen one if those before (that don't mean much though). What is the brand name of it?

Shawn

Its an "Astra", made by CST. Took me a while to figure out what it was, but some Googeling made results.
Trying the same for some other tools i got too, like an sheetmetal cutter that is the sweetest thing, its like cutting in butter with a hot knife. Its brand is Gerver. Also have an italian made drillpress that is very smooth, but never find anything like it.

Mill is ready to be tested in a few days :)

(04-28-2014, 01:28 PM)ironman Wrote: [ -> ]

(04-28-2014, 08:27 AM)Sunset Machine Wrote: [ -> ]You can also run a fair sized flycutter in that horizontal spindle, made from scrap and using a lathe bit. Speaking of lathes, you can mount a faceplate or chuck and have a large swing lathe of sorts.

Oh, i see :) Would love to see some examples of how i can make a set up like that. Sound like something i should experiment with.

No pics, sorry. The chuck is buried, the mill is setup for something, and worse - the batteries are dead in the camera. The setups might be simple enough for words though. I'll give it a whack:

The chuck is mounted to the spindle, and the toolbit is mounted in a vise. Realize that while the bit needs to be on-center to cut properly, that bit is at the 6:00 o'clock position at the bottom of the workpiece, rather than the usual 9:00 o'clock of a lathe. This avoids the need for a tall riser. My mill has a threaded nose, the chuck just screws on. You might need to make a spindle adapter for yours.

The flycutter is nothing special at all, just a bar slotted for a toolbit held by setscrews at one end, the other drilled to fit a home-brewed spindle adapter. It looks like the letter "L". You can go quite large (very slow RPM), it's much more stable than a vertical mill with its quill. Mine currently has its bit mounted at 45 degrees in order to reach into corners, and it swings 8 inches, cut down from the 12 inch it used to be. I've faced engine cylinder heads, hydraulic pumps, and what-all with it. You can easily square up blocks and make angle plates from scrap. The flycutter can be held sideways in that chuck mentioned above (thus making the swing adjustable), or mounted to a spindle adapter. My adapter was also drilled to accept the shank of an endmill and even has ears to drive a facemill.

Hope that helps.

This is the newest addition to my shop, a PM932PDF mill. I also added a Vertex CS8 "super spacer" to use with it. The CS8 is really too big for the mill but it works great and is the best used piece I could find for a reasonably price.

Nice mill John. It looks to be a well equipped RF-45 clone with a 3 year warranty to boot.

Ed

Very nice

DaveH