cutting gears

[Rickabilly]

Back when I was pushed for workshop space I decided I wanted both a horizontal and vertical mill, but as they were really pricey I settled for a Mill/drill, then a little later it hit me, old universal horizontal mills are cheap and really don't take up much more room than a Mill/Drill as the mill/drill usually sits on a heavy bench any way, and Bridgeport or clone vertical milling heads are reasonably priced, so I found an old, really rough, BP clone milling head and rebuilt it, then mounted it onto the overarm of the horizontal mill, the result a "Frankenmill" which could really do it all, total price was about $500 and it took up about 1 and a 1/2 times the room of the mill/drill, but the setup was very rigid and twice the size of any mill/drill.
Also, I have a standard setup on my mill, I always keep a rotary table bolted vertically on the extreme left of the table, and a vise on the extreme right, they balance each other out so don't cause too much extra wear, in addition I have room in between for a Chuck, indexer or fixture to be bolted directly down to the table , and as the vise can be used to clamp a tailstock fixture I often use the rotary table as an indexing head as well without the need to remove the vise, as my horizontal/vertical mill is a proper industrial universal mill, it was designed with a indexing head drive under the table which is able to engage with the power feed mechanisim, I am in the process of creating the required gear train, I am considering using a QC gearbox off of a lathe lead screw to give a load of ratios without change gears, but as yet I've not found one to suit my budget, it could be a really small one and I'm not fussed about brands or origin at all, as long as it does the job.
Best Regards
Rick

[stevec]

Rick, are there pics of your mill here? if yes, please point me in the direction. If not could we see some?

[EdK]

[Rickabilly]

Hello Guys,
If you look in the "Lets see your mill" thread Post 51 has a few photos of my current mill, it is a Yugoslavian Horizontal/Vertical Mill nameplated as a "Gate 05 turret mill",
I no longer have any "Frankenmills" but have had three,

I have an old Denbigh that looks a lot like this one;
   
and I was going to convert it to Horizontal/Vertical when the Gate turned up, I still have it, as it has a really good simple slotting head, but I have now decided to adapt the slotting head to fit the Gate and sell the Denbigh, if I get a little cash for the Denbigh I'll be happy enough to see it go, but would be devastated to see it go to scrap. so won't be throwing it away any time soon.

Sorry, I haven't got any photos of how the tooling is setup on my Gate at the moment but I will take some next time I'm at the shop, it really is pretty simple though, just a rotary table set up like a dividing head facing a vise at the other end.

Best Regards
Rick

[stevec]

Thanks Rick, now I remember it, here's a direct link http://www.metalworkingfun.com/showthrea...=16&page=6That looks a treat! I'd trade my Tree, the mill/drill and my firstborn male child for something like that!

[Rickabilly]

Hello Steve,
It is really easy to build a Frankenmill, and all except the rotating turret they will do anything my Gate will, just get any universal horizontal mill, but ideally one with proper geared table feeds and a dove tail overarm.

Find a Bridgeport or clone milling head, they often come up on Ebay, sometimes at a reasonable price.

Take out the over arm and set it up on the table use a flycutter in the horizontal spindle to machine one end square and drill and tap some mounting holes, then finally make an adaptor yoke that takes the BP nodding swivel, then bolt the whole thing together.

Then you have a fully functional horizontal mill, with good solid knee and table, often much sturdier than a Bridgeport but with a fully functioning vertical spindle with quill, quill power feed and two axis swivel mount to do any angle you can think of. also it'll have a universal table and you won't get that on a BP.

I scream the benefits of a good Frankenmill to anyone that'll listen, If I hadn't found my Gate so cheap I would have built another Frankenmill.

Best Regards
Rick