Nice Project for Mill Owners

[monte55]

Shortly after I got my mill, I realized I needed a vice right away. The little piece of crap vice you get with the mill is barely worth more than a paper weight. Anyone that has machined with a mill understands the reason for having a quality vice that doesn't lift the material during tightning of the jaws. I couldn't afford a quality vice such as Kurt at that time so I decided
to make my own table vice. Reasons I like this vice is: Size is restricted only by the length of the milling table. Another plus is this vice was made on my mill so if my mill table is a tad off, it will machine the vice the same tad off and I will be accurately holding my work pieces.

This vice was made from one hunk of metal (I believe it is cast).
The pins are 1/2 inch CR steel.
The surface of the vice that has the vertical holes bored to secure it to the
table should be milled low enough to make up for the thickness of the bolt head.
I have since bought a 6 inch milling vice on a turntable base, but I hardly ever use it. This small vice gets used most of the time because it is so handy and it doesn't weigh 75 lbs. (which is a pain to pick up)
Also with your mill, you get to make your own T slot nuts. (cool!)
I hope the pictures will speak for themselves.


http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd61/mamamia64083/th_P1010137.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[monte55]

[metal-doctor]

Nice work Monte. A few hours well spent. Thanks for sharing your project.

[bob_e95482]

That is really cool, Nick.

[SignWave]

I wish I had a mill.... and a lathe... and and and...

you have a power feed on that table Nick?

Theres an old joke that goes back to my technical school days.
My teacher said this to me so i'll say it again purely for the respect I have with regards to the skill you posses.

You're a real fart smellar Nick... Oh wait, I mean you're a real smart fellar...!

Cheers!

[monte55]

SineWave.......yes it does have a power feed for the table but it is home made. I had this small motor that is built very well with nice roller bearings at each end. It must have come off some high dollar piece of equipment as you can tell just by looking at it. Anyway.......the motor is ac and uses a cap but I have no spec info on it. I made a plate for the motor to bolt to, added a couple gears to reduce drive speed and increase torque. I didn't put a cap on it so it will run either direction. When I turn the drive on it just sits there untill I grab a crank wheel and coax the wheel in one direction and it continues in that direction untill it hits the limit stop and automatically reverses direction. It actually works very well. The table has only one speed of about 1 inch per min which is fine for my needs. The output drive dog on the motor matches the one on the handle I removed. The drive hangs on a
horz round rod and to engage the drive simply slide the unit to the table to engage the dog. If one needs to hand crank(right side on mine)just slide the drive away from table and have at it. If I didn't want the drive on anymore
just remove and original crank handle will go back on. There was no modification to the mill other than drill one hole above the acme bearing to
insert the horz rod I mentioned earlier that supports the drive. I hope you can envision it by my description. If you want pics let me know. A power feed for this mill would probably cost at least a few hundred. It would be nice to have variable speed...........Nick

[SignWave]

how would a 1hp rated variable speed switch fit your needs? You can get dimmers for motors at your local electrical supply. Probably set you back another 90 dollars or so for a good one.

[monte55]

how would a 1hp rated variable speed switch fit your needs? You can get dimmers for motors at your local electrical supply. Probably set you back another 90 dollars or so for a good one.

When you say 1 hp speed control, are you talking about the mill (which is multi speed belt drive)? The power feed motor would need nothing near a 1 hp speed controller. Actually, by the way it is geared, it is traveling as fast as it is going to get, so I don't want to slow it up any.

Stand by for pictures.

Nick

[monte55]

After discribing the power feed I made for my mill, I realized that it has not had any service since I made it (at least six yrs ago) Today I decided to remove it from the mill which took all of 12 seconds, remove any metal chips, check slop and re-lube. I decided to take some pictures which may make my description easier to understand. The gears, etc, in the pictures, I already had. I believe they came from an old adding machine, you know the ones that you pulled down the handle and they went "ka ching" I cannot throw away anything without taking it apart and keeping the parts I think I may use later.
"A" is the drive gear from the motor..
"B" is idler gear
"C" is output gear and engagement for acme screw on mill table

[monte55]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiuPTh2j4lE