Flywheel on Mill?

[rondunn]

Can I make a flywheel using just a mill and a rotary table?

I'm about to buy a new mill and I have two choices: spend all my budget on a better mill, or accept a lesser mill and get a lathe as well.

I'd rather buy the better mill, but my planned projects are all engine and toy related, and I'm concerned that I might not be able to make what I want.

Your comments will be appreciated.

Ron.

 

[arnoldb]

Hi Ron - welcome to HMEM

The old catch-22...

You can make a flywheel with just a mill and RT, but if you are looking at making all sorts of parts for engines, you will need a lathe as well.
In fact, you might be better off starting with a lathe with a vertical slide for milling, and a drill press rather than a mill as only machine.

Just my 2 cents

Kind regards, Arnold

 

[Jasonb]

As Said I think you will be better off with a lathe and use that to do the milling. The Minnie traction engine in my avitar was all done on a lathe equiped with a vertical slide. Its a lot easier to mill on a lathe than it is to turn on a mill.

Jason

 

[cidrontmg]

Like arnoldb and Jasonb already have said, get a lathe first, with possibly a vert. slide, and put thoughts about a mill on hold. A mill is nice to have, for sure, but a lathe is absolutely necessary. I did quite a number of years (and engines) without a mill. Without a lathe, I couldn´t have done even one engine. But of course, your money, your decision ;D

 

[tel]

Allow me to join the consensus here - the lathe is very much the hub of any workshop, with the mill a second-string machine, nice to have but by no means essential.

 

[don-tucker]

100% agree with the previous posts
Don

 

[d.bick]

As said a lathe can be used for milling using a vertical slide.
I used the topslide mounted on a angle plate fixed to the cross slide to give me the up and down. In the days before I had a mill.
I will add this photo of a friends mill who you can see has a large mill but this set up used to true up the fly wheel has to be seen to be belived
Dave Bick

 

[rondunn]

Thank you, gentlemen.

That's the sort of advice I needed.

Ron.

 

[jpeter]

Check out my v8.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9zt3SF_Flc[/ame]
The pistons and sleeves were turned but most other parts were milled. My mill is my primary tool. I can remove metal a lot faster when milling cuz when facing I can maximize the surface feet per minute. Want to see valves being made on the Bridgeport just check out this link:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47tx15FgLQ8[/ame]

 

[cfellows]

Really nice engine. Sounds like a Dragster engine!

Chuck