Riser block for 3in1 machine

[rlukens]

I've been on this forum for years but this is my first post. I recently retired and purchased a lathe/mill combo. A Smithy 1220 XL to be specific... a compromise at best for the "real" machines, but not bad. The first shortcoming I encountered was the quill of the mill was way too high above the cross-slide. With the ram in its lowest position, the nose of the quill was still 7 inches above the slide.
I see Smithy sells a very nice riser block to solve the problem but I think it's overkill for this machine (my humble opinion). For the cuts this mill is capable of, I don't see the need for that much beef. I admit the tee slots are nice.
I purchased a piece of square 6"X6" steel tube... 10" long, 1/4" wall. I was surprised at how flat and parallel the opposing sides were... within 0.007".
I drilled four 7/16" holes on the bottom side that line up with the slide's tee slots. I drilled a pattern of holes, same drill, on the top face to receive strap clamps etc. I'll drill more if needed.
This block will stand up to any forces that I'll out on it. 3/8" or 1/2" wall would be even better. I suppose I could have it Blanchard ground but not for my purposes. Alro Metals charged $9.00 for the tube plus a $7.00 cut charge. Not to shabby.

 

[bmac2]

Looks like a clean functional fix to me. And with a cash outlay of $16.00 it doesn’t even chew into the workshop tool budget.

 

[Wizard69]

I'm actually surprised at the parallelism you have with this out of the box so to speak. That is pretty good for structural steel tubing where square sometimes means parallelogram.

By the way one of the best highs you can do for steel tubing, when being used as a machine tool component, is to weld gussets internal to the tube. Even thin sheet can have a surprising impact on the stiffness of the tube. Of course this will distort things requiring adjustment but is something to keep in mind.

In any event the simple fix is often the best fix. Looking good.