Scrooge style Milling machine

[master53yoda]

Perhaps you could post a link to your Ebay site.

this is the link to the Ebay store https://www.ebay.com/str/aandashandiwork I also do a discount on the 43 lb boxes ordered direct to my email address handled through PayPal. I do between 6000 and 8000 lbs per year.
My email address is [email protected] I didn't post the link at first because I was unsure about whether that was appropriate or not.
send me an email if you want to
Art B

 

[Shipdisturber]

Nice work Minh Thanh you need to do a thread on that build.

 

[minh-thanh]

Thanks Shipdisturber !
Yes I will do it , About three more days when I finished it, I have some pictures in process make it.

 

[tim9lives]

Yep...Totally agree with others. I went the direction of building a mill. First acquisition was an Atlas 618 but then wanted a mill. Picked up a scrap 4 cylinder Ford and mounted a spindle with pulleys and motor. Its the monstrosity which really snagged me into the hobby. Moved up to a Burke model #0... then a Rung Fu 45 clone...then a couple of South Bend 9s. It just never ends.

 

[Shipdisturber]

Any pictures of that Ford motor? I can see where the main bearings would keep spindle deflection to a bare minimum. Another bone to chew on. I'm actually looking at possibly getting a EMCO 3 Lathe with milling attachment still waiting for the guy selling to get back to me. What are your thoughts on this machine?

 

[Apprentice707]

This is an interesting thread, I too have been down the "convert a drilling machine" route. At the time I was strapped for space and wanted to utilise the carriage and crosslide of my Myford Super 7.

I rebuilt the spindle of the drill with a large tapered nose bearing and a 2 MT Myford nose. I added a fine feed worm and gear and a simple disengaging mechanism to enable the retention of the drilling facility.
This was bolted to the Myford bed with a homemade column base which seemed very rigid.

With a quill lock and the use of my Myford split collets I was able to achieve a reasonably tight and accurate milling system, but still had to be careful not to try to take too deep a cut.

I have now moved on to a small Warco WM 14 mill which seems to do all I need and the converted drilling head has reverted to a drilling machine which is nice and tight. The Myford mountings are retained just in case I ever need them again.

I note that the "Cheap Chinese" drilling machines available today don't have cast tables and bases, just pressed items, perhaps these don't make for as robust a set up as before. Buyer beware!!

My time in semi-retirement is now taken up with small steam engine building and the restoration of my 5 inch gauge Tich.

Hope the pics tell their own story.

Happy Days!!

 

[Shipdisturber]

Apprentice that looks like a really good conversion and fairly simple too. I'm getting a Skil drill press and I think I will convert that instead of my Canadian tire light duty drill press.

 

[Apprentice707]

Thanks Shipdisturber

Sorry there are no drawings I made it up as I went along.
I have used a Chinese drill press as the basis for another useful machine, again no drawings. It is a tapping jig, I am sure you can work out what I did, but will publish a picture when I return to my workshop in a few days time.

E bay, craigslist and gumtree are good sources of older drill presses which have the cast iron base and table so essential to a rigid machine.

Good luck with your project, look forward to seeing pictures in due course.

 

[goldstar31]

Somewhat wearily, I have repeated where I have got to.
I have a George Thomas Staking Tool to do lots more than than can be easily achieved converting a Chinese Drilling Machine although I have had one from days past.
Again, I described how a staking tool could be made from Thomas's drawings originally in Model Engineer and now in his book Workshop Techniques. I also described how a simple version could be knocked up using- then -scrap con-rods from a BMC or Japanese copy 'A' series engine.


Maybe throwing snowballs at the Moon might be a better way of using my time.

Norman

 

[Shipdisturber]

Thank you Apprentice and Norman. I looked up the George Thomas Staking Tool and to me it looks kind of light duty to use as a milling machine, I'm probably wrong here. It looks like an Arbour, drill press combination which would be more useful and accurate than press fitting pieces in a vise. I'm actually thinking of gutting one of the drill presses and using the parts to make a better milling machine. The hardest part will be locating a feed for it. I'm wondering is a car rack and pinion set up would be useful, they would be bushed at each and a good fit.

 

[goldstar31]

If you follow Thomas and then Dr W .A. Bennet's additions to Workshop Techniques from the earlier 'Dividing and Graduating' book and the 'Universal pillar Tool ', Bill added the modifications of Jim Batchelor of Leeds to move the UPT tool onto the Myford lathe saddle. Again, for horologists and whatever, this is a very useful addition.
My own thoughts are not to much expect the UPT to do heavy drilling. It is quite a precise bit of tooling and is used with a finger plate.

I've a 'Chinese' cheap as chips affair which cost about £30 at the local Supermarket. As it came with its own vice and would rise and fall as well as tilt, it was worthwhile additions as being in cast iron, it was quite a good intermediate between my mill/drill and the UPT.

NB, If you are going along the UPT construction, might I suggest that you don't use the Mark 1 arms!

Regards

Norman

 

[Shipdisturber]

Thanks Norman I'll keep that in mind.

 

[Wizard69]

This is a very interesting thread and to be honest I've thought about doing a mill conversion of a drill press. The problem that keeps me away from going that route is the large amount if work required to get what will be a small capacity machine. Not that small machines are bad mind you but lets face it building a small mill somewhat like a TAIG is not that much more of a job and you end up with a much better milling machine. So if you guys are in need of a mill you might want to consider a DIY approach that would give you decent results for the effort input. Square steel tubing is cheap as drops, you can make your own spindle assembly or buy one from TAIG, Sherline or even Grizzly. Now for some such small machines are of limited use but for many tasks they are often the better choice and frankly such a mill even though it is small, will out perform a cobbled together drill press conversion.

That being said i do have a drill press with a buggered up MT socket. It needs a new spindle and has be come a get around to it project. To be honest my opinion of MT sockets isn't all that good, as such I've seriously have considered putting an ER nose on the new spindle. In my mind a ER collet is a modern solution and by default securely holds your tools. The secure nature is important because I've had taper pull outs using sanding drums of all things. Basically if it doesn't have a draw bar I'm not interested in a conversion that uses a MT.

In any event one thing that is obvious in my mind is that many of the mods to make a drill press into a milling machine really result in a better drill press. The reality is most of the Chinese drill presses are crap if you are buying in the sub $1000 range. The spindle bearings are terrible with huge runout and some so loose that they wobble. The quills are often loose in the castings. Basically they are machines for work where gross errors are not a problem - wood working for example. Try to do precision work with a half millimeter drill bit and you are screwed. So there is a lot to be said for fixing these machines to make them suitable for model engineering and other precision metal working needs. Someplace on the net there is an article buy a guy that did just that. He fabricated a properly sized quill, a new spindle all fitted to better bearings simply to produce a drill press that works properly. Of course you likely would need a mill to do this in the first place.

In any event what im getting at here is that maybe the goal of a drill press rebuild ought to be to produce a better drill press that might also handle light milling. That way when you do manage to get that Bridgeport the drill press will still have a purpose in your shop.

By the way for most drill press designs out there you will only be doing light (very light) milling anyways. The head connections to the column just will not handle radial loads. On top of that the columns are often of steel these days. You should consider yourself lucky if you find a drill press with a rigid cast iron column that solidly attaches the head to that column.

Now for one other point, some of the hobby class milling machines are actually pretty good drill presses. You would want a machine with a movable quill and a stiff column. So it pays to keep an eye out for these machines as used solutions.

 

[Wizard69]

One more thing here. I mentioned above that the hobby class milling machines are very useful as drill presses. I might point out that some time ago i purchased a large drill press for a good amount of money. A few years later it has become obvious that i would have been better off buying a small mill for a little bit more money. Yes it would have been a kit mill but the versatility would have been a huge pay off. It is better to upgrade and tune a mill than a drill press. Plus i would actually have a mill now.

The large drill press was purchased to support wood and metal working with the power to run large drill bits, hole saws, sanding drums and the like. A small hobby mill would crap out trying to drill some of the things that i needed done but with a mill there are ways around having to chuck a 5/8" or larger drill bit.

In any event the sad reality is that a purchase that made sense a decade ago might not make sense if your interests change. Or if technology moves forward, CNC is perhaps the best way to leverage light weight machinery to get results that one couldn't cost effectively a decade ago.