Horizontal Milling Attachment

[cfellows]

Waiting on parts before I can continue on my outstanding projects, so what do I do??? I ordered some more parts for yet another project!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321195442688?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

In their March 1995 issue, Home Shop Machinist featured a 2-part article by Frank McClean on building a horizontal milling attachment for his mill / drill.  Using bevel gears like those in the article would be pretty expensive, probably topping $60 or more if ordered from some place like Stock Drive Products.  However, there are a myriad of bevel gear sets available on Ebay in many different sizes and shapes as replacements for angle grinders and hammer drills.  So, if everything pans out, I'm going to give it a shot.  I doubt it will handle heavy duty milling, but it should drive slitting saws and involute gear cutters with no problem. 

Stay tuned...
Chuck

[steamer]

Sounds right cool Chuck!

Dave

[kev]

sounds a useful tool even just to drive a slitting saw

[tel]

I'm tuned! AND I have a couple of burnt out angle grinders to play with.

[ths]

Good brand angle grinder gears, properly hardened, would do the trick. Watching.

Hugh.

[Ian S C]

With El Cheapo angle grinders it's six one and half a dozen of the other which fails first, the armature, or the gears, some times it's both, I know because the bloke I do some work for buys 2 or 3 every year, at the end of the year we spend half a day trying to get enough good bits to get one going, more often than not the whole lot is rubbish, so it goes in the box under the bench.  His old one (probably 20yrs+) is still going strong.    Ian S C

[Arbalest]

A drawing of the insides of one if these might be handy!

http://www.chronos.ltd.uk/acatalog/info_VRANT30.html

[BillTodd]

yep. handy things those cheap bevel gears   i bought a couple to make tapping head (designed but not yet built)



bill

[cfellows]

With El Cheapo angle grinders it's six one and half a dozen of the other which fails first, the armature, or the gears, some times it's both, I know because the bloke I do some work for buys 2 or 3 every year, at the end of the year we spend half a day trying to get enough good bits to get one going, more often than not the whole lot is rubbish, so it goes in the box under the bench.  His old one (probably 20yrs+) is still going strong.    Ian S C

The gears I bought are for a hammer drill.  I'm hoping they'll be a little tougher than angle grinder gears...

Chuck

[cfellows]

yep. handy things those cheap bevel gears   i bought a couple to make tapping head (designed but not yet built)

bill

Interesting, I hadn't thought of using 2 sets of gears.  That arrangement should lend itself to all kinds of possibilities... a differential, a continuously variable transmission, and, of course, a tapping head.

Chuck

[Steamer5]

Hi Chuck,
 A bit late but for your next set go after an industrial quality grinder the gears / bearings & case are better quality. I've had a 4" angle grinder head hooked up to a 24v motor driving my Toby Tram for about 12 years now, no problem at all (the 1st mark 1 & 2 couples were another matter!) nothing unsual on a play day to do 10 to 15 km's over 6 hours. Oh the other great thing on the one I used is it had a 4 to 1 reduction which given that the motor is good for 5000 RPM....theres another 2 to 1 to the axels.

Cheers Kerrin

[cfellows]

Still waiting on the gears to arrive.  I found this link to some pictures of the horizontal attachment another fellow made from the same plans.

http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/threads/60843-Horizontal-Milling-Attachment

Chuck

[cfellows]

I decided to get started on the right angle attachment, even though I don't have the gears yet.  Today I worked on the clamping ring.



And here it is attached to the nose of the spindle housing...



I'm going to make the main body from 3" square steel tubing.  It will be welded to the clamping ring later.

Chuck

[Don1966]

Hey Chuck check this out for the price. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bridgeport-Right-Angle-Head-90-Degree-Milling-Attachment-/141000657424?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20d44b4a10
You can make that fit to you mill.

Don

[cfellows]

Thanks for the link, Don.  That's a good price, but I'm expecting to get by for a lot less.  So far I've spent under $12, for the gears, and I think the only thing else I'll need to buy are bronze bushings for the spindle.

Chuck