Logans, Sheldon, the Rockwell, are all quantum leaps better candidates for milling than an Atlas. Considering all the attachments, this is some real bang for the buck for a small shop.Īgain, the heavier lathes of this size would work better than a GRIZZLY. The Army used literally thousands of these sets over the last fifty years, and the majority of their surplus sets, are the smaller #31 number two morse taper size. I regularly get reports of the small VersaMil sets being available for well less than $1000.00.
It's just another option available to get a job done in a minimum amount of space. HOWEVER, there is a plethora of USED VersaMils available, that are well within the price range of a serious home shop machinist. I realize that buying a new Versamil is out of the question for most hobby machinists. So unfortunately, in the hobby homeowner variety of lathes, milling can be a frustrating task. These lathes are MUCH more suitable for use with a milling attachment. SOME lathes like Monarch 10EE's actually have bearings on the bottom of the saddle that keep the saddle from lifting.
Milling doesn't always force the saddle down, so you get chatter and lousy finishes. Because of the cutting forces in a lathe, the saddle is ALWAYS being forced down into the bed of the machine. The real problem with milling in a lathe, is the saddle is not designed to have loads applied to it that can LIFT the saddle up. If the lathe is not very robust, you won't have luck milling with it- with a VersaMil OR a milling attachment. HOWEVER, you can't do high quality work with low quality machines. The Smallest VersaMil milling head, uses #2 Morse taper tooling, and is suitable for use in a small lathe. A VersaMil IS a milling attachment for a lathe. Save yourself a bunch of time and wasted effort/money and buy "Milling operations in the lathe" by Tubal Cain ISBN 0-85242-840-5 c20$US.Īlthough this thread turned into a discussion on milling attachments used by placing the cutter in the spindle of the lathe, the original post just asked about whether milling attachments were good or bad. Note that you will need end mills with the "Weldon" flat for the setscrew
#ATLAS LATHE MILLING ATTACHMENT INSTALL#
You can also hold in a 4 jaw chuck or fabricate a holder to mount to your face plate but these take time to install and changing endmills can be a pain. You will most likely need to cut off the end of the morse taper reducer. Most mill supply will carry but for examples see Use a piece of all thread with a big washer for the draw bar. You will most likely also need a reducer for the spindle to end mill adapter as these typically come in #2 or #3 morse taper and the spindle tapers are bigger. Get one of the many morse tape end mill holders with a threaded shank. Never use a drill chuck as these are not designed for side loads. Single biggest item is how you hold the mill cutter. As I said, these are occasional small jobs, nothing major or frequent.The attachments work fine as long as you take light cuts. I guess I could also chuck an end mill directly into the 3-jaw as well, but that doesn't seem like it would work nearly as well as the holder of collet options.Īny thoughts on which method would be best? I'm trying to keep outlay to a minimum, as otherwise the money would be better spend on a mill. It would be the most multi-purpose setup by far, as I have this nice 5C chuck sitting around, but no collets for it. The chuck adds quite a bit of length off the headstock spindle, and I'm sure would be the least stiff option. They aren't useful for anything other than holding end mills.ĥC collets in the collet chuck I have for this lathe. These will likely have a little more give than a collet, but would offer faster end mill changes. Would require machining a drawbar and would be the slowest method, but probably the most rigid, and perhaps the cheapest.Įnd-mill holders with 3MT shanks. I have three obvious options:ģMT collets in the headstock. My question is regarding the end mill holding method. However, I have occasional need to mill something, and I would like to get a few end mills and be able to do these jobs myself. I understand that milling on a lathe, especially a small one such as this, is not going to be a quick or enjoyable process. I have an Atlas 12" lathe, and it came with the milling attachment.
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