The Home Machinist!

I have a shopsmith 10 er I want to turn into vertical metal mill I've seen two others online but would like to see different set ups would like to be able to have fine feed on it

As I recall, the 10 er has a decent motor head. Had two columns of support and racked back to be a wood lathe or drive numerous tools. Sorry but milling steel isn't going to work well. There is heft and stability required. While the bearings are okay for wood or driving other attachments, they flat can't take the pressure of end mills. You would blow them out and ruin an otherwise good machine.

It is not common for a wood working machine to be successfully converted to machining metals, although you can usually get away with machining aluminum, assuming you are not concerned about surface finish and high precision. Wood working machines simply don't have the required rigidity to accomplish the required tasks, and they typically lack the fine control required for metal work. Spindle speeds, too, are often a problem.

H

If we get back to Shelby, very small endmills and even then, frustration. Fine feed and all that, wasted effort. The chuck hangs out too far.

Dash someones' hopes. Sad but trying to lead a better path.

Hopes would be dashed with the attempt, too. Wise people heed what has been said and spare themselves the disappointment of failure. There are times when one is well advised to heed such advice.

Reminds me of the number of people who attempt to use a common drill press as a milling machine. Can't deny that they achieve some level of success, but I know of no one who is happy with the results. Again, a lack of proper design and rigidity assure they won't be.

H

Harold_V wrote: ↑Tue Nov 27, 2018 4:04 amReminds me of the number of people who attempt to use a common drill press as a milling machine. Can't deny that they achieve some level of success, but I know of no one who is happy with the results. Again, a lack of proper design and rigidity assure they won't be.

Heck, I had to mill a slot in PLASTIC and had to use my South Bend drill, and it was not a pleasant experience.

Steve

You'd be well advised to pay attention to what the others have said Shelby. They do know more than enough and have the experience to properly judge the end results. There's a fantastic machine tool archive at www.lathes.co.uk It's about the best site I know of about machine tools and what it really takes for machine design to cut metal.

There's numerous examples on Youtube of the ongoing brain wave of forcing a drill press to do milling. I guess most think since a drill press looks a lot like a Rong Fu 30 sized mill it can just do the same job. All you have to add is an X,Y table. And a drill chuck holds a drill so collets aren't even needed. Uh huh. Some seem to brag about there apparent very limited success after far more work than I'd care to do. Others in the comments insist it's a great idea and most of them will flatly refuse to listen to logic and proven reasons about why it's a dead horse from the start. I got curious some years ago and tried an endmill in a fairly heavy but still home shop quality Craftsman floor model drill press. I gave it an honest shot, dropped the depth of cut to only .003" on aluminum with the quill stop locked in position between two nuts and only used a 1/4" endmill. And it did cut a .003" slot in depth (mostly), the width was all over the place. A file could do a more accurate job. One touch on steel at the same depth was enough for me. It's cheaper to save up for even a small offshore mill than pay for the broken endmills. My little light weight round column Emco C5 sized mill was 10 times the milling machine than that drill press was.

I use a converted drill press as a mill and I'm fairly satisfied with it after using it for several years. However, the drill press is an Avey BMA-6.

http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/vie ... 89#p374789

Before I got a lathe or mill, I have turned small items using the drill press. I used files to shape them. A lathe is much easier.

Before I got a lathe I lathed things on my mill (converted Avey, above). Kind of like an upside-down vertical lathe.

John Hasler wrote: ↑Wed Nov 28, 2018 5:04 pm Before I got a lathe I lathed things on my mill (converted Avey, above). Kind of like an upside-down vertical lathe.

I once saw a guy that mounted a bunch of toolposts on the bed of a Bridgeport and put the workpiece in the spindle and proceeded to run a CNC program to "turn" the workpiece.

Steve