Vertical Milling Heads - Are there any published designs?

It's pretty likely that I'll want to use the full envelope of the machine...

There's plenty of parts where using it as you describe would actually be better than using a vertical head (although would require fabricating a really rigid angle plate for any vice held work) because it gives a 15" X & 11" Y envelope, at the expense of only 6.5" Z travel and reduced "daylight" between the part and the spindle.

But equally there's work where the increased "daylight" of a vertical head (on the basis that I offset the head upward vertically, probably more than the original design so that the bottom of my normal collet chucks would end up level with the top of the horizontal spindle) would be more important, specifically I own quite a lot of insertable milling tooling which has comparatively long shanks, which I'd like to be able to use on this mill, but also don't want to go cutting down to make it fit.

In any case my plan is to (as far as possible) use the approach you're suggesting to make the parts of the vertical head which require milling, as a bit of a challenge.

That's another option, although at that point the price (at least from a search today) is such that it would probably be as well buying a second hand Bridgeport Head, and fabricating a mount for it which fits onto the overarm dovetails.

Both approaches also result in using a lot more storage space (something which is at a bit of a premium for me), and being even heavier/more ungainly to lift into position (I have been rather more cautious about lifting after I gave myself Sciatica in my mid 20's by thinking I was some kind of superman, thankfully it was fully cured by a course of muscle relaxants and physiotherapy on that occasion, but if I was to allow a "next time" I may not be so lucky).

Fitment of a long riser block (as per quite a few Centecs - I have one on my 2B) could mean that the vertical head would not necessarily need to be dismounted for horizontal work. with my Centec I have to remove the drive belt, but not so if the drive comes from an extra motor

You clearly have several options, and the 2B is my only experience with a combination vertical/horizontal. I am confident, from your posts, that you will find a good way forward.

I was struggling to picture how the riser block would allow me to use it in horizontal mode, but a quick search revealed this:

(Future readers with the same problem I have, click the image to link to the original build thread for that design).

Which makes everything make sense, seen as it's clearly intended to function as the overarm as well as raising the vertical head up... Very nifty indeed!

I have a vertical milling head that I acquired a while ago and adapted it to fit the horizontal drive of my Elliott 00 mill, in the mistaken belief that it might make setups a little easier when cutting helical gears, as the normal vertical head swings way over towards the edge of the table leaving precious little room for a dividing head. Here is that head:

If it's of any use, I could be persuaded to part with it for a reasonable sum. It's 3MT in the spindle end, the drive I believe is a keyed 1inch parallel shaft:

The two steel plates make up the adaptor to fit existing screw threads in the mill - two holes partially overlap hence the two plates. I made up this drive shaft using an INT30 endmill holder off ebay:

I never got any further than stripping it down cleaning, greasing the bearings and getting it running on the mill. I have too many projects on the go to do anything else to it.

Please PM me if its any use.

Rob

At one time Hemingway did a kit for a Dore Westbury look alike head. Construction (and drawings) was written up in earlyish MEW. I am away from home so cant look up the issue numbers. Perhaps some other kind soul will.

Martin

Yes that's issue 34/35/36, by Mark Figes

Rob and I have now struck a deal over his unloved attachment above, which will still require some adjustments to work effectively on the Harrison, but saves a great deal of work compared to making the unit from scratch.