Guidance on turning in a vertical mill

On my mill I can loosen the column that holds the head and it is then easy to set a a piece of stock tuned to a close fitting diameter  in a slot or pre drilled hole as in the second method  for the purpose of setting the spindle accurately in the centre.  

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This all being said I would look for a cheap small lathe. I expect you would use it more then you think

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Here is a link to a youtube video of a mill converted to a lathe but I think you would need a lathe to make it as you could only turn short work in the mill due to not having tail stock support and the spindle would be to long  to  make.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2-Kdud7eiA

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 Good luck all the same no harm in trying whether it works or not.

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Edited By david lockwood on 21/05/2010 16:36:02

The use of a milling machine to turn things is not as daft as it sounds. In one place I worked we had a 12 foot vertical lathe which was left over from the war (Kaiser Bill’s war). For some reason we could not scrap it.

One day a job turned up that needed a set of 10 foot dia things to be machined accurately. They were BIG and the problems of getting them loaded and unloaded were great, but the price was right so that was solved hydraulically. One of the centre lathe turners learned how to use it and away we went for the next 24 months at a rate of 1 off every 2 weeks . It was a transatlantic sub-contract job so eventually the ‘account-ants’ stuffed their oars in and the machine was sold to the prime contractors at scrap prices. They paid to have the building it was in demolished and the device shipped out.

The one difference between it and a mill was that the ‘headstock' was where the milling table is. You could get round these problems but it would be cheaper to buy a nice centre lathe. One which really suits your future needs.

Edited By Richard Parsons on 26/12/2010 21:24:15

Edited By RJKflyer on 28/12/2010 20:49:13