vertical slide

Hi I thought a vertical slide would be handy I have a warco 220 do I hear any particular type to fit my lathe

When milling on the lathe it has to be accepted that this will limit the size of projects that can be undertaken. That having been said some interesting ones can still be undertaken.

Because of the limits mentioned above, the choice of slide should be to maximise the size of work that can be undertaken. The first place to look is obviously the Warco website. On there there is a nice looking slide but in checking the spec it is only 50mm wide, very limiting! This can be seen on the page here, where the method of mounting (bottom of the page) it horrifies me, please do not use the method.

Warco also offer a Myford style of vertical slide which is 100mm wide giving much more scope as to how it can be used. This, therefore, is the one I would recommend. If cash will stretch to it then you could consider the swivling version but for most users this added facility serves no purpose, only you can chose depending on the tasks you anticipate will occur.

For a vice, I cannot recommend other than a toolmakers style of vice. The advantage is that the vice can easily be positioned on the slide in such a way as to leave the traverse fully available for the machining to take place. See photos 4 and 5 on these pages. These illustrate that the toolmakers vice (Photo 4) can be slid up and down to get the work into the best place leaving the slide's traverse fully available. The vice in Photo 5 cannot achieve this.

See the follow pages for an introduction to milling on the lathe which may be of help.

I commented earlier how the size of projects will be limited, however, see the pages under the heading "lathe only Projects" which illustrate that very interesting projects can be undertaken.

Harold

Why no advice for Kevin from those who carry out their milling tasks using the lathe, in particular using a vertical slide. Do give him the benefit of your experiences.

Harold

I have an import (to nz) slide that is very similar to the warco one and is hopeless. The clamp pieces are held in place by M5 cap screws into 3mm thick nuts which tend to strip if you look at them the wrong way. I am trying to think of a different way of work holding.

Now that I have made a tool post for a larger QCTP directly on the cross slide I am thinking of a similar idea for the vertical slide and then mounting a small vice to it.

I would recommend getting a decent slide with decent clamping arrangements.

Bruce

Edited By Bruce Edney on 07/04/2015 23:32:47

Although I have a Warco WS16 mill/drill I want to use my S7 for small milling jobs,

Having read all the comments about always using a proper end mill chuck can anyone point me to a drawbar for the spindle for the S7?

The gear cover seems to be the problem but I am sure somone has solved this, so I would be very grateful for any advice.

I already have the MT2 and mill chuck for the mill so it is only the draw bar I need.

Many thanks for any help.

Richard.

Kevin,

I don't have any experience of the Warco machinery, but following Harold's nudge ...

Before making any purchasing decisions:

1. Have a look at this review
2. Read the book "Milling in the Lathe"
3. Decide what you actually want to do with the slide [especially: will it be holding the workpiece or a Milling/Drilling Spindle?] ... This is importatant, because it will inform your search for something suitable.

MichaelG.

.

Edit: [2] ... Updated version is called "Milling Operations in the Lathe" ... but I can't comment as to the content.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 08/04/2015 09:02:40

Richard,

Just get a length of threaded rod long enough to go through the S7 spindle that is suitable for the thread in your chuck and then use this with a nut and a large washer that fits over the end of the spindle. You do not have to tighten the draw bar very tight, it is only to stop the milling chuck coming loose.

Richard

Hi Kevin,

Warco used to do a very nice, solid vertical slide for the 220 lathe. They may have some still in stock, but in my experience they tend to ignore the fact that they ever sold them.

Mashtroy may well still be producing them, so that may also be a possible source.

Other than that, it may be better to consider adapting an angle plate along with the slide from another make.

Feel free to make contact if you need dimensions of the original.

Regards,Chris

I certainly wouldn't recommend any vertical slide having had to use one 24 yrs ago. Very limited and sods law wont be able to get height on small parts, bottom jaw on to cross slide. Cant tighten job up without bottom jaws sliding. No need for proper chuck whats the point in inferior, just mount cutters in to chuck that's on they wont move unlike ER.

The other downside is very light milling only, it will do more but you wont see the damage its creating!

richard 2, why would it be better to use a Vertical slide for small jobs? Tricky and fiddly to set up, less rigid, probably Sod's law guarantees there isn't enough travel for what you want to do, and the vertical slide probably uses different mounting kit fro your mill. I have a vertical slide for my S7 bought s/h years ago, but have never used it.

However of you do want to use it, as Tricky says just use a length of studding for a drawbar. There is a little cover on the back of the gear cover held on with 2 screws that you can remove so long things down the mandrel can project out to the left. Worth making a stepped washer to locate the drawbar concentrically with the mandrel. Don't over tighten the nut, you don't need much tension for the S7. If you do make a drawbar you can use MT2 threaded collets for work holding (I assume you don't have Myford collets as you are asking this question).

Hi Everyone

What a wonderful site this is.

Many thanks to all but especially Richard for taking time to write.

I'm using the v/slide and the collet chuck on the S7 just because

I bought it some months ago and I like using the lathe.

Yes - the mill will do and has done all I want but the S7 has a different

feel and at my age I am not going to build anything large.

But the pleasure I get out of pottering in the w/shop (shed) is enormous.

Richard.

When I started in the 1960s I had a Myford seven and a Fobco drill, I then bought a Myford swivelling vertical slide ,and a myford vice ,with these I was able to machine all the parts for an Allchin 1 1/2 in TE I was fortunate to have changed jobs to a company who provided all hand tools required so I was able to keep all my own tools at home bought via the tool club during my apprenticeship. I went for the swivelling slide as it had a larger slide table. Being myford everything fiitted easily and was square and true,I found it easy to make parts ,thats where the Myford design is so good it gives one the maximum capacity available for a relatively small machine,I would point out that swivel function of the slide is useful when using the myford dividing head. Later on after I had left my parents home,with more room I did buy a Tom Senior M1 mill with vertical head, as I had started on restoring stationary engines,now there is a machine very well built but with limited space under the vertical spindle ,and forever running out of room when setting up jobs, I think size for size a Harrison would be a better buy. When I bought the Myford I was working in a two man toolroom with some very good all new machinery ,including a Deckel fp3 now there is toolmaking mill,accuracy approaching a jig borer, possibly the best small mill ever made,it cost the price of seven new Bridgeports in 1967.but at home I was well satisfied with my Myford.

Hi all, I'm a relative newbie and i've been trawling forum for an answer and think the contributors to this thread might be able to help. I have a Toolmaster small vertical milling slide which i want to mount on my topslide which has a couple of nice t-slots suitable for this purpose. I could also mount on the t-slotted cross slide if i want as the vertical slide is designed to be held in place by a single bolt and can thus be rotated to any position. Only problem is the mounting hole is quite large (20mm dia), and even though a bush is provided with the slide to suit the M6 bolt to the t-nut, it would need a large washer under the head of the bolt to grip onto the body of the slide. My question is, would this be enough? I'm not doing anything large, mostly shallow cuts for fluting on coupling rods. Should i make a large thick plate washer (say 3mm thick) and use that? Should i be using additional clamps? All suggestions welcome.

Personally I cannot see any particular advantage in attaching a vertical slide to a top slide, bu I can foresee some disadvantage. Replacing the top slide is, IMO, the way to go.

Disadvantages are more stress on the machine, and less rigidity. Some machines might benefit with depth of cut control by the top slide, but I'm not for buying that - depth of cut is just on e of the minor nuisances of using this method of milling, as I see it, and fine setting by the long travel can be facilitated by engaging power feed and turning the chuck by hand.

I had a swivelling Vertical Slide with my ML7. It was a bit limiting, and did not always stay where it had been set. It was the early single bolt version; later ones used two clamping bolts.

Then I bought a Rodney Milling Attachment. A nice piece of kit, but maybe having been used to Cincinattis, maybe I was heavy handed, because the ML7 was not rigid enough for even light cuts (0.010 - 0.020" with an end mill.

For a particular job that would not fit on my Warco Economy Mill/Drill, extravagantly, I bought a V S intended for a Seig C6, and made adaptors to fit it to my Engineers Tool Room BL12/24 (Warco BH600 or Chester Craftsman in a different livery).

The C6 slide locates on a 10mm dowel, where my Front Toolpost locates on a 25mm one. Simple, just turn up a suitable 25mm bung with a 10mm reamed hole, with a M6 tapping at the bottom to allow retrieval. This neatly coincided with the angular graduations on the Cross Slide,which was a bonus

To be really masochistic, I then made up an adaptor to allow it to swivel in place of my four way back toolpost. Graduating that was bit of a pain, especially as found that the original graduations were inaccessible. (WHO said Plan Ahead?)

So after all this ramble, you CAN mill in the lathe, (LOTS do, very successfully) but it will not be as rigid as a purpose built machine, so don't be like me, overambitious. And DO use a good vice on it to hold the work.

Howard

The only real limitation on milling on vertical slide is capacity and maybe rev's on some lathes. This assumes that it is a rigid vertical slide. The myford one is. Also the Taig / Peatol one - the "vice" on that is interesting and also works rather well. It's best to buy a length of the size of steel it uses for making fresh jaws. They can be machined in place which can be very useful.

There is a problem on most Chinese lathes - no feed handle and dial on the lead screw making it rather difficult to set a depth of cut.

I think Neil mentioned milling on a Machine Mart lathe using a vertical slide ????????? Not sure. I think it may have cropped up when he was making a T slotted cross slide for it.

For draw bars and changing fixing hole diameters where there is some distance involved think in terms of bushes with a shoulder on them rather than washers. The threaded part fitted needs to be held square and central. If it finishes up at an angle it will seem tight but is likely to work loose .

John

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Edited By Ajohnw on 23/07/2016 13:06:58