Milling attachment for Warco wm290vf

I am thinking of buying the milling head that fits on the back of the 290vf lathe.

Has anybody got one. what are the disadvantages compared to the full wm16 mill?

Small size table and lack of any fine feed along the X axis would be the two main drawbacks.

lack of any fine feed along the X axis

Surely the normal lathe carriage feeds are available ?

Remove the lathe chuck to avoid getting caught by it, select a suitable carriage feed and direction, engage the half nuts (or feed shaft if applicable) & run the lathe spindle to feed the carriage under the separately powered milling head. What would normally be considered the lathe Z axis would become the milling machine X axis.

Still have the small table & lack of rigidity normally associated with a "proper" milling machine, though.

Nigel B.

That's OK for power feed but unless you have the ability to stop exactly at the end of a non through cut then you are faces with how to move the carrage a small measured amount, carrage handwheel dial is only good for 0.020" divisions and does not have much feel for putting on a couple of thou cut or touching off on an edge. This is where a handle on the end of the leadscrew and a 1thou div dial helps like you can find on a Myford or My old Emco for example.

Edited By JasonB on 23/10/2020 18:25:49

I had a milling head on my SC4.

The powerfeed was great, but simply not solid enough.

I ended up selling it and putting the money towards a "proper" mill.

Jim

Correct me if I'm wrong here.

You save £300 and gain power feed, but-

Assuming you have to take the topslide off, you still get a tiny table with 2? short tee slots and you have 50mm more height/leverage before you can mount anything compared to the WM16.

I would expect it to chatter like crazy.

You would need a DRO or the x-axis on the leadscrew will drive you potty. The table size is a masive compromise, and you can't realistically keep a vice mounted either.

I think the only reasons to buy one are either a very specific usage case which fits in the machines envelope, or having no space at all for a mill, as I think it is probably slightly better than using a vertical slide.

I seriously considerered getting a milling head for my 280 but I knew I would just get frustrated with the compromise and stuck out for a mill, it was the right decision.

Thanks for your thoughts guys. It looks like a proper mill is the way to go.