Hello Peter,

I see no one has replied to your question as yet, so I'll give you my two pennies worth – and also bump your query up a bit too!

You can do a great deal of work with just a lathe but milling with a vertical slide is now considered (by many) to be a "bit old fashioned". That's because a vertical slide set-up will never be quite as rigid as even a small milling machine (well maybe it might be with a very large lathe versus a very small mill). But at one time and with few other options, many MEs made do with just their lathe and produced some very good work.

Of course, much will be dependent on what you are trying to achieve (size of work required etc) as you will be limited by the cross-slide travel and effective rise and fall of the slide, given work will probably be mounted in a small vice on it. You will also find that 'light cuts' are the order of the day – so you will be nibbling away at things, not taking great big bites. Given these limitations, then a vertical slide will let you do things that become a bit more awkward to set-up and undertake without one (use of packing etc).

So provided that you understand that a vertical slide is not a straight milling machine replacement – they can still be very useful, especially if you don't have anything else.

Looking at the Chester website, I think the Chinese slide I see there is the same as the one use on my Myford S7. It is a very solid bit of kit, although I made a special mounting plate for it. The clamping (vice) jaws shown also tend to "move" when you tighten parts between then (a thin drilled plate solves this – it stops the T-nuts sliding apart under pressure).

Anyway – others may have more to add but that's my input. Hope this helps.

Regards,

IanT

Edited By IanT on 18/09/2020 20:25:04

Hi Peter and welcome to the forum.

Slides were once the only way most hobbyists could do any milling at all. Ian highlights their shortcomings: low rigidity (meaning only light cuts are possible); limited travel (meaning only short cuts can be taken), and limited space to hold work. Most useful for small jobs, say up to 50mm-ish, though it's remarkable what's been done with patience and ingenuity!

The bigger the slide and lathe the better. Myford slides have T-slots, which are easier to use than plates full of threaded holes.

Mine took a lot of setting up for modest results and – although useful up to a point – I found it frustrating to use. Didn't take me long to decide to save up for a real milling machine, again bigger the better.

Dave

Hello Peter,

Dont know if you are aware but I offer the following with good intention and not wishing to offend. Do not try to use end mills on your lathe without a proper milling chuck or the necessary drawbar to hold chuck tight to the mandrel. Lathe collets and chucks cannot grip tight enough to prevent the endmill spiral from winding the cutter out of the chuck. Either / and work ruined, cutter teeth broken, etc. Get a second hand Clarkson milling chuck and make a drawbar to stop it coming loose, Morse Tapers locate but unsuitable to hold. If you go that route, you will need screwed shank endmills to screw into that type of chuck. There are 4 Imperial sizes of collets in a set to fit the Clarkson chuck, which take various dia. cutters which share a common size shank. There are also similar sized metric collets to hold a range of metric cutters. The base of the metric collets have a circumferential groove to indicate that they are metric rather than Imperial but sizes should be engraved on the side anyway.It is now more usual to use an ER chuck to hold plain shank cutters. Several ME suppliers stock new ER chucks in various sizes to grip a range of collets available separately. Hope this helps, any questions, askaway.

John

Hello again, Peter,

Ian T is showing a pic of what appears to be an ER chuck anf I notice that the for sale column is showing a boxed set of 4 collets and what may be a Clarkson chuck, £50.

John

Yes, it's an ER32 chuck (backplate mounted) that I prefer to the MT type – as it allows longer work material to be fed through the headstock. I use ER chucks for both tool and work holding finding them very convenient – and more versatile than just buying something just for tool holding.

Peter – I don't hold milling cutters in my 3/4 jaw chucks, too easy for things to move. But small fly-cutters can be held in them, as the shanks are normally relatively soft and can be gripped better. In fact small 'single point' cutting tools are very useful and much easier to keep sharp. The kind of work you will probably want to do in 16mm can certainly be done with a vertical slide and some small cutter tooling. This was the norm not so many years ago but 'cheap' Far East imports have tipped the balance between convenience over cost. A mill might make things easier but it's certainly not essential for the kind of work we do.

A tidy and comfortable looking workshop – I wish mine looked as welcoming. Good Luck with your milling

Regards,

IanT

PS I don't know your lathe but if you can fit the heavier slide, then spend the extra money and do so. Looking at my photo, again, I've still got the rotary base fitted. I don't normally use it these days, having a plate to adapt the fit between the slide body and S7 (slots) better. I can't recall when I've ever needed to angle the slide – it's always mounted at right angles to the cutter…small angles can be packed up or out. The vertical slide movement can be very restricted if it's angled over the cross-slide. You need the v-slide's table to overhang the cross-slide to give maximum travel.

long ago I kicked off model making at home with a Fobco Drill,Myford 7 and a home made bench grinder. I used a vertical slide for milling , It did all I required when building an Allchin T E I held any milling cutters in a brand new Burnerd chuck without problem and did most of my milling using various home made flycutters only using end mills /slot drills when a slot or pocket was required to be machined,as fly cutters cost virtually nothing and I was well satisfied with results I achieved with the Myford slide,at the time I worketd in a brand new toolroom with a Deckel FP3 one of the worlds best milling machines of its type,,i did not go home wishing i had better equipment ,I was content with what I had. 3 jaw chucks are ok to hold cutters provided the jaws are in good condition and not bell mouthed, if a cutter slips in good chuck then perhaps one is overloading the whole set up plus the advantage of a chuck to hold the cutter is that the mass of the chuck dampens vibrations, Full size Fritz Werner milling machines had a built in flywheel on the machine spindle, to reduce vibrations,55 years later a wide range of tool holding and small milling machines are readily available. The ER collets are good for cutter and drill holding ,though I still prefer the Clarkson screwed shank cutter system when say working on a vintage engine crankshaft ,re cutting a keyway where a cutter coming loose or just moving in the collet could cause irreparable damage.

Go ahead and buy the milling attachment, and hopefully in the next few years you will be in a position to add a mill to your tooling. Once you get a mill, you can sell the lathe milling attachment, which will certainly be surplace to your requirements.

That er32 collet chuck will also be very useful when holding work for turning as well as for milling cutters. In the dual function, I would recommend a full set of collets, but if just starting milling, then just buy 3-4-5-6-8-and 10 mm which should match the sizes of cutters likely to start you off with small jobs.

With the 920, you may find it difficult to just move the saddle with enough precision when milling. One way round this is a handle on the end of the leadscrew to move the saddle with the leadscrew nuts engaged, like a lot of Myfords have. Or even more outlandish, the tailstock. When we were refurbishing the apron of the museums Smart & Brown model A, I still needed to use the lathe for turning shafts and bushes with the apron sitting on a bench in bits. I just used the tailstock to push the saddle which saved using the compound which is difficult to use for precision parallel turning.

Edited By old mart on 21/09/2020 18:31:04