Vertical Milling Heads – Are there any published designs?

[Chris Evans 6Participant @chrisevans6]

Posted by Jelly on 12/09/2022 23:48:35:

Posted by Vic on 12/09/2022 16:49:57:

Posted by Baz on 12/09/2022 15:50:30:

Now that Huron is a proper mill, what a beautiful machine.

I was thinking the same thing. Some folks lust after the old Bridgeports but I’d far sooner have something like that Huron.

Whilst it benefits from amazing brand recognition, the Bridgeport isn't even the best Bridgeport Clone…

TOS's FNK25(A) and Shizuoka's VHR(/G) both blow it out of the water on features, rigidity and performance whilst being cheaper new (and probably cheaper now due to not being "the" brand).

.I have used Deckel and Schaublin mills and also worked a Huron for many a happy hour. All are good but I think the Huron is slightly better, Droop and Rhine (spelling ?) also figure high on my list. Retirement sees me with a Bridgeport turret mill and does all I will ever need.

It's a long-term ambition of mine to own a Huron (and by extension have a workshop big enough for that to be sensible), they are far and away the best designed and most ergonomic to operate of all the ram-type "Euro-Mill" machines (including the Deckels and Schaublins) a lot of effort clearly went into making them easy to operate no matter what possible use case you had for one…

It's just unfortunate that they only made them in a size range from "That's really quite a big mill isn't it?" to "Ah, so you'll be wanting to machine the column casting of a Bridgeport now will you?"

[RobCoxParticipant @robcox]

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

[Martin Johnson 1Participant @martinjohnson1]

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

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

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

[JellyParticipant @jelly]

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.

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