The answer depends on what material you are hoping to broach, and how deep. But mainly the material.

As you can imagine, broaching a keyway in a Delrin gear is going to be rather easier than a steel one. With Bronze, Brass and Aluminium and other light metals somewhere in between.

I guess that you are thinking of using the mill as a press (unpowered). The only difficulty I can foresee, if you are careful and don't try too much at one push, is holding the broach so that it cannot rotate as it is pushed down. This can be done by holding the guide firmly in place, rather than just putting it into the hole – but it does require some ingenuity in holding it properly.

Regards, Tim

I have used my drill press to do 1/16 & 3/32" but it does require quite a bit of force so really depends on how sturdy the rack and pinion is. Anything larger I visit a friend with a hydralic press. Thios is mostly on CI flywheel hubs.

Slotting tools or planing it out with the lathe carrage allow you to take off less per pass than several teeth of a broach would be taking off so requires less effort therefore less strain on the machine.

J

Edited By JasonB on 14/04/2017 10:10:33