lathe to vertical mill opinions??

[neil skevingtonParticipant @neilskevington]

hi, i have just come into possesion of a slightly tatty but usable Zyto lathe, i have considered doing a complete restoration of it to its former glory but i have my beloved ML7 so have no need for another lathe for the minute so i have been toying with an idea which in my head would work perfectly well but i have not seen anyone else do it so think there must be some major flaw that i am missing so am on the hunt for opinions.

i thought i could weld up a solid upright, bolt the lathe bed to it soit is vertical and set it up as a milling machine.

the headstock is bolt on so i could either make up a spacer plate to go underneath to bring the centre out (or even mount a rotary table under it?)

then make up a solid surface to mount to the cross slide, with some kind of support underneath and mount a compound table on it so the crossslide moves the work on the z axis.

or i could mount the bed the other way up (tailstock end up) and have the compound solid mounted and mount the headstock/rotary table to the crossslide to move the tool up and down the Z.

i already have most of the parts i would need to do this knocking around so wouldnt really cost anything, so either way would be a fun/interesting exercise, but can anyone see anything that would make it an absolute disaster/waste of time?

looking forward to hearing your opinions !

[neil skevingtonParticipant @neilskevington]

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Comments

1 I would be wary of removing the Headstock unless you have the equipment and skill to

a ) Make the spacer plate accurately

b ) Realign the Headstock accurately

Failure to do this may reduce a precision machine to an interesting, but inaccurate collection of parts..

In any case, the Headstock and Tailstock will no longer align anyway, even if the axial alignment of the Headstock is spot on, in both planes.

2 Based on my experience of using a Rodney Milling attachment on a ML7, the lathe is not really sufficiently rigid to be used seriously as a Milling Machine.

Cue hundreds of rebuttals!

I went out and bought a basic Mill / Drill! (Which I still use )

Howard

[Anonymous]

Posted by Howard Lewis on 08/07/2021 15:43:25:

Cue hundreds of rebuttals!

Not really, Howard – my first thought was/is that Neil would be better off putting the effort into restoring the lathe. Then sell it and use the cash to buy a proper mill.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Depends on how much of a nutter you are, how much steel you have, and the level of welding skills you have

It all comes to naught without a decent compound table with which to do the work upon

If you can make it work then you have a decent light milling machine which weighs around 100KGs

My Drummond M conversion just did 90 x 16mm x 60mm holes in wood yesterday

Took 5 minutes to sook up the mess

Under normal circumstances you wouldn't let a piece of wood anywhere near a machine tool

Edited By Ady1 on 08/07/2021 16:12:17

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Ady 1

That is a proper Vertical Slide, that won't flex, but stiffen the machine, into the bargain!

Howard

[Pete.Participant @pete-2]

Posted by Peter Greene on 08/07/2021 15:50:45:

Posted by Howard Lewis on 08/07/2021 15:43:25:

Cue hundreds of rebuttals!

Not really, Howard – my first thought was/is that Neil would be better off putting the effort into restoring the lathe. Then sell it and use the cash to buy a proper mill.

+1👍

Don't waste your time.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Plain bearings running at 2000 rpm ???

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Speedy Builder5 on 09/07/2021 06:37:23:

Plain bearings running at 2000 rpm ???

.

Millions of Car engines did that ^^^
… admittedly with better lubrication

MichaelG.

[Author]

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