Pro’s and cons of owning an horizontal milling machine

[Alan Johnson 7Participant @alanjohnson7]

Helical gears are much easier on a horizontal mill, especially if it has a table that can be rotated – or you can fit an auxillary table, and you have a universal dividing head…..

[Anonymous]

Posted by Alan Johnson 7 on 11/12/2018 03:26:41:

Helical gears are much easier on a horizontal mill, especially if it has a table that can be rotated – or you can fit an auxillary table, and you have a universal dividing head…..

Quite so; but they can be cut on a vertical mill:

Albeit not so gung ho in terms of DP to be cut in one pass.

Andrew

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Here's the link to Seig's 'universal' machine (not a 'universal' in the sense of rotatable table, but a proper horizontal with a removable head, rather than a vertical with a spindle in the column).

Looks similar to one I posted a pic of above, I would say this is a 'hobby' machine.

Neil

http://www.siegind.com/product_detail/su1-universal-milling-machine-15008849328653104.html

[colin hawesParticipant @colinhawes85982]

Over many years my ex- scrapheap horizontal flat belt Clarke mill has often been very useful for cutting thick (3/8 to 2) inch steel plate that is too big to fit into my bandsaw. It has been used many times to turn 24 inch and bigger wheels. It's not a massive machine, with 18" traverse, but it is amazingly rigid. I also use the larger end mills and face mills with the job on its side. Very useful machine. Colin

[Nigel McBurney 1Participant @nigelmcburney1]

I have an Elliot 00 omnimill ,it was a gift from neighbour, I was proposing to downsize my property and my Elliot big turret mill and my large Adcock and Shipley 2E horizontal mill very reluctantly had to go . I had 40 years ago owned a Tom Senior MI mill with vertical head, . The senior could be used horizontally and vertically with the vertical attachment, vert spindle was 2MT so a bit limited, overall the build quality was better than the Elliot,but it sadly lacked capacity particularly under the spindle, A similar sized Harrison has more capacity. The Elliot turret mill only had a 30 int taper which was really too small particularly for a machine with a 50 inch table but I earned a living with it. The Adcock was close on 2 tons and fully universal with a removable vertical head both spindles no 40 int, good make and solid great for spiral stationary engine gears and heavy milling, though it was a bit worn on the knee cross slide, It was probably used on one job which required continuous use of the Y axis,must have been hard work without power feed and it was obvious from the different shade of grey paint that the screw housing assembly had been changed at some time. x & z axes were OK . Movingonto the Elliott was a bit of a comedown though it does have some good points, its easy to use, plenty of capacity particularly under the spinde,both spindles are 3 mt so tooling is common,VERY easy to change from vertical to horizontal without any lifting,I had to get help when fitting the Adcock head. rigity of horizontal spindle is good ,vertical not so good ,not rigid enough . Recently I made bronze blow down and boiler feed valves for a full size steamer and coped very well with this work.Mods to omnimill so far, took handle off Z axis and made a lot longer handle winding up was difficult, the small spare handle is now fitted to table feed so there is now a handle at both ends of table much better. Vertical head removed depth stop and fitted a one inch thick steel plate to quill and one side of the plate is attached to a hole tapped into the overarm now very rigid ,plate is a split clamp on the quill so by releasing the screws the quill can be used,and it can be used at an angle .The other nuisance is the lowest speed on both spindles is too high for my kind of work a six inch saw on the horizontal runs far to fast for cutting steel, so I have plans to reduce spindle speeds,they are ok for ali and brass but not steel with large dia cutters it also came with a slotting attachment which is very good and I have also aquired a two axis vertical attachment at some cost but cannot complain as the machine was free,total weight is 12cwt. So for model making the 00 is good,well thought out machine but has limitations, though is a far better bet than imports. So generally the Bridgeport type mill is the best option,the horizontal mill can really remove metal,attachments are heavy,and horiizontal machines were generally used for production runs ,where bonus earnt meant more to the operator than taking care of the machine,though occasionally you come across a lightly used horizontal.

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 11/12/2018 10:48:03:

Here's the link to Seig's 'universal' machine (not a 'universal' in the sense of rotatable table, but a proper horizontal with a removable head, rather than a vertical with a spindle in the column).

Looks similar to one I posted a pic of above, I would say this is a 'hobby' machine.

Neil

http://www.siegind.com/product_detail/su1-universal-milling-machine-15008849328653104.html

With those specifications, it could not be anything but a hobby machine? Not much headspace for drilling with the work in a vise. High spindle speed at minimum, too. A mini-mill? About the size of my little Raglan mill, but with much more reach while using the vertical head.

I wonder what the UK price would be…. Well, Axminster do the machine for eleven hundred quid. See their video, but note that when operating in vertical mode they are (craftily?) cutting with the head at 45 degrees.

[Anonymous]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 11/12/2018 10:48:03:

Here's the link to Seig's 'universal' machine (not a 'universal' in the sense of rotatable table, but a proper horizontal with a removable head, rather than a vertical with a spindle in the column).

That's a dinky little machine, quite a neat concept, even been reviewed in Model Engineer.

Not really up to machining my parts though..

Andrew

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I think Sieg got their ideas from the small Sixis, Aciera, etc machines which have a similar way to reposition the spindle/motor assembly. I know someone with the Sixis and it's a nice little machine, Ideal for the indoors workshop and quite capable if you have a good selection of the accesories.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by not done it yet on 11/12/2018 20:05:41:

With those specifications, it could not be anything but a hobby machine? Not much headspace for drilling with the work in a vise. High spindle speed at minimum, too. A mini-mill? About the size of my little Raglan mill, but with much more reach while using the vertical head.

I suppose there will always be an element of compromise depending on whether the design is horizontal + vertical head or vertical + spindle in column..

Neil

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

A larger version of the SU1 might tempt me to suffer the hassle of selling my Mill/Drill and installing it.

Then I would start finding jobs to do on it that seemed impossible before. Oh to dream!

Howard

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