Raising the work area

[Downunder DaveParticipant @downunderdave]

I am a newbie to the hobby ,became interested after inheriting a 30 year old Chinese made combo lathe, which had done very little work. I am interested in trying some milling work now and find that fully extended the end mills are too far from the cross slide surface.(150mm from tip of jacobs to cross slide at full extension) . I intend to replace the Jacobs with a collet chuck but even so its all too low. What would be the best way to raise this work area, considering that I am only going to be milling small parts.

Your comments /suggestions appreciated

Dave

[Downunder DaveParticipant @downunderdave]

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Something like a Box Square would be ideal, Chester do one for that lathe oryou could make your own from and offcut of some 100 x 100 square structural steel, tapped holes would do in place of tee slots

Edited By JasonB on 26/11/2019 20:29:25

[QParticipant @q14709]

Your photo shows only the carriage on the lathe. do you have a top slide for this and if so it should take some sort of vice all of which will bring your work up to the correct height? I have had to increase the head height of my old Sharp mill due to the space taken by the addition of a collet chuck and a decent milling vice.

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Looks like a Clarke CL500. I had one before my WM250, there should be a compound slide on the saddle as Q says. As for milling with it; from my experience with these combos you have to be careful on the depth of cut as they will not be rigid enough to put on a decent cut, they tend to shake about a bit, other wise fine for drilling. Machine Mart sell the box squares for these machines ( usual disclaimer. ).

**LINK**

George.

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

Hi Quenton,

I note your comment about your Sharp mill. I also have one. Great little machine but shame about limitations;

"Daylight" above table, which is not much when using a Clarkson windmill chuck.

Table only 4 1/2" wide. (Just continue struggling to workaround)

Only 2 T slots in table. ( I get by with difficulty)

I am interested to know how you increased the head height? I have given this much thought and have a scheme which is in with the rest of my "Roundtoits." My idea was to use 2 whopping great blocks of cast iron with a pair of holes in each. They would fit on the (retracted) overarm and the arm supporting the vertical spindle would fit in the top hole. About 4"/100mm increased height. Is this what you did?

John

[Downunder DaveParticipant @downunderdave]

Thank you for the quick replies. The box square appears to be a good idea. Rigidity is my concern, however as I mentioned, I am only playing with light model stuff. I do have the top slide and a vice mounted on it But it is rather light construction and is not good at holding stuff straight.

One other idea was a compound table which could mount on top of the cross slide ,but I dont really need the complicated set up. I will check out the box square.

Dave

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Welcome to the forum, Dave,

This is the block Machine Mart sell to go with the CL500, not sure if it will be available down under?

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/machine-block/

I'm not sure I would use that particular vice for milling though…

Neil

[Downunder DaveParticipant @downunderdave]

Thank you Neil ,thats exactly what it needs. Now to find one down here. I agree on the vice too, I have yet to buy a good one.

I may look at fabricating a block then true it up with an endmill.

This is a great forum to learn this hobby.

regards

Dave

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

Looking at DD'S machine, I notice what looks like an extraction slot for Morse taper tooling, does this mean there is no drawbar?

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