Abom shaft build

[Janger]

I was watching this interesting series on building a shaft. It's about the size of the big 7" x 4' logs 4130 some of us bought. It's an interesting series if you haven't seen it.

I had a few questions. Job duration and cost? Any guesses? A week? $2000 for material and $100hr? So maybe $6000?

How would you drill the offset holes in the end of the 4' shaft if you don't have a horizontal mill drill? Drill press? Stand the shaft on end on the floor and move the table over? Sounds tricky. Maybe use some sort of 90 degree head on your milling machine? I don't have one but it seems conceivable. I don't think my mill would be big enough to support the stock.

 

[Bofobo]

Lots of fancy things can be done on a big boy mill... The whole head swings pivots and rotates. At least the one at MMI did

 

[Alexander]

Im not finished the video yet but look up how expensive a right angle attachment for 40 or 50 taper is. I sometimes use them at work and i think name brand units start at 10k+ so far this video is really good

 

[Dabbler]

There's always a way... The easiest on your mill is to rotate the head off table and then devise a 'reverse' VEE block to hold the work vertical against the inside of the table.

90 degree attachments are notoriously weak for normal Bridgeport quills. They can only be used for light milling. I can't vouch for versions that are for larger machines.