Mill Riser Idea

[Janger]

Hi,

My mill has a fairly short ability to lower the table. It goes way up high in the air but for dropping the table it does not go down all that low. This is partly because there is a lot of extra metal to allow the table to swivel. This is a problem when drilling. By the time I add a drill chuck and a drill there is very little clearance above the vise. Depending on the bit it might be 1/2".

So I had this idea to lift the ram head up higher by making a riser block and installing it where the ram swivels. See pictures.

First is riser block design. 1" plates with welded on 35mm diameter solid stock columns.

Second picture - The mill with the ram head removed - so the riser block would go on top of this.

Third picture - The mill from the side showing the ram head.

Anybody ever done this sort of thing? Would this work? I could buy shorter drill bits - spendy. The table can't go any lower either as the dovetail ends. I could give up on vertical drilling and just use the horizontal but that's not especially convenient. The Z table adjustment is not automated either.

Anybody got some 1" plate to make two 10" by 10" plates I could buy trade etc?

Thanks everyone

 

[Janger]

Plate prep....

The plate is the side of an I beam hence the flange part in the middle. It's 1" by about 11" by 5'. Perhaps 175lbs.

Instead of making columns John C found me a piece of 10" diameter thick wall pipe. I'll be using that instead. Pictures are in reverse order.

 

[Alexander]

How did milling the plate flat go? Also did you motorized the quill or why is it down while milling? It would be a bit more rigid up. That is a big chunk to mill off and every little bit of rigidity will help

 

[John Conroy]

Lots of work but it should be a big improvement. The thick wall pipe will be more rigid than the 4 seperate risers I think.

John

 

[Janger]

More photos. Fun project learning lots.
John suggested using the lathe to surface the plate as flat as possible. That is working pretty well. The corners of the stock on the faceplate clear the ways by about 1/4”. First three photos show how it should come together. Next 3 show facing on the lathe.

 

[Janger]

 

[Bofobo]

Love that power feed compound

 

[Alexander]

I love the video of facing the big plate on the lathe. That is really cool.

 

[Janger]

strange gold swarf. Killer tough material. Had to sharpen carbide c6 brazed tool over and over.

 

[PeterT]

Impressive.
So the chamfers is because its going to get welded around the perimeter?

 

[Dabbler]

Nice work! Let's compare carbide tooing next time we meet!

 

[Janger]

Slow mo turning oil pipe for appearance. The video is a little too long.

Sharpening with inexpensive diamond wheel in the rotary tool. Wheel is from Princess Auto and was not expensive. I find this works better than the diamond hand file. The dryer tube is my exhaust fan.

 

[Janger]

Impressive.
So the chamfers is because its going to get welded around the perimeter?

Yes chamfer to weld.

 

[Janger]

Annealing riser pipe. After reading various sources it appears welding this riser in it's hardened state may lead to cracking. Annealing is recommended so I tried that. I've been told the anneal went well and it's now dead soft. Also recommended is a preheat and postheat before and after the welding. I've ordered the right metric hex bolts to match the mill and am finishing the plates.

 

[Janger]

Man it’s been more than a year since I worked on this.... gotta get this done.

 

[Janger]

So while I’m waiting for this slow and loud mill cycle on the golf club to finish I’ll post about the mill riser. I made a mistake a year ago and this put me off. The centre holes I’m pointing at are off by about 0.25” . This was because I had to slide the head further out as the distance is too far to reach. I messed up on the coordinates after. So even with Cnc the coordinates are precise but screw ups are still what? Plentiful?

So I need to dial it in better and hurry less.

 

[YYCHM]

Hey John,

Did you ever finish this project?

Craig

 

[Janger]

Hi Craig
@kevin.decelles bought my mill and I passed the project on to him. Kevin?
J

 

[Tom Kitta]

yeah that did happen to some of my project - managed to sell the tool before making all upgrades to it!