Is there anyone on here that has done this conversion? I know the main things to swap/modify are the spindle bearings due to them not being able to withstand lateral force very well. Also swap out the chuck for no run out when end milling. Anything else that you would consider important? Pictures would be sweet. I found a pretty comprehensive write up but I'm more of a visual person.
Pic not mine
>>983846
Just get an X-Y vise and take light cuts. If you're going to fuck with it extensively you might as well just get a proper mill.
>>983846
that looks like an awful idea. the motor mounted to the column will rotate when subjected to side milling loads.
I just bought an angle plate and single axis table and mounted it to the cross slide.
>>983846
if you already have a metal lathe. why not just build your own mill??? the lathe is the god of all tools. its the only tool that can pretty much rebuild itself...
>>983851
this
>>983852
What if I told you that a mill...
is just a lathe stood on end?
>>984418
Mind blown man
>>984418
Only if said lathe which has been stood on end...also has a milling attachment, and a really, really precise, good one at that. And how would you keep all the oil from running out of the little oily thingies? And don't even get me started on how you'd balance it like that! Duh...
>>983846
>I know the main things to swap/modify are the spindle bearings due to them not being able to withstand lateral force very well.
How would you do that? The only kind of bearings that will fit in there is the ones it came with.
>Also swap out the chuck for no run out when end milling.
How would you do that? The attachment and retaining method for milling machine spindles is totally different than for drill presses.
You can do very light plunge-milling with smaller mill bits with a drill press, it is only the side-cutting that you should avoid.
If you try to side-mill with a jacobs chuck, the mill bit tends to creep downwards out of the drill chuck jaws.
Another reason is that round-column drill presses usually don't have enough clamping force to resist twisting on the column.
>>983851
>I just bought an angle plate and single axis table and mounted it to the cross slide.
This is the only realistic way to do this (convert a lathe to a mill).
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I have a manual bench-top mill and a manual bench-top lathe.
If I could do it all over again, I'd just buy a drill press and then use that to build a CNC mill/lathe out of bolted-together steel pieces.
If you build for CNC control from the beginning, then a lot of the parts of a manual mill/lathe you don't need to make at all.
And ultimately, the CNC machine can make way more complex stuff than you can with any manual machine.
>>983846
80% lower detected.
>>986433
Kek!
>>984418
You know there are horizontal mills right?
