proper indexing head size

a couple of months ago i bought a kempsmith #1 gear driven universal milling machine. the gentleman i bought if from also sold me a bunch of tooling and a gulledge 6 inch dividing head with tailstock and indexing plates. both the mill and the dividing head appear to be in great condition.

the milling machine is a serious piece of equipment about 3800 lbs with a four inch over-arm and a 3 hp motor. the dividing head in contrast looks to be quite light weight. my question is; is a six inch dividing head a good match for cutting gears on this machine? I'm guessing the dividing head would be fine as long as i limit it to very light cuts.

What you say is true in the sense that a "too small" dividing head can always be used for light work.

Hypothetically, what's the maximum height below an arbor on this machine, arbor C/L to table? Then, start thinking about gear cutters...what diameters would you use? Now, you can figure the clearance between the bottom of the cutter and the table. The maximum gear diameter is roughly this cutter-to-table clearance. That's the maximum reasonable swing of a dividing head for gear cutting.

Since you say you have a Universal table, then you could perhaps use a larger dividing head for some helical processes that I'm not familiar with, but the above should give you insight into yout question about gear cutting.

John Ruth

As a point of reference, the 2H K&T which weighed 3700 Lbs used a 10" head that weighed 95 Lbs all by its lonesome

Its important to realize the DH and all its related "stuff" (like conventional and low lead gear boxes) was part of a SYSTEM designed for that particular size of mill

John, your reply gets to the heart of my question. i can certainly shim up both the head and the tailstock to swing more than six inches but i'm trying to decide if i should put the light weight DH up for trade or sale and look for something more appropriate for my machine. it sounds like i should. as i've mentioned before on this forum, i'm a hobbyist and for me the fascination with this old equipment lies in learning the manual processes used at the time these machines were new.

mark

Horses for courses

Even if the mill is large, If the work is small, a small DH gives "working room" around the part. If your work is "large", then a "small" DH is a disadvantage.

Are you making gears for tractors, traveling cranes or mining equipment? It makes a difference.