Universal mill?

[carl0s]

Having finally got the Churchill Cub lathe back together this weekend (after moving house 18 months ago), and now at last actually working and wired up with VFD + 240v motor (bought 3 years ago along with the lathe!), I have realised I need quite a few replacement gears. The one that looks hard to find is a 110T 20DP.

On that basis I fancy a project (gear making), and once I knock a couple of walls down in the garage/outbuilding, I'm going to look for a proper used milling machine. My budget might be around £3,000 or so.

For cutting the gears, a horizontal mill would probably be best, right? And those right-angle adapters for Bridgeports are firstly quite expensive and secondly quite a faff to install, and not terribly rigid.

But a horizontal mill by itself is not going to be much use for other stuff.

Should I concentrate on looking for a 'universal' mill? Or would one of those mean I miss out on other features that something like a Bridgeport vertical knee mill would have?

I would probably try to use the vertical mill to mill-out the 6-spline keyway that I need, and horizontal for the tooth cutting.

I need a mill that I can either swap the motor in - like I did with the lathe, or re-wire the existing motor to run on 230v 3 phase from a VFD.

 

[carl0s]

I've done some more looking.
I think I'm going to go for a vertical mill, but one that can take the horizontal attachment with arbor support (i.e. a head on a dovetail, like a bridgeport). Possibly a Bridgeport or an XYZ KRV2000 or similar. Does that sound reasonable?

 

[LOTT]

You can cut gears on a knee mill, but it sounds like with what you're trying to do you might get more feedback on a hobby machining site.

 

[winger]

Are you talking about a helical gear? If so, yeah a universal(x axis table rotates) and you need to gear the dividing head to the table travel.
Straight gears you can do with a vertical spindle. Just not quite as rigid as a horizontal arbor setup.

Davd

 

[Peter Neill]

Bit more than your budget,but hey - it's only money!
Warco HV Horizontal Vertical Milling Machine Universal Industrial Mill

 

[macchi7]

Whereabouts are you in the UK?
We have a couple of businesses close by who may be able to help.
I am based near Durham.

 

[Peter Neill]

Importer/Dealer.. of goods made WHERE??

China of course.
But Warco have a good reputation in the UK for both reasonable quality products and excellent customer service.
If I was buying new manual machines they'd be on the list.

 

[carl0s]

That Tom Senior looks like a handy bit of kit!

There's a series one BP with 2hp vari speed head and some tooling for sale very close to home for ~£2700. Condition unknown mind you.

I have made a mistake and confused everyone though. I thought a 'universal' mill meant it was horizontal and vertical. I didn't realise universal meant the table rotates.
I only need to cut straight gears. Really quite simple (compared to helical I mean!). In fact some of the gears that have come with my lathe are replacements that have been cut out of some kind of fibre material.

I was planning to buy a big ish old milling machine anyway, this is just a proper excuse for doing it now.

 

[Billtodd]

I not long put a churchill cub together for a friend of mine 8-)

My brother made a gear , could even have been 110t , on his bp clone . It would have easy on my haighton universal horizontal but my brother wanted a project.

I'd be interested to see pictures of the cub , they are not a common lathe.

What part of the country are you based?

Edit. No it was 80 , just found a picture

 

[Billtodd]

In fact some of the gears that have come with my lathe are replacements that have been cut out of some kind of fibre material.

I'd guess they're not replacements, they are made of Tufnol a fibre composite often used for light duty gears such and change-gears for lathes (and hence why the above 80T gear is ABS )

 

[Billtodd]

YOU lot may have to rebuild the world after the last Septic button-pusher dies of sloth, junk food, and recreational drugs overdose.

Not me Gunga Din , I'm already feeling past my sell-by date :-)

 

[Peter Colman]

Remember that the gear job is only the beginning, you will want to use the mill for all sorts of work in the future.
We live in a world dominated by Bridgeport type machines because they are good, however there is a lot to be said for a horizontal mill with a detachable vertical head.
There are a lot of older machines like Victoria/Elliott and Adcock and Shipley for not too much money in the UK, they are heavy and large but that aside a good example can be very accurate and rigid.
For cutting gears and heavy metal removal, a horizontal is the best by far but for the rest you need the vertical head

 

[PDW]

Remember that the gear job is only the beginning, you will want to use the mill for all sorts of work in the future.
We live in a world dominated by Bridgeport type machines because they are good, however there is a lot to be said for a horizontal mill with a detachable vertical head.
There are a lot of older machines like Victoria/Elliott and Adcock and Shipley for not too much money in the UK, they are heavy and large but that aside a good example can be very accurate and rigid.
For cutting gears and heavy metal removal, a horizontal is the best by far but for the rest you need the vertical head

The horizontal needs a shit-ton of side & face cutters, slitting saws et al to get the best out of it. They can be really cheap at auction or bloody expensive if you need to buy new.

But that caveat aside I agree and I have both a B/port and a Victoria U2 horizontal. The Vicky mill has a LOT more rigidity and considerably more X travel as well, plus the table is much better supported.

And let's not forget geared power feeds on all 3 axes.

PDW