Milling Machines

Hello
I like verticle metal mills better than horizontal because horizontal are too much like a lathe. But isn't ether type of mill able to be duplicted in work by the lathe?

Someone said earlier that in order to make an engine I'd need a milling machine as well as a lathe or at least it would make the task easier. I can understand that you can turn out a cylinder and a piston on a lathe. But a connecting rod and borring out a crank case sounds like a job for a mill. Doesn't it?

I got the book about How to Run a Lathe by Lindsay and it starts out into the history of the lathe. Like saying that the early lathe was a wooden work piece supported with 2 wooden poles and a wood lath (like a sappling wrapped around the workpiece made it go around). The word lath for sappling was how the turning machine got its name lathe.

I've seen in real life lathes as big as nearly 20' long and I've heard of them being even bigger (like 50 or 70 almost 80 feet long for ship yards).

Thank you everyone.
David.

It is possible to do milling type work in a lathe with a milling attachment but it is size limited and not very convenient. It's the kind of thing one does if one can't afford the $ or space for a real milling machine.

The difference between a horizontal and a vertical mill is usually one of primary type of work needed. A horizontal is very efficient at certain kinds of work and not very efficient at others. They are comlementary to the extent that horizontal attachments are made for verticals and vertical attachments are made for horizontals.

David,
the H mill is more like a shaper than a lathe, but not within 20% of either.


a lathe makes square things round, and a mill makes round things square (just kidding)

while not the best solution, i bought a horizontal attachment (full set) for my BP, and it does WONDERS for stock removal, squaring, and facing....

but, my lathe can do facing about 5 times faster, on the same piece

you can "turn" on a mill, smallish parts (that you can fit into a collet or chuck) and you can "mill" on a lathe... but it's jsut not efficent....

jeffe