Lathe / Milling for dummies

Good Day all,

thought id start a new thread through fear I wont get any responses in my build thread

As part of my machine build, I am going to have to try some milling... I have a lathe with a miller on it. But ive never used it.

It presently has a drill chuck (which I am led to believe is dangerous to mill with) and I should change it for a mill head


Attachment 7511

Ive tried to find information about what taper the mill head will accept but Ive found varying facts the more I look, therefore I decided safest way would be to look at the actual taper. So I popped off the drill chuck and this is what I have to play with

Attachment 7512
Attachment 7513
Attachment 7514

My question I guess, is as follows

Do I buy a "MT3" collet taper chuck or "MT2" etc

also, can anybody recommend one imparticular? I probably need to get the collet set aswell.

In an ideal world; It would ideal if the same collet set worked on my water cooled 2.2kw spindle (I havent yet bought) for my cnc build.. But that might just be too lucky

while im here Il ask another question if im able

1.) this bad-boy is going to get in the way of my milling area... so how do I remove it
Attachment 7515

I note the rustyness! this is because my garage roof at present is metal sheeting which condensates. Im pulling it off this weekend, boarding it.. then felting it, then putting metal sheets back on. not to mention re-homing the machine


thanks in advance for your responses

matt

Hi Matt

Don't want to teach Granny how to suck eggs, but you seem to be measuring a Jacobs taper which is mounted in the milling head taper and thinking to mount a collet chuck on it.

I'm wondering if you are confused about what you are looking at. The Jacobs taper adaptor is a round lump of iron with a taper on either end.

It's the other taper you want to knock out, the one that goes up into the spindle by hammering from above. The Jacobs taper is irrelevant.

Drill chucks don't make good milling heads because they depend somewhat on the downward drilling force to keep them in place. Once you lose that downward force they can vibrate off.

best

Robin

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kingcreaky

1.) this bad-boy is going to get in the way of my milling area... so how do I remove it

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I can't see any release on the backplate so the chuck is almost certainly screwed on. To remove it select a low speed, insert the chuck key. Hit the key,close to the chuck, to turn the chuck in the normal unscrewing direction. A copper faced hammer is good, anything that gives you a dead blow.

Many thanks for the reply. very much appreciated. Il have a go at removing the actual taper later.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kingcreaky

Many thanks for the reply. very much appreciated. Il have a go at removing the actual taper later.

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It should be held in by a draw bar screwed in to the taper. Unscrew the draw bar about an eigth of an inch.,

Pull up on the drillling handle then whack the top of the draw bar. I use a sledgehammer. The idea is that the thread will catch the taper so don't unscrew too far.

You may need a new draw bar for the new chuck because they come with various threads.

It looks like the chuck has three screws on the back to remove it from the backplate, so you might be able to use those. You should keep putting oil on things like that to stop them rusting until the roof is fixed.

The 2.2kW spindle will use ER20 collets, so if you get an ER20 chuck for the mill then the collets will be interchangeable. However this does mean you can only use up to 13mm shank cutters, which may be too small, in which case get ER25 which goes up to 16mm.