I have an opportunity to get a nice old Sheldon horizontal mill with a (very nice) home-made vertical attachment. It is super clean and comes with a bunch of tooling, but I can't quite figure out what I'd use it for in a hobby gunsmithing and knifemaking shop. It is 3 phase so I would have to run it with a rotary converter or convert it to VFD. The owner really wants me to have it, but I just don't know if I'd get enough use out of it to justify the moving expenses. My shop is small and I can't keep large heavy tools that won't be used with some regularity. I already have a pretty nice vertical mill.
Horizontal Mill?
- Thread starter RCE1
- Start date
Butch Lambert
Active member
RCE1, I have a vertical mill tooling for my Bridgeport. I ran a Cincinnati a lot in the old days. They have their use in the old machine shop, but I've never used my Horizontal tooling in the last 15yrs.
Thanks, Butch. That's what I was thinking.
Gene Beggs
Active member
Skip Otto kept a horizontal mill busy fluting barrels. He was good at it, very reasonably priced and fast delivery. No one could beat old Skip at fluting BR barrels. He became quite controversial with his claim that fluting made the barrels stiffer. It seems that most everyone took that to mean it made the barrel stronger and that's not what he meant at all. What he should have said was, 'Fluting makes the barrel droop less.' And that it does! 
Later
Gene Beggs
Later
Gene Beggs
Skip Otto kept a horizontal mill busy fluting barrels. He was good at it, very reasonably priced and fast delivery. No one could beat old Skip at fluting BR barrels. He became quite controversial with his claim that fluting made the barrels stiffer. It seems that most everyone took that to mean it made the barrel stronger and that's not what he meant at all. What he should have said was, 'Fluting makes the barrel droop less.' And that it does!
Later
Gene Beggs
Thanks, Gene. I was thinking about that yesterday when I spent the afternoon with the owner of the mill. For rifle barrels, I would have to design the setup to slide as the travel of the table isn't enough to make cuts like that in one pass. I think I'm going to let it go. What he meant was that, pound for pound, fluted barrels were stiffer, right?
jackie schmidt
New member
[SUB][/SUB]This is our only Horizonal Mill, (albeit, a boring mill).
http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=18036&stc=1&d=1468254393
Even in a shop our size, it is amazing how little use we have for a true horizontal mill.
http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=18036&stc=1&d=1468254393
Even in a shop our size, it is amazing how little use we have for a true horizontal mill.
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Mike Bryant
Active member
Horizontal mills sell for scrap prices. I bought a Brown and Sharp horizontal mill years ago for $250 that a aeronautical machine shop in Wichita, Kansas had taking up space in their shop for years. They just wanted it gone. It cost more for the setup to flute barrels on it than the machine cost. Pretty well even at that, you're better off having a barrel fluted by someone who has a CNC machine to do it. It took us hours on pipe rollers to move it from the front of the shop to where it's currently sitting. I figure it's around 2 tons in weight. Pity whoever has to move it out of there after I'm gone.
Every once in a great while (less often than once a year) I set up my vertical mill with some horizontal style cutters on a shaft.
I have a bearing plate that mounts on the table for the outboard end of the shaft.
The cutters seem to be far pricier than typical vertical cutter.
They are larger and that is probbaly explains the cost.
Slitters seems to work better in this setup with both ends of the shaft well anchored.
The surface finish seems to come out better though.
I have a bearing plate that mounts on the table for the outboard end of the shaft.
The cutters seem to be far pricier than typical vertical cutter.
They are larger and that is probbaly explains the cost.
Slitters seems to work better in this setup with both ends of the shaft well anchored.
The surface finish seems to come out better though.
A horizontal mill's main purpose was to remove vast quantities of metal, and to use custom-made form cutters to make shapes. The inside part of the extractor of a 1903 Springfield, for example, was made with a stack of custom cutters that ran crosswise and cut the entire inner shape in one pass. Nifty, but without a tool and cutter grinder and heat treat oven, you can't make use of features like that.
The vertical head might be much more useful. Make sure the "tooling" has a selection of collets that fit the spindle. You can rack up fifty or more collets in various sizes and shapes; in practice, half a dozen round ones will take care of anything you're likely to do. (1/4, 5/16, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, and 3/4)
Horizontals were generally pretty heavy since they were intended to take deep cuts with ganged cutters. If the attachment of the vertical head is solid enough, it will make a nice smooth cut where flimsier mills will start to chatter.
The vertical head might be much more useful. Make sure the "tooling" has a selection of collets that fit the spindle. You can rack up fifty or more collets in various sizes and shapes; in practice, half a dozen round ones will take care of anything you're likely to do. (1/4, 5/16, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, and 3/4)
Horizontals were generally pretty heavy since they were intended to take deep cuts with ganged cutters. If the attachment of the vertical head is solid enough, it will make a nice smooth cut where flimsier mills will start to chatter.