Vertical Mill Plans

You might try a web search on "Pookatuck". That was the name of a company that made casting sets for some types of small machine tools and I think that aficionados may have uploaded plans for at least some of them somewhere, possibly in a Yahoo group.

Mike

My personal opinion is that you can buy an import mill for less that you could make one even if you only consider your time worth min wage.

Chuck - Yes - I've seen that - I don't want the plans to build one so I can save money, I want the plans to learn more about them.

Then I'm going to find one that's junk and re-build it or we'll build one from scratch (debating the whole cupola foundry thing, but maybe I can pay someone to cast the iron bits). I don't need it so I don't want to just buy one, I want to learn more about them and share the rebuilding or building of one with my son (currently 10).

Mike, Thanks for the info on the Pookatuck - but it's Pootatuck and there's a yahoo group with most of the prints available online, so I"ve got at least a start.

Tillman

BTW - if anyone's looking for plans like these - you can find a bunch of info in the files section of the Lewis Machine Tool group on yahoo:

Tillman

Yep! Second that, Chuck. If the OP is dead set on buying a mill kit, I suggest he should buy a mill drill, take it all apart and then rebuild it from the component pieces. The desire to build things from "scratch" comes off as a little strange, to me. Where does "scratch" start? At the foundary; at the iron ore mine; at the blast furnace; where??

Bob Swinney

" If the OP is dead set on buying a mill kit, I suggest he should buy a mill drill, take it all apart and then rebuild it from the component pieces."

You need only a dial indicator to show the inaccuracy of an assembled mill-drill. Then you can decide how accurate you want to make it and price the square and straightedge you'll need.

Repeat until budget and actual needs coincide.

jw

How about the David Gingery make a lathe, etc books.

chuck

Bob,

What do you do with your mill?

Why not just job it out?

Buying junk and rebuilding it is an option, as I stated in the above post.

As far as need - I don't NEED a mill at all. Most of the peeps who do hobby metal working don't NEED a mill, but it sure helps them enjoy their hobby.

And for me, as I stated above, "scratch" starts at foundry, although I'm inclined to outsource this, since I'm not sure how much I'd enjoy melting and pouring iron. Where do you draw the line at scratch? I guess it depends - woodworkers build a cabinet from 'scratch' - they may fell the tree, mill the lumber, dry the lumber, design the cabinet, cut, dado, route, glue, sand, finish, etc, or start at any point in that process - buy the lumber ready to use, buy a cabinet plan, by the cabinet compenents already cut, or buy the cabinet already assembled, but needing finishing, or just go to the big box and buy a ready-to-use cabinet.

The real value in this is the same as going fishing, building a clock, building a model steam engine, building a custom dune buggy or kit car, flying model airplanes, etc. All of those things are a little strange. Given the cost of fishing gear, you could buy fish cheaper. Clocks are fairly accurate and a whole lot cheaper (time wise) than building one. How many people NEED a model steam engine? My pre-assembled car gets me where I want to go. I watch birds fly and it doesn't cost me a dime.

I think my son and I would really enjoy doing this together. If that's strange, then more folks should be strange.

Tillman

Have that one - it's a horizonal mill. Wanted a vertical mill option as well. Actually the Pootatuck plans are exactly what I wanted.

If anyone knows of any others, though, I'd welcome more sources.

Tillman

Well you can mill in a lathe; I tried it once; Didn't like it much.

I have 3 mills. I use my vertical mill more than my lathe for hobby work. Can't imagine not having a vertical mill and horizontal mills are just cool!

I have a shaper too. Now that I really don't NEED, but it is even cooler than the horizontal mill.

He who dies with the most wins! He who uses his tools has the most fun.

chuck

Yeah - see - that's it - the cool/fun factor - that's what it's about.

I'm getting a free horizontal mill - picking it up next week - it's from 1900-1910 - off an old naval ship. Was powered by line feed, but now got a 2HP 210/3Phase motor on it. Maybe we'll just end up building a vertical head attachment for that mill, one with a quill.

Besides, wouldn't it be cool to put DRO and CNC capabilities on an early 1900's mill?

Tillman

Take a look at the CNC mill project on

Paul

Excellent summation

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

I think it's a great idea and project. Be real nice if you could document th' process with pics so we could follow along.

Snarl

Thanks for the link! I don't think I'll ever build one, but I sure like reading all about doing it. It helps me with ideas to build other things too!

Eide

oops - sorry about the typo. That spelling always gets me.

Bob Swinney

Hey - no prob - I think we're going to rebuild this Southbend 9" lathe first anyway. That should take a while, and in the meantime I'll keep looking for a clapped out mill I can steal the heavy cast stuff from.

Gonna have a couple of young men helping me restore it, My son (10), a neighbor boy (5) whose 'dad' left, and another friend of my son's (also

10) and whose 'dad' also left. Can you believe that neither of those two other boys has been fishing? That's just a shame!

Well, at least my son likes the idea of them helping us, especially since "they don't have a cool dad like I do" :)

Tillman

Thanks for being a man for those kids!

Eide