Can the Little Machine Shop milling attachment be turned sideways?

[doorknob]

I may want to get a milling attachment for my HF 7x10 lathe.

LMS sells a milling attachment for the mini lathe that looks like a crude vise attached to an adjustable vertical slide. It connects to the cross slide of the lathe.

The attachment is shown at LittleMachineShop.com - Milling Attachment, Mini Lathe, while a kit that includes the attachment along with some end mills and a mill holder and drawbar (for what purpose? to better hold the mill holder in the chuck, or is the mill holder somehow held in the spindle independent of the chuck?) is shown at LittleMachineShop.com - Milling Attachment Package, Mini Lathe

They also sell the Taig milling attachment, which is similar (although it has only half of the travel adjustment) and is a lot less expensive, and they offer a diagram (http://littlemachineshop.com/Project...ttachMount.pdf) showing how to make an adapter to mount the Taig attachment on the HF lathe's cross slide: LittleMachineShop.com - Milling Attachment, Taig

In the "typical application" photo on the LMS site, it looks like the milling attachment is designed to mount such that the open jaws of the vise face the lathe spindle.

Does the design of the attachment permit it to be oriented sideways such that the open jaws of the vise face the lathe operator (or away from the operator)?

They have a link to a diagram of an adapter that is meant to raise the position of the attachment vs. the center line of the lathe spindle, and so I suppose that it might be possible for me to make a modified adapter that would mount the attachment sideways, in the event that it does not already have that capability (maybe I should have studied that blueprint more closely before posting here and the answer would have been obvious, but I'd still like to hear any first-hand experiences with the attachment).

That diagram is at: http://littlemachineshop.com/Instruc...tMountSIEG.pdf

[stephenrc]

The chuck is not used, you need to remove it first. The drawbar is to hold the end mill holder in the spindle. The end mill holder has a morse taper.

You'll need to make an adapter plate to hold the mill adapter sideways.

[doorknob]

OK, thanks for the info...

It will be a while before I can afford a milling machine, and so maybe I can get by with a milling attachment until then...

[blades]

Although I have not used it, my biggest beef with the LMS milling attachment is what they loosely refer to as the "vise". It's opening is only 1.9". How retarded is that? Why get that close to a 2" capacity and stop short? Even if the manufacturer works in a metric world, they stopped short of a very common 50mm. 1.9" = devalued product.

[claas900]

I may want to get a milling attachment for my HF 7x10 lathe.

LMS sells a milling attachment for the mini lathe that looks like a crude vise attached to an adjustable vertical slide. It connects to the cross slide of the lathe.

The attachment is shown at LittleMachineShop.com - Milling Attachment, Mini Lathe, while a kit that includes the attachment along with some end mills and a mill holder and drawbar (for what purpose? to better hold the mill holder in the chuck, or is the mill holder somehow held in the spindle independent of the chuck?) is shown at LittleMachineShop.com - Milling Attachment Package, Mini Lathe

They also sell the Taig milling attachment, which is similar (although it has only half of the travel adjustment) and is a lot less expensive, and they offer a diagram (http://littlemachineshop.com/Project...ttachMount.pdf) showing how to make an adapter to mount the Taig attachment on the HF lathe's cross slide: LittleMachineShop.com - Milling Attachment, Taig

In the "typical application" photo on the LMS site, it looks like the milling attachment is designed to mount such that the open jaws of the vise face the lathe spindle.

Does the design of the attachment permit it to be oriented sideways such that the open jaws of the vise face the lathe operator (or away from the operator)?

They have a link to a diagram of an adapter that is meant to raise the position of the attachment vs. the center line of the lathe spindle, and so I suppose that it might be possible for me to make a modified adapter that would mount the attachment sideways, in the event that it does not already have that capability (maybe I should have studied that blueprint more closely before posting here and the answer would have been obvious, but I'd still like to hear any first-hand experiences with the attachment).

That diagram is at: http://littlemachineshop.com/Instruc...tMountSIEG.pdf

If you have the time, look around and you can home make the milling attachment, for around $30 or so? It's what I did it took sometime but it was fun to do. Varmint Al's Mini Lathe Page

[blades]

I can see a lot of merit in the tool holder & drawbar setup as LMS packages it. Hanging an endmill out of the end of the 3-jaw chuck would be a lot more prone to chatter & vibration because the endmill is quite a ways farther out from the spindle bearings than it would be when using the holder.