wrote in message
oups.com...
I've got a question (or a few) for the experienced machinists who
generously contribute so much to this group.

At my school there are two machine shops. The kind machinists once
told me about the versatility of the vertical mills. They explained
how the upper components can swivel, turn and be repositioned. The
ram? it appears can be moved 90 degrees away from the table off to the
side or behind the mill, and the head can be pivoted into compound
angles.

My question(s): Does anyone ever actually use these non-standard
positions for the mill? Doesn't the rigidity get lost at such long
lever arm lengths away from the table? Anybody got some pictures? What
is actully worked on in these settings? How is it mounted? This stems
from concluding you can't put a v-8 350 block on the table of a small
mill and work on it.

Yep! Those amongst us that have such machines do, on occasion, take
advantage of their capabilities. Mind you, the vast majority of use such
machines get is in the right angle position, but there's nothing quite like
having the capability to rotate the turret, advance the ram, or tilt the
head in two directions when a particular job calls for any of those
features.

Without a specific case at hand, it's difficult to explain how valuable they
can be. One that readily comes to mind could be that you have a long
piece, somewhat longer than the table travel. You prefer to not reposition
the piece, for reasons best known to you. What you do is set it up on the
table to your convenience, then rotate the turret such that you can machine
the entire piece in two steps. The first step cuts one end of the part,
the second step the other, after repositioning the turret. That
necessitates reorienting the spindle to the part, but it does prevent
setting up the part a second time, which in some cases can be good.

You do give up a small amount of rigidity in machines like a Bridgeport. If
you've ever run a Gorton Mastermil, for example, you'd readily see that the
Bridgeport is quite light duty by contrast. All of that can not be
attributed to the flexibility of the Bridgeport, however. A Mastermil
outweighs a Bridgeport considerably.

The benefits of a flexible machine like a Bridgeport outweigh any of the
negatives tremendously. Aside from the purchase price of Bridgeport
mills, which used to be very reasonable, it was the secret to their success.

Harold