"Gil HASH" wrote in message
...
'lo
Xcuze me for the newbie's strange question of the day :
Can a lathe be replaced by a milling machine for quite all metalworking?
In another terms, a milling machine is more universal than a lathe or not?
(It's for me : buying first lathe or milling machine?)

The primary limitation of using a mill for turning (i.e., lathe work) is the
size of piece you could handle. On a small vertical mill you might be able
to handle a piece about 7" diameter and 12" long. On a small horizontal
mill you might be able to do 20" diameter x 3" long. A typical home shop
lathe (e.g., a 9" South Bend) can handle 9" diameter by 30" long.
Conversely, a similar lathe used in milling could handle about a 6" x 5"
work piece without moving the work between cuts. While turning on a mill
is doable, it is a pain to set-up .. I only do it on those rare occassions
when I have to turn something big diameter and relatively thin.
As for which to get first .. I strongly disagree with the idea of
getting a mill first if you expect to do mostly milling. The lathe is
inherently more versatile. Also, milling attachments and fixtures for
lathes abound. The reverse for mills doesn't hold. Another serious
limitation of using a mill is the difficulty of mounting the work .. indeed,
if a chuck can be mounted on the mill spindle at all. Most likely, you'd
have to machine some adapters for face plates or chucks.. for which you
would need a lathe. I've yet to find chuck commercially available adapters
for small mills -- beyond a wimpy 3 jaw chuck like you'd find on a drill
press. that is, wimpy compared to the typical chuck you find on a lathe.
By the time you've tooled up the adapters you need to mount a chuck, you've
already heavy into lathe work .. tapers, threads, boring, turning, etc.

Boris

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