What type of spindle mount is this?

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Island Time
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What type of spindle mount is this?

Post by Island Time »

I got a preview of a yard sale coming up. One room of the shop was clearly for metal working and had a small lathe, which was already sold. There was no mill, and the daughter doesn't recall her dad ever having had a mill. A couple of drawers were full of cutters, many in as-new condition. I'm curious about the spindle mount. The tools have straight shafts, about 5/8"-3/4" in diameter, with a large flat milled in the middle of the shaft. There was no threaded component on the end. In fact, a couple of end mills were double ended with the straight shaft and the milled flat in between two end mills.

I'm a complete beginner on mills. I'm familiar with Morse tapers, but that's about it. Can somebody enlighten me as to what spindle mounts these are for? My apologies for not getting a photo.

Jim
John Evans
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Re: What type of spindle mount is this?

Post by John Evans »

End mills with the flat are called "Weldon" style. You mount them either in a collet or a endmill holder that has a set screw that engages the flat. In other words they will fit any spindle style with the PROPER holding system.
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Island Time
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Re: What type of spindle mount is this?

Post by Island Time »

Thank John. Is it a good mounting system for smaller mills? I'm looking at the Precision Mathews PM-727V with an R-8 spindle. A quick google shows R-8 Weldon holders. Would this be a reasonable setup?
pete
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Re: What type of spindle mount is this?

Post by pete »

I'd say John pretty much nailed it. Scroll down almost to the bottom of this for a drawing of that Weldon shank. http://www.tools-n-gizmos.com/specs/Tapers.html The flat only covers a short portion of the tool shank so without the PO having a mill those cutting tools still could have been used in a 3 or 4 jaw lathe chuck. If there was anything that looked like these https://www.ebay.com/p/Mt3-Morse-Taper- ... 1584944881 Then that's how they were being used and held in the lathes head stock taper. The set screws in the side of the tool hold the tool locked in the holder and prevent the tool pulling out if the set screw is almost tightened and the tool pull down by hand until the slope on the end of the flat catches the side of the set screw. Then the set screws are fully tightened.Industry uses mostly 30, 40, 50 sized taper tooling today. For us in a home shop with Bridgeport and small sized mills Morse Taper or much more common R8 tapers would almost always be what the machines would use. For a few good reasons the R8 would be the much better choice. Older machines and especially horizontal mills can have a variety of tapers with some of them being hard to find today.
John Evans
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Re: What type of spindle mount is this?

Post by John Evans »

Island Time wrote: Mon Sep 02, 2019 12:55 pm Thank John. Is it a good mounting system for smaller mills? I'm looking at the Precision Mathews PM-727V with an R-8 spindle. A quick google shows R-8 Weldon holders. Would this be a reasonable setup?
No ,buy the mill with the R-8 collet system and use the R-8 collets to hold the mills. The end mill holders eat up more of the distance from spindle to table and you don't have any to spare with that mill.The only time I have ever pulled out a mill from a R-8 collet was under a very heavy cut and did not have the collet draw bar tight enough.You won't want use any bigger than 1/2 " endmill in that machine ,not ridged or power full enough. I started out 40 years ago with a similar mill ,better than none . But when I could got a full size Bridgeport style mill. A lot depends on what you will use it to make,RC car parts or 15"gauge live steam locos. A smaller lighter lathe or mill can make many parts ,ya just got to take smaller bites!!





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Island Time
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Re: What type of spindle mount is this?

Post by Island Time »

Thank you all for the help. Based on the evidence the mills probably were used in the lathe. That configuration hadn't occurred to me.

John, My interest lies in IC and smaller live steam engines. I get it about little bites. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
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rudd
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Re: What type of spindle mount is this?

Post by rudd »

*IF* you have issues with the EM's slipping in the collets, make sure everything is dry of oil (auto starting fluid is great for this) and sprinkle a little chalk - like for a chalk line box - on the shank before putting the EM in the collet.
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