[zhagoox]

I spotted this machine and I'm thinking it could make a wonderful mill for the home shop. It sells in China for like $500. It weights 135 Kg. Model XJ61.

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Being the creative person I am, I already began thinking what could be done to it to make it better. And I'm thinking about the following:

1) Add a quill, with a spooked hand wheel for drill press tasks.
2) Remove the crude pulley drivetrain and put the motor underneath, with a spline power shaft riding vertically along with the Z axis, inside the column. That would make the head lighter and easier to raise and lower.
3) With a power shaft riding along the column, it would be relatively easy to add power longitudinal and cross feed for the table.
4) And now that we're at it, since the spindle and power feeds are synchronized, why not to install a lathe-like gearbox for threading? You could also add a tailstock with a quill riding on the overarm, and get a lathe essentially for free.

[SCzEngrgGroup]

I think you don't understand at all what that machine is....

Regards,
Ray L.

[zhagoox]

Looks like a benchtop horizontal milling machine to me...

I think you don't understand at all what that machine is....

Regards,
Ray L.

[zhagoox]

Well, let's disregard that last comment as useless. However, I suppose where the shots are coming from and let's be clear about it: I know the machine variant in the second and third pictures doesn't have a leadscrew and has a lever operated action for production work. In this regard, this machine is very similar to a Barker. But I'm talking about the variant in the first picture, which is a machine clearly meant for manual work.

Thing is, most horizontal mills, regardless of size, are considered "useless" nowadays, not because they really are, but because people has lost familiarity with them and don't really want to twist their minds 90 degrees to fit. But truth is, anyone who truly understands both concepts knows that a horizontal mill is the mill to have if you only have one.

First, they are more versatile than a vertical: without special attachments, verticals are restricted mostly to shank tools, while horizontals can use both shank tools and arbor tools due to the overarm support. And while it is true that most verticals come with a quill for axial jobs such as drilling, there is no reason why a horizontal can't have one. It's just that, a tradition: verticals usually come with the quill, and horizontals usually come without. But there are horizontals with quills, such as the highly hailed Deckel FP series.

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Second, they are inherently more rigid. And not just a little, they are hugely more rigid. This is simple geometry: an horizontal milling machine has a basic L frame (the table and the vertical column) while the vertical has a C frame (table, vertical column and ram). In plain English, the structure extends more distance in a vertical no matter what you do. Since rigidity mostly depends on projection, it suffers greatly. Also, when you use arbor tools, the horizontal (usually) has the overarm to support the cutter from both sides. And you can even attach the overarm to the table for maximum rigidity (it ceases to be an open structure, becoming a closed one): And if you use disc cutters, you can be sure that they won't deflect under pressure like a vertical does, so deep cuts are the norm rather than the exception.

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About using it as a lathe, true, you aren't going to replace a dedicated lathe, but I'm pretty sure an horizontal mill makes a better lathe than the other way around. It seems like a trivial task: just attach the turret to the table and you're good to go (to be fair, this is also possible in a vertical, I've done it myself, but it's more convenient). Since the overarm moves up and down with the spindle, it never loses alignment, so it's the perfect place to attach a tailstock.

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[handlewanker]

Hi....having retired after 50 years machining etc my opinion of your ideas is that you don't have the skill to "convert" this machine to anything that would equal the cheapest simplest mill drill on the EBAY market and would spend more time and even more money trying to do so without an end result.
Ian.