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 VERTICAL MILLING
IN THE
HOME WORKSHOP
Arnold Throp
C.Eng .• F.I.Mech.E.

ARGUS BOOKS

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Argus Books
Argus House
Boundary Way
Hemel Hempstead CONTENTS
Hertfordshire HP2 7ST
England
ChaperOne EVOLUTION OF THE VERTICAL MILLER 12
Early history f industrial machines: milling in the
First published 1977 early small lathes: milling attachments for lathes
Second impression 1979 circa 1920s: E.T. Westbury's experimental machine
Second edition 1984 1964 : the Dare-Westbury machine 1968: currently
Reprinted 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991. 1993 available small machines and attachments.

Chapter Two MILLING FLAT SURFACES 27

©Argus Books Ltd 1977 Surfaces parallel to table: simple fixed -radius
flycutters: variable-radius boring head flycutting :
multiple tooth face mills : work holding: multiple-
pass mill ng· surfaces square with table: using side
of endmill.

Chapter Three SLITTING AND CUTTING 35

All rights reserved . No part of this publication may be Use of slit ing saw for cut ing through machinery
reproduced 1n any form by pnnt, photography, microfilm component bosses : eccentric sheaves and straps:
or any other means without wntten permission from the marine type big ends of connecttng rods.
publisher.
Chapter Four KEYWAY CUTTING 37
Endmill ing round ended feat er' keyways: keyways
on taper shafts · use of disc type cutters for plain
sunken ke ays : Wood uff keyways· making
ISBN 0 85242 843 )< Woodruff cutters in the ome workshop: table of
sugges ed sizes of Woodruff ke~·s and keyways for
I'T'odel engineers.

Chapter Five F LUTING COMPONENTS OTHER THAN

TOOLS 43
Photo typesetting by Performance Typesetting, Milton Ke•mes Correct form of flute ir loco connecting and
coupl ing rods : moun ing rods against angleplate for
Printed and bound in Great Britain by fluting : paralle l flutes: taper flutes · preferred type of
Biddies Ltd. Guildford and Kmg's Lynn culling tool.

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Chapter Six BORING 45
Dealing with parts too large to swing in lathe:
trepanning large holes.
Chapter Seven 'JIG-BORING' 46
Using the miller as a measuring machine : drilling
holes at one setting of work and precise entres:
engine beam: back-lash precautions: trip gear com -
ponent : multi-hole boiler plates.
Chapter Eight PROFILING 49
Curves on parts too large for lathe: loco frames:
smokebox castings: machine pad bolts : loco con-
necting rods and coupling rods.
Chapter Nine END-ROUNDING 52
Use of hardened filing guides deprecated:
mounting work on rotary table: standard size guide
plugs: anti-slip precautions: direction of feed for
external and internal surfaces.
Chapter Ten DIVIDING HEADS 54
Simple ungeared dividing heads: using change
wheels a index plates: examples of dividing ork:
hexagons. squares. dog clutch teeth : avoiding odd
numbers: the Myford worm -geared dividing head:
avoiding back-lash errors : packing block for
bringing to lathe centre height : universal steady
stand for Myford head: three further dividing heads.
Chapter Eleven DIVIDING HEADS AND GEAR-CUTTING 62
Limitations to straight spur gears : simple head:
Myford worm-geared head : tooth cutting n
integral pinion: use of home made f'ycutters:
Brown & Sharpe disc type cut ers: selec ion o'
cutter to suit number of teeth : cuttmg a large
coarse tooth gear: anti-slip back-up devices.
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Chapter Twelve DIVIDING HEADS AND TOOL MAKING 66
Fluting taps : example 5-flute Acme tap: producing
a small fine tooth milling cutter with ball end: use
of table stop blocks: combination of rotary table
with main table movement · large 60 degree coun -
tersink fluting.
Chapter Thirteen D I VIDING HEADS AND GRADUATED
SCALES 71
Cutting graduation marks : use of rotary 'engraving
cutters: use of non-rotating planing type tools : use
of table stops to contr<?l line lengths: graduating
cylindrical scales: graduating flat angular scales:
checking correct way of figuring when stamping
scales.
Chapter Fourteen CUTTER SPEEDS FOR VERTICAL MILLERS 74
Speeds affect time occupied on job : speeds too
high may cause excessive cutter wear and chatter:
rigidity of work. cutter and machine inferior as a
rule to industrial conditions. dry cutting instead of
lubricated: Table Ill gives speeds for cutters in
different kinds of tasks : machine speeds may not
always be suitable .
Chapter Fifteen WORK-HOLDING WITH Dl FFI CULT
SHAPES 78
Comparison with full scale engineering : use of
chucking pieces on components : thin components
and use of adhesives: advisability of making fixtures
for difficult pieces : three- sided angleplates.
Chapter Six een CHUCKS FOR MILLING CUTTERS 81
Never use taper shank tools or chucks without
drawbar: chucks for screwed shank self- tightening
collets : Clarkson chuck : Osborn Ti anic chuck:
Chucks for tee-headed locking cutters: Clare
chucks : use of small end mills and O-bits without
locking features : philosophy of ' throw-away·
cutters.
List of Illustrations
29 Fluting locom otive connecti ng rod 44
Fig. 30 Drawing of stea m hook (lever} 47
1 Abwood milling attachment of the 192 0 s 13 31 Photograph of steam hook 48
2 E. T. Westbury's milll n machine 14 32 Profiling pad bolt 50
3 Dare-Westbury m achine 15 33 Profiling coupling rods 50
4 Dare-Westbury Mk II machine 16 34 End-rounding with ro ary table 53
5 Rodney attachment 17 35 Cutti ng eeth in dog clutch part 55
6 Rodney ma chi ne 18 36 Drawing of steady stand for Myf rd dividing head 56
7 Amolco attach ment 19 37 Steady in use on a gear cu ting operation 58
8 Amalea machine 20 38 Th op dividing head 58
9 Mentor machine 21 39 Thomas versatile dividing head 59
10 Maximat attachment 23 40 Kibbey/M. E.S. dividing head 60
11 Astra machine 21 41 Close-up of flycutter and pinion 63
12 Twin machi ne 22 42 Gearcutting with Brown & Sharpe cutter 63
13 Senior machine 26 43 Flycutting 10 d.p. gearvvheel. fron view 64
14 Set of three flycutters 28 44 F ycutting 1 0 d.p. gea rwheel. rear view 65
15 Flycutting a bracket 28 45 Flut'ng Acme thread tap 66
16 Flycutting connecting rod ends 29 46 Cut1ing teeth of ball-end cutter 67
17 Flycutting tapered bar rnater' al 29 47 Close-uo of ball-end c t1er 68
18 Flycutting cylinder soleplate 30 48 Gashing flutes in arge countersinki ng tool 69
19 Facemill 31 49 Rea - view showings eady stand in use 70
20 Milling flywheel1oint face 31 50 Cy 11"'drical mach me component being graduated 72
21 Milling crosshead slide 32 51 Close-up of previous operation 72
22 Milling bearing Jaws i bedplate 33 52 Graduadng part circular arcuate scale on flat surface 73
23 Slitting boss of casting 35 53 Tape-held workpiece being flycu: 79
24 Milling feather keyway 37 54 '-lerringway th•ee ·sided angleplate 79
25 Milling feather keyway on tapered shaft 38 55 Two of the three stzes of Hernmgwa~· ang leplates 80
26 Milling keyway with sl'tting saw 39 56 Clare rni ing chuck 82
27 Set of four Woodruff keyway cutters 39 57 Clarkson mil ling chuck 82
28 Milling Woodruff keyway 41 58 Osborn rrill..,g chuc>< 83

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 Preface
In the engineering industry the vertical
miller is very widely used . not o nly fo r
batch production.'bu t also for tool makmg
and the 'one-off jobs whi ch are so
common in general eng ineering. In the
home workshop . w here most jobs are
'one-off the versat ility of th e machi ne
makes it an important com panion to the
la the. This book describes many of the
infinitely wid e range of ope rations which
can be done, and all those described are
illustrated by photographs so that under-
standing of the methods is assured. These
cover work on parts of m odel locomotives.
stationary engine machinery, cutting
tools, gears, clutches. etc. Full information
is given o n the machine accessories which
are required , such as various types of
cutters and the chucks needed fo r their
mounting on the m achine sp indle. The use
of chea p home -made cutte rs is shown
and encouraged. Guidance is also given
on the work-holding devices such as
clamps, packings, vices, angle plates.
dividing heads. rotary tables, and which of
these are needed for particular kinds of
work.

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CHAPTER 1
Evolution of the
Vertical Mi ler
Th e hori zontal mi ll ing machine evolved
nat ura lly from t he lathe in the first or
second decade of the ninetee nth ce ntury.
Eli Whitney (U .S.A.) is said to have had
one in use about 1818, and in Tools for
the Job the late LTC . Aolt recounted how
the young en in eer J ames Nasmyth (later
to become famous as the inven tor of the
steam hammer and other appl iances)
fixed one up and milled the flats on
hundreds of tiny hexagon nuts for a mode l
of Maudslay m arine eng ine . while
working for Henry Maudslay. Drawings of
the early horizontal mi ll ers show such a
resemb lance to t he lathes of that period
that almost certainly th ey were in fact
lat hes w hich had been adapted to mill ing .
Th e cutters were really fil es, made by th e
fil e makers of the times, usi ng the 'hand-
cutting' m ethods (rea ll y a hammer and a
spec ial chisel) whi h were the on ly
practice ava il able at that time .
The evolu tion of the vertical miller
came naturally afte r th e horizon ta l
machine. I have not found any rel iable
reference to a date by which th e vertica l
m iller had appeared in industry , thoug h
this must have been well before 1900.
When model engineering started to
become an established hobby at the turn
of th e ce ntury quite a va ri ety of smal l
12
lathes were provided by different makers.
and the great versatili ty of the lath e
created in itself a tendency to make the
lathe do every operation that arose . This
was enhanced by the fact that many
modellers were working men with very
little cash to spend on their hobby. Many
were the ingenious at achments devised
to enable the lathe to carry out work it had
never been intended o do. Such makers
as Drummond Brothers modified their
lathes with tee -slotted boring tables to
help in this work, and even brough out
the famous r und-bed lat h . wh ich
although intended for a cut -price market .
also had bui lt in to it the ability to do a lot
more than just simple urning. But as the
years went by it became ever more
apparent something better was needed
for milling operations. None of the small
millers produced by the machine tool
industry were oriented towards the home
workshop.
Then in the 1920s the Abwood Tool
and Engineering Co. produced a·n excel -
lent vertical m il ling a t achmen t for
mounting on small lathes. especial!~· he
popular 3t in . fat bed Drummond , though
adjustable features made it applicable o
other lathes too. It had a No. Morse Fig. t Abwaod milling attachment of the
tape r arbo r which fi ted into the lathe 1920s
13
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spindle. and bevel gears with keywayed
shafts took the drive up to th e vertical
cutter spindle , wh1ch had a No. 1 Morse
interna l taper. All the gears were equa l
ratio m itre bevels. so t he cutter rotated at
the same speed as the lathe spindle, and
all the six speeds of the lathe were usable.
The work was mounted on the lathe
boring table. and power feeding in on
direction came from the la th e screwcut-
ti ng gear. A pho tograph of this unit set up
on a Myfor Super 7 is shown in Fig. 1. It
was unfortunately a low-volume , labour
intensive uni t with vee slides needing
hand sc raping , but was selling in 1 930 for
7 gui neas, about a quarter of the cost of
14
intended to make economies or improve
the Drummond lat he. Although out of
the performance. This new design was
production for many years n w , it was in
discussed with Edgar. who agreed to the
its time a courageous effort , but belonged
use of the name 'Dare-Westbury. the
to the age when most home lathes were
machine to be sold as a kit of semi-
driven by fla t belt from a treadle or coun-
finished components by my existing firm
tershaf . and the cost of electric motors
Dore Engineering. I was able to place the
made the ind epe ndent motor drive
machini ng of the componen ts with a
uneconomic in home hobby applications.
number of firms already known to me . and
But the need for a handy vertical
th e first sets of materials began to go out
mi lli ng mach ine had been recognised, and
to customers early in 1968 . Since that
in the early 19 60s t hat very good friend of
time many hundreds of sets have been
model engineers. Edgar T. Westbury,
distributed . all over the world , and are still
completed an exper imenta l mac hine.
being made in ever grea t er quantities by
which he described with drawings and
Mode l En gi neering Services . of
photographs in t he Model Engineer
Chesterfield. who took it over from me in
du ring 1964. That too was a very labour
1971. whe n I wanted . on accou nt of age .
to reduce my commitments.
Castings to t he origina l design are.
however. still available from Waking Pre -
c isio n Models of 1 6 Dovecot Park.
Aberdour, Fife , Scotland KY3 OTA. and
machine from these is shown in Fig. 2 .
The Dare-Westbu ry machine is depict e
in Fig. 3 and he similarity be wee them
Fig. 3 Dare- Westbury machine wi ll be at once apparent. During its
entire life the D re-Westbury has een
undergoing small improvements, and the
intensive machi ne with vee slides, and the present suppliers have now decided th at
main casting s were much too big to be t h e m odificatio n s are s uffi c i e n t ly
machi ned in th e average hom e workshop. stabilised for th e present version to be
At that time he was unable to find any titled the Mark II model. Fro m now on all
en gi eering firm willing to take it over and machines supplied will be of this form ,
manuf ture it , or even to do the machin- though still subject to certain op tional
ing on a contract basis at such a price as it variations which customers w ill be able to
was thought model engi neers would be select as t hey ish .
willing to pay. The more important changes include an
Three years later I found myself with increase in the qu ill travel from 2~ in. to
the opportunity to take a fresh look at this 4{- in. Extra pulley steps with a new type
design , which he had discussed with me of belt extend the speed range slightly
during the experimental period. I evolved from 32 to 1880 r.p.m. with more Inter-
a new set of drawings for a similar mediates. providing for boring head fly-
machine, but using flat sl ideways more cutting on large radii right through to
economically constructed, a reduction keyway cutting with 1/16 in. cutters. The
gear for lower bottom speeds, hollow reduction gea r system now fi tted has
Fig. 2 E. T. Westbury 's
spindle for a drawbar, and other changes helical gears which run 1n an oil-bath,
milling machine
15
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 Opposite, Fig. 4 The Oore-Westbury Mk/1 Ftg. 5 R odney A ttachment

16 17

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sea led against lea kage even when incli ned
away from the vertical, and is quieter than
formerly. A larger table. 20 in. by 6 in., can
be had as an optiona l al ernative to the
normal 16 in. by St in. The co lumn and
cross tube are steel, as always, but now t
in. thick and enormously stiff. 2t in.
diameter m icrometer dials are now
18
Fig. 6 Rodney machine
standard. The down- feed worm has for
conveni ence been transferred to the right
han side of the head, a coarser pitch rack
is now used, and there are a number of
other minor improvemen ts.
Opposite, Fig. 7 Amolco attachment
19
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 Although co ll eges and commercial
workshops wil l probably wish to use the
all over belt guard, it may be debatable if
the cost of this is justified for the solitary
mature mode ll er alone in his home
workshop . An alternative belt guard which
covers the spindle pulley only and does
not impede belt changing so much is
avai lable and is shown on the Mark II
machme in Fig. 4 .
20
No doubt the most important improve-
ment is the (optional) provision of power
feed for the long movement of the table. A
small motor with a 4-step pulley and
enclosed worm reduction gear provides
feed rates of .5, .62 , .85 and 1. 1 inches
per minute.
A number of attachments si milar in
general concept, though much different in
detail. to t he old Abwood . have come on
Fig. 9 Menror machine, now superseded by rhe
FB2 and Maximar attachmenr
the marke: in recent years . Tew
Machinery produce the 'Rodney· to suit
;he Myford '1;1 L7 and Super 7 lathes. and
:his s marketed by Myfords. It is shown in
Fig. 5 and the complete vertical miller
based on this attachment is that shown in
Fig 6.
Another attachment, the 'Amolco· is
supplied by N. Mole & Co L d . and
appears in Fig. 7 This has its own motor
and attaches o 1 e top of the lathe bed
also. It is made as a complete machine,
snown in Fig. B.
Fig. 8 A rna/co mechine Fig. 11 A sere machine
21
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Fig. 12 Twin machine
Elliot m achine Equipm ent su ppl ied a
continental machine, the 'Me ntor' which
was available both in bench and floor
mounted forms. The bench machine is
shown in Fig. 9. They also have the
'Maximat' attach ment to suit the lathe of
the same name. which fits on the back of
the lathe bed and has independent motor
drive (Fig. 10). Thi s is also available as a
floor machine, the F82.
Other compl ete machines include th e
'Astra ' su pplied by Scot Urquh art, wh ich
is really horizontal miller w it h an extra
vertical spind le with its own motor. Made
in several sizes, the small one is shown in
Fig. 11 .
Twin Engineering Co. introduced a
bench machine illustrated in Fig. 12 and
also a floor mounted mac hine of similar
size but lightly different design.
Fina ll y the old established firm of Tom
Senior Ltd. now produce their type E
22
machine which is floor mounted and
shown in Fig. 13.
So it will be seen that there are now
many machines and attachment which
are of suitable dimensio ns for inclusion in
the l imi ted space of most home
workshops. It would be useless to give
any deta ils of prices in a book of this kind ,
as such information would probably be
incorrect by the time the book was
printed, and readers are therefore recom -
mended to enquire of the various adver-
tisers.
A summary of the leading particulars of
all these machines etc. is given in Table 1
but again specifications re amended by
makers as time goes by, and it can be no
more than a general guide.
A brief word m ust be sa i about foreign
machines, particularly those coming from
Far Eastern countries. It would appear
there are several factories producing
machine tools and accessories. Some
appear to be quite good, but others are
definitel y not good, and I do have personal
experience of some of these. I have not
had the chance to see one of the milling
machin es working , but those I have
inspected in exhibit ions have some cheap
and nasty features, although the mai n
items such as spindles, bearings. and
slideways m ay be excellent. Some of the
machines ar more su itable for com-
mercia l factories than home workshops
but there are others of modest dimen-
sions. To anyone contemplating buying
on e of these one ca n only suggest that a
close inspect ion should be made by a
knowledgeable engineer. and that a
wo rking demonstration should be
requested , of the actual machine which is
to be bought.
Fig. 10 Maximar atrachmenr
23
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"-.)

"""

TABLE 1

Machine or
Make or supplier attachment Table size Spindle speeds Spindle nose Comments
Wok ing Pmr:ision Westbury 14 X 6 650, 1120 , 1850. 2MTplus Un-machined castings
Models Co. Ltd. bench machine 3150 M yford th read only supplied
16 Dovecot Park kit of parts. Head swivels.
Aberdour. FifP..
Scotlculd
Model Fngineering 'Dore Westbury 16 )( 5 ~ 34~ . 90.188 2M T plu s Now superseded
Service~. bench machi ne 304. 790. 1650 My ford thread by Mk.ll
6, Kennel Vale, kit of pHrts
Brockwell, Dare Westbury 16 X 5t 32 1880 2M T rlus Complete kit of pans.
Chestertield. Mk.ll (20 X 6 Mylord thread All machining done
bench machine optio n) that would be difficult
kit of parts. in home workshop.
Head swivels.
Tt:!w Machinery I td 'Rodney· For Myford Driven from 2MT plus Rigid head.
Manor Works att!lchment. ML7 an d lathe spindle Myford thread
Church St S77 latll f:ls.
Coggcnhoe, 'Rodney plus 15 X 41- 320,450 ,61 0. 2 MT plus Rigid head.
Nonhilmrron. floor machine. 850. 1040, 1490. Myford thread
2 190,2750
N Mole & Co. Ltd. 'Amolco' For Myfon.J Motor drive. 2MTplus Rigid head.
5 . Tolpit~ lttllt:l. ctll<u.:hmenl. & Boxfor d 4 !!peeds. 325 Myford thread
WAlford HHrt:<;. lilthes. to 1600
Bench mtller. 15 X 6 325- 1600 2MTplus Rigid head.
Myford thread

l ABl F. 1 (eontrnued)
M11chine or
Mllk" nr supplier attachment Table size Spindle speeds Spindle nose Comments

CtlirJll Mnr.hlne ' Men tor' 20t xj- 350, 640. 780, 2M T Swivelli ng head.
Eri'Jipment. machinP. 11\50
U.LC Hnwul , Bench and
Victonf' Rd. floor.
London. NW 10 6NY rB2 Maximar 21\f X 6 120-2 000 2MT Swivelling head
Jttachtnf:lnt (H (six)
floor machine
Sent Urquh<~rt Ltd .. 'Astra· 13 l< 4~ 620.90 0 . 2M T Motorised head.
317. 313i1, E;:~rlsfif:lltl Rc1 ., bench anc1 1200. 1850
Earlsfield. floor
London SW 18 300 machines
Hor. with vert.
head.
Twin l:r1q. Co. Twin" 20 )( 6 520. 960. 2M T plus Rigid head .
CaxtonWay, bench machine 1650. 2880 Myford thread
Hnlywclllnd Est and floor
W<~tford . Harts. mar.hine. 20 X 6 380.640, 2MT plus Swivel head.
1 100, 1900. Myford thread
3100
Tom Senior, Ltd. ·senior type E" 25 X 4t 480.9 50. 2MT Swivel head
Atlas Works, floor machine. 1640.2760
Hightown Heights.
Liver sedge,
West Yorks.

N
U1

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 CHAPTER 2
Milling Flat Surfaces
Of all m etal -working operations the
production of true flat urfa ces is perhaps
one of the most difficult if reliance has to
be placed on han d tools and hand
methods. for it depend just about com-
plete ly on the persona l skill of the
workman. But a point offset from the
spi ndl e centre of a vertical milling
m achine must when ro t ted describe a
fla t plane i spa ce if there is no axia l
movement. Therefore . provided the
spindle is truly square t the table. an
offset cuttin g tool must generate a flat
surface on a work-piece attached to the
table. Model engineering, just th e same as
full size en ineering. demands th e produc-
tion of a great many flat surfaces. so the
ability of the machine to perform this task
in a simple way, without expensive
tooling , is extremely important to the
home worker.
FLYCUTTERS
The cheapest tool for the purpose is the
flycutter. usually consisting of a small
oolbit set i n some kind of holder. There
are commercially made holders available.
but i t is quite easy to make satisfactory
holders at home. and they serve just a
Fig. 13 Senior machine
well Three ome-made flycutters are
26
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shown in Fig. 14. Each is just a Morse
taper arbor with an enlarged head having
a slanting hole drilled in it to take a cutter
bit (i in. in these samples) with a screw to
lock it in place. The head diameters are 1i
in .. 1} in . and 2{- in. so the faces that ca n
be machined at one pass are ro ughly t in.
to t in. wider in each case. They were
made by boring through short pieces of
steel of these sizes to suit the parallel
parts of Morse taper arbors. It is not
perhaps widely enough known that tool
merchants can, if they will. su pply Morse
taper arbors of this kind. which are a stock
product of t he large drill makers. This
method of fabricating fl ycutte rs by usin a
ready made arbor with a head Locti ted on
saves a good dea l of time and orne heavy
steel. The effectiveness of tools made in
thi s way is beyond question. Fig. 1 5
shows a bracket tamped against a large
angleplate and being milled with one.
Fig. 1 6 shows one working on a steel
connecting rod which has to be reduced
from a circular section at each end. The
rod is about 9 in. long. so it is held in two
vices at the same time. and each en is
taken down to finished size before it is
tumed over. Packings are used, different
at each end to ensure the finished -surface
is above the vice jaws, to avoid cutting
27
 Fig. ! 4 Set of three flycutters Fig. 16 Flycutting connecting rod ends

into them , and these packin gs ensure the Own ing two vices alike may at first with the benefits are at once apparent. reduced t o a tapered section to cut up into
rod is at the right attitude for keep ing t he thought see m something of a luxury, bu t Another flycutting operation is shown wedge blocks for connecting rods of the
mil led surfaces para ll el to the axis. as soon as long articles have to be dealt in Fig . 1 7 where a steel bar is bei ng type in the previous picture. These wedge

Fig. 15 F/ycutting a bracket Fig. 17 F!ycutting tapered bar material

28 29

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 Fig. 18 Flycucting cylinder soleplate
blocks are needed for adju ing the
beari ngs i the rod ends. The recta ngular
section bar is held in a vice on a ti lti n
angle-plate which has been set t 6
degrees t o th e t able of the mil le r with a
Starrett ombina tio n protractor. The
tapered form wil l be seen on the end of
the cam pi ted piece ly in g on th e
ang lep late . Th is is an easy way of getting
a specia l section which cannot be bough t.
and whi ch waul , to say th leas t. be
tedious to make by filing.
These flycutter holders do not allow
much adjustm ent of the radius f the
cutte r bit, but with some makes of boring
head there is q ite a lot of adjustm ent . Fo r
example the Dare boring head perm its of
using a utter in a t in . diam. bar at any
radius up to 2t in. , and by setting the
saddle in or out on the slide body the
radius can be adjusted by fine amou nts to
suit any job within the range. Fig. 18
shows an old type, pre-war boring head
30
Fig. 19 Facemi/1
ground off to the same projection. and sta tionary engi ne. The casti ng is suppor-
sharpened to a diameter of approx. 2 t in. ted by a special angle plate type of fi xture.
be ing used to face a cylinder sole- plate for In Fig. 20 it is shown milling the face of the pa tt ern for wh ich was made in an
a slide va lve engine mode l of 2 ~ in . stroke. a half- flywheel iron cast ing for a model hour. Without this fixture the opera ti on
FACE MILLS
Of course, multi-cut ting-edge fac e mills
permit machining a surface quicker than a
single point t ool can do. and with less
snatch and jerking. but commercially
made they are very expensive , and in the
ho me workshop the greater productivity is
not usually of much consequence. Never-
the less, for anybody w il ling to spend the
tim e needed they ca n be made in the
home workshop, wi th several cutter bits
mounted in one mi ld steel body. Fig. 19
shows a face mill of thi kind, which was
made originally to screw on the spindle of
a Myford lathe to do some rep etitive
mill ing of a fa irl y heavy nature. now no
longer required. but it is still a good
general purpose to I. It has 12 tool bits t
in . diam. set into flat bottomed holes, all
31
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 correct location for the casting (v:'hich was
followed by others) but also msurance
agoinst slipping. . After the planing of crosshead slides
In the full sized engines these sh_des
were always planed , and every ngme-
nuilding shop had planers for thiS kind of
war k . In the one where 1 worked there h lamp black and oil , slid to and fro on the
were severol of different sizes. and t e
argest. built by Joshua Buckton of Leeds,
could plane any casting up to 20 ft. long ,
12 ft. wide and 12 ft . high. It as said at
that time to be the largest in Yorkshire .
and certa inly it often did cast!ngs for ~ther
Fir ms. Cutting could be done 1n both direc-
t1ons of the table travel at equal speeds, or
in one direction with a quick return the
othe r way. Each of the four too l heads ha
power operation independent of table
movement. so that cross-planin cou ld
Fig. 21 Milling crosshead slide be done through bearing re. esses, ~tc .
One of the pictures shows th iS operatiOn
on a model being done by m ill ing Ea h
head could also be swivelled so that
angular faces could be planed also. .
they were tackled by th e fitter and
scraped to a portable su_rface p l ~te. This
was coated sparingly w1th a m1xture of
slide. lifted off. and then all the black
marks scraped away. The surface plate
was then put on again and a fresh lot of
marks made which in turn were scraped
away. This work went on for many hours.
indeed on a big slide two men could
spend two or three ays. For such work
the surface plate would be so large that
two men could not lift it without the use
of the shop crane. Eventually after a long
time the fini sh obta ined would_ be
regarded as accep tab le. It then consisted
of a very large num er of extreme ly
shallow depressions between th e marks.
and each of these proved to be an oil

wou ld be so m ewhat diffic ult. If th

paralle l passes w ith an endmi ll much
casting was held in a vice on the table the
narrower than the face requ ired. Apart
point of cutti ng would be a lon g way fro m Fig. 22 Milling bearing jaws in bedplate
from taking more ime than a too l with a
the holding point, and movement o f th e
wide sweep, m inute ridges tend to be left
casting under the pressu re of cut tin g
where the passes overlap , and these may
would be not easy to preve nt. Vibration
have to be removed late r by fil ing r
and chatter would be more likely. It very
craping . So wh ile this me thod is f asible
ofte n happens that th e only way to ge t a
the flycutter or boring head is better
satisfactory job is to make some equip-
wher there is room to use it, and the
men t specia lly fo r it. This is not usu lly
cutter bits are cheaper than endmills and
wasteful, especia ll y if a duplica t e compo-
easily sharpened like any lathe tool.
nen t is ever require . but the equ ipment is
However. an example of work where a
usually fou nd adaptable for some other
sma ll cutte r and successive passes must
job later. Doing metal cutting by 'knife -
be used is shown in Fig. 21 where a flat
and-fork' methods can soon lea to
bedpfate slide for the crosshead on a
disaster. Th e other half of the wheel
model stationary engine is being milled.
casting. with the ca t-in teeth for th e
The surface being cut is in a recess t in.
barring 'rack ', can be seen in the bottom
deep and the corners cannot be dealt w i th
half of the picture. The wheel is 9i in.
diamete r and has 96 teeth . by a tool cutting the full width, as the
radius left would be too great. Note the
Broad flat surfaces ca n be , and some-
times have to be, produced by successive stop bar bolted to he table. Accurately
squared with the table it provides not only
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 pocket. When the engine was eventually
put to work, with the cross-head having
had simi lar treatment, the result was tha t
the cross-head ran to and fro on a film of
lubricant which reduced wear to a very
small amount. Engines In textile mil ls
would run 60 years and at the end you
would find the scraper marks still there.
The oil was continuously renewed by
brass combs attached to the crosshead
which picked up oil from a well at each
end of the slide . An engine running night
and day, as many of them did, with a
speed of about 80 r.p.m. would make
app rox. 3600 million cross-head strokes
in t hat time! Not a bad performance?
When fla t surfaces have to be produced
CH APTER 3
at right angles to the table it is necessary
to use the side of an endm ill. Th is may be
quite unavoidable on some components.
such as the model engine bedplate shown
in Fig . 22 . There is not much choice about
milling out the jaws for the crankshaft
bearings. This is an opera tion which the
Slitting and Cutting
big planer used to do w ith the power drive
on the heads of the cross-rail.

It is common practice to desig n mac hinery
components with spli t bosses "":'hich ~an
be contracted with a screw for t1ghtenmg
purposes. Th e slitting can be ~o n e wit~ a
hacksaw, bu t if done in unskllfu l tash1on
will not look good when completed .
Slitting saws and many other disc type
cutters can be readily used on the vertical
miller by mounting them on a Morse taper
arbor having a parallel portion for the
cutter, and a nut to secure it. Its a good
thing to put a pa ir of flats on the arbor to
hold it by when turning the nut. Fig . 23
shows a slitting saw in use cut ting
through one side of the boss of one of the
parts of the Quorn grinder. On that
machine there are several components
w ith this feature , so time will be saved if
they are all collected and cut through
while the saw and vice are in position.

Fig. 23 Slitting boss of casting

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 Many other jobs of similar na ture will
burrs to enable them at once to be bolted
come to mind such as engine eccentric
together. Not only are castings involved
sh~aves. and espec1ally eccentric straps.
but also parts made from bar materia l.
wh1ch can be cast in one piece and then
cut through , leaving two surfaces that
Manne type connecting rod ends are an CHAPTER 4
example, and this method can also be
need only a touch with a file to remove
used for producing bearings in halves.

Keyway Cutting

Keys and keyways are a very common
feat ure of machinery and naturally of
models too. The common round -ended
kPyway . for a 'feather' key , is easily
produced on a parallel shaft by holding the
sha ft in the vice and using a small endmill ,
or two-flute 'slot-drill' . Fig . 24 shows the
setu p for this operation .
Various parts of car and motor cycle
engines, gearboxes , and other machinery
components in the past have had wheels
mounted on tapered shafts with the
keyways following the slope of the taper.
Modelling one of these would involve
following the same procedure . One way in
which th1s can be done is shown in Fig.
25. The vice holding the shaft 1s set on a
tilting angleplate so that the top of the

Fig. 24 Milling feather keyway

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-
Fig. 25 Milling feather keyway on tapered shaft
tapered part comes paral le l w ith the
mach ine table. The shaft shown in the
picture is a simple one and quite short,
and could have been just til ted in the vice
in a set-up like th at of Fig. 24 . But a long
shaft might well fou l the table at its lower
end so the elevation which t he angleplate
gives could in such a case prove essenti al.
Small endmill s are rather frai l too ls at
best and liab le to easy breakage . The disc
type cutter is more robust and a collec ion
of these acquired either as the need fo r
one crops up, or bought cheaply second-
hand , is worth while. Of course the disc
cutter cannot always go close to a
shoulder on t he shaft. and copying a
prototype may in some cases rul e it out.
For the work done in the home workshop
there is no need to insist on the relatively
expensive side-and-face cutters, (those
with teeth on the faces a we ll as the peri-
phery) beca use the slitting saw, with teeth
only on the periphery. will do quite wel l.
These are m ade in a very great variety o f
38
Fig. 26 Milling keyway with slitting saw
thicknesses. and are always co m ing on For a start t.he key it sel f can be par ted accu racy fr o m th e b right ba r. T he
the surplus m arket at low prices. One of off from a piece of round mild st ee l or thi kness needs c reful co ntrol. but if it
t hese is shown in Fig. 26 mi lling an sil ver steel. So its diameter is se ttl ed w ith comes off a bit t oo thick it can be rubbed
ordinary sunken keyway. the shaft being
held in a vice with enough overhang to Fig. 2 7 Set of four Woodruff keyway cutters
avoid t he cutte r tou ch ing t he vice .
WOODRUFF KEYS
The Woodruff key is one w ide ly used in
industry. This is in effec t a slice off a roun d
bar, cut in ha lf and se t into the sh aft in a
recess made by a sma ll dia meter slitting
saw. T his is rather an oversim plified
description . but it will serve we ll en ugh
as an introduction to th e Woodruff key for
those in home workshops w i thout
industrial experience. Ser iously , the
Woodruff key, w hich I think was of
A m erica n origi n. has some very rea l
advan t ages for the m ass production
industry, and some of these are of just as
great importance in th e home workshop
and the field of light engineering.
39
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 down on a flat file . It needs to be cut in key is made, with an integral shank of pre- the diametral line of the shaft. then the
two on a line which is nearly a diameter. ferably some standard diameter which can cutter is fed in by a predetermined
but the cut edge can readily be filed to be run true in a collet on the miller. So the amount.
bring it to fina l shape. The keyway is made shape of the keyway profile - and its The resulting keyway is deep enough to
by a simple cutter like a slitting saw, of the width - is settled by the cuuer form. The g1ve the key a good hold, so that it cannot
same diameter as the bar from which the cutting part of the cutter Is set in line with roll over, and yet the shaft is not unduly
weakened . Normally the top of the key is
TABLE II just clear of the keyway in the wheel or
lever which is being secured , its purpose
being to provide either torque or angular
location , and some means such as a grub
screw may have to be used to prevent
endwise movement.
Woodruff cut1ers are not very cheap ,
but they can easily be made in the home
workshop, from silver steel. The process is
really quite simple . A blank can be turned,
making a shank to suit some standard
collet , then with the shank held in the
collet the working part of the cutter can be
turned to its diameter, and thickness. The
sides should be very slightly undercut by
setting a knifetool a little off square. Using
2 a simple un-geared dividing head the
teeth can be cut in two operations using
an ordinary end mill ; there is no need for
angular cutters, as the diagram on the
opposite page indicates. The number of
teeth is not important, but six is a con -
venient number for small cutters . It is
possibl to file the teeth if you do not have
access to a dividing head , as the spacing
is not at all critical. but it's a little more
difficult. Fig . 2 7 shows a batch of cutters
made to the sizes in Table II and Fig . 28
shows a keyway being cut . There seems
to be no place where sizes of Woodruff
keys and cutters are displayed for model
engineers. Machinery 's Handbook gives
sizes which are used in industry, but the
sheer range of sizes is itself confusing , and
of course the tables are liberally sprinkled
with tolerances that modellers could
neither follow nor want. I have therefore
picked out a few sizes which I think will
serve our purpose, and as we don't have
to provide interchangeability in our
products, if anybody wants to depart a bit

Fig. 28 Milling Woodruff keyway

3-i x20 B.S.F. FOR

CLARKSON & OSBORN CHUCKS.

WOODRUFF
KEYS & KE.YWAYS CUTTERS
ABCDE FG
~ I
~ ?'6 •109 '073 '037 '100 '030
~6 .%16 140 '104 '037 •104 •037
~ ~2. •J72 '123 ·os3 '129 •045
~
2 ~2 •203 '155 '053 ·187 •060
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 from these dimensions he can certainly do
so. Up to date of writing I have not seen
any specification of Woodruff keys in
metric sizes.
The cutters shown in Table II have
screwed shanks to suit Clarkson and
Osborn chucks, which have collets that
close on the cutter shank through end
thrust exerted by the cutter against the
inside of the chuck. If you are making
cutters for use In a Clare chuck or just to
use in a 3-jaw, these threads are not
needed. It may be noticed that the cutters
42
shown in Fig . 27 are stamped with their
size details. It is a good plan to have a set
of small stamps, say 1/16 in. characters,
so that appropriate identity can be marked
on all home made tools, jigs, etc as well as
model components. The holes drilled in
these cutters were provided for the con-
venience of the hardener. They were
hardened for me by a firm where liquid-
salt baths are used for heating and
quenching tools. A sma ll hole enables the
tool to be hung on a wire in the baths
without damage to cutting edges.
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CHAPTER 5
Fluting Components
other than Tools
Fluting of locomotive con necti ng rods and
coupli ng rods is an operation very similar
to keyway cutting so fa r as the remova l of
metal is concerned, but th e length of the
flutes is usually greater, and the le ngth of
the pieces demands some we ll arrange
holding m ethods. One occasionally sees
rods which have been fluted with an
endmill by the same method as sh wn in
Fig. 24 , giving rounded end flutes like a
feather keyway. This is entirely wrong, no
full size rods were fluted this way. They
have flutes with rounded internal corne rs
in the bottom, nd wi th swept out ter-
minations at the ends , which is done to
avoid the notch fatigue cracks w hi ch can
propagate from sharp corners. Fortunately
it is quite easy to produce flutes which are
in accordance with full size practice. and
not even necessary to have a fancy milling
cutter. A simple tool bit , ground rather like
a p rting tool . with the corners rounded
off. is put into a transverse hole in a cutter
bar, and mounted in a chuck on the miller.
The rod to be dealt with is fixed edgeways
up, as it goes in the loco, preferably
against a long angleplate. and the rotating
cutter is fed in like a Woodruff cutter
would be. When in to proper depth,
usually quite shallow, the table movement
is started and the flute is then made
progressively along the rod , leaving
behin the swept end . Where the cut
finishes there is also a swept end ,
automatically. Coup ling rods usually have
flutes that are pa rall el sided , and so do
some types of Canadian and Am eri ca n
connecting rods. In th ese cases a single
pass wit h a cutter the right width will
comp lete the job. Most British
locomotives. on the other hand, had
tapered connecting rods with parallel
flanges, I.e. tapered flutes. For th ese two
passes are needed , and th is can be
achieved in a very sim ple way.
In Fig. 29 the rod of a Canadian engine
is seen fixed on the angleplate. In each
end is a screw with a head turned to the
size of the hole in the rod end . This is a 12
in. long angleplate with no slots, as holes
are drilled and tapped just wherever they
are needed for each job. It will be many
years before it is so perforated as to be no
further use. The two holes for the locating
screws are the same distance from the
tab le, and they only provide the location.
the rod being secured against the cutting
forces by two small clamps as shown. For
this rod and for coupling rods the set-up is
exact ly as shown . But for British type
rods. the screw in the big end is made
smaller than the hole in the rod by the
43

Fig. 29 Fluting locomotive connecting rod
amount of the taper (at th e hoi cen tr s)
and for the first operation the ro ca n be
allowed to d rop down on the screw whi le
the first cut is t aken. Then for the second
cut the rod is lifted up as fa r as the screw
wi ll let i t go, and re-c lamped, and a
seco nd cut ta ken . Th e rod w ill now fi nish
w ith a taper flute an two pa rall I flanges.
Thi s fl uti ng is a very simple ope rat ion .
The anglep late is extreme ly rigid. The
machi ne in the picture is happi ly provided
with a t in . wide keyway along he centre
of the table, only t in. deep, but a t in.
44
square ba r can be dropped into it. That
enables fixtures to be instantly It ed up
w ith the t ab le movemen t . includ in g
dtviding hea s as we ll as ang leplates. Th e
thrust of the cutter in this example tends
to move the an lep late away from the bar.
but it is secu red w ith two go od bo lts in
t he t ab l e slots, n o t v i si bl e i n t h e
hotograph. It shou ld not be forgotten
that locomotive rods w hich are fl uted at
all m ust be done on both sides, but wi t h a
set-up like this th job is so si mple it
wou ld be a pi ty not to have it rig ht.
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CHAPTER 6
Boring
It is not uncommon to have bore holes in
co mponents wh ich are m uch too large t o
swing arou nd in t he lath es that are fo und
in most ho me workshops. Bu t there is no
need in m any cases t o resort to ha nd
too ls, even for holes where great accuracy
is not needed. The vertica l mill er can be
used for boring (with a trepanning tool in a
boring he ad) suc h thin gs as fi re-hole
doors in boil er pla t es, bosses on ca stings
such as long levers, and many other
objects. In order t o motorise a shape r I
ha t o ore a hole thro ugh ~ in. of cas t
iro n to mount a w orm re du ct io n gearbox,
and t his ha d to be a tru e round hole. It
was done by fix ing t he casti ng ( 1 5 in. long
in one direction f rom the centre o f the
hole) on th e mi ller table and using a cutter
in a borin g head . W ith the w orm-act uated
dow n feed , and the bottom spe ed of th e
Dare-We stbury m achine, 3 4 1- rpm , an
excellen t hole wa s obtain ed four inch s
di amet er. W i thou th ese fa cil iti es th e w ork
w uld have bee n sent ou t to some
enginee ring firm . The ampler space on th e
tables of m illing machines, compa re d with
wh at one can ge on a lathe sa ddle w ith
an angleplate. m akes the m ill er inval uable
fo r w ork of this ki nd and of course by
do ing exte rn al tu rni ng w ith a bo ring head
one ca n dea l w ith m ale reg isters as well
as holes. This is a si mple ope rat ion too;
one just turn s the cutting tool inward
instead of outwa rd .
45
 CHAPTER 7

Jig-Boring

The term 'jig-boring' is likely to be th e paralle l motion. pum p rods , etc . The
unfamiliar to many readers of this book. casting ca n be clamped to the table qu ite
and they may thi nk tha t w hateve r it firmly, resting on packag ing of reasonab le
means it must be a long way removed
from model engineering. This is not so, fo r
in model making plenty of operations ari se
thickne ss so that a penetrati ng drill does
not dip into the table. A t this stage all r-----.-
bosses ca n be faced w ith an end m il l,
that can be done by 'jig-boring' to advan- Fig. 3 0 Drawing of steam hook (lever)
even if they are at different levels. The
tage. Basically it on ly means fixing a com- centre line of t he casting should have
ponent to he machine table and th en been set parallel wi th the line of the tab le w hen doi ng an exercise of this kind to position by using the table cross-s~re~ to
using the table screws as measuring movement. Put t he drill chuck in the have a paper and pencil handy and w rite provide the amount off th e m am line.
devices to position the spindle over any spindle, with a fi ne poin ted dummy dri ll dow n the m icrometer dial reading w hich When all the holes are finished th e beam
part of the componen t that is desired simila r to a centre pu nch. and brin this are th e stopping points. This re duces the can be turned over and the osses mi lled
before drilling or boring a ho le. In many over the first boss cen t re. Then wind on ch ances of accidental error. It is a m ethod on the other side.
ways this method is better than m ark ing the table the amount to the next hole and used by men in industry who are ngaged The beam eng ine casting is just one
out, measuring wit h a rule, then centre- check if the point comes in the righ place on elica te w ork w here a momentary example of how this ort of task ca n be
punching fo llowed by drilling on a drilli ng over th at boss. W ind on again to th e next interruption ca n be disastrous. I have handled. Fig. 30 is a drawing of a compo-
machine. For one thing the workpiece is and so on checking at each boss. If all myself used it for m any years. At this nent of th e trip gear of a model steam
fi rml y held. the tab l e screws are co me central , all is wel l. If one or mo re stage dri lling can now start. Each hol e engine, and the holes w hich have to be
reasonab ly good measuring devices. and don 't , then an allowance w il l have to be should be centred with a D-bi t ground o drilled are in positions which would not be
many holes can be made , of any diameter made as a compromise. Make a note of about 1 18 degrees, followed by the easily attained by the com mon ma.rk in g-
needed, without losing the att itude of the wha t it is, re-start at the beginning , and do appropriate drill, though the larger h~les out and centre punching process. F1g. 31
piece to the table, or one hole to another. another ru n till you are satisfied you have may nee a pilot drill putti ng t hrough. f 1r s~. shows one of the fini shed pieces with one
let's take a fairly common componen t, got the right starting point for the best As each hole is finished , wi th reammg 1f only part-made . to show the method
the beam casting of a model bea m engine. results. If you happen to turn the table needed , move on to the next hole by the adopted. One inch diameter bar was used,
This will have several holes to be drilled, screw a bit too far at one of the stopping table wi nd, and go through the procedure as t hat gives th e outside profile needed.
usually along one straight line, and rather points, don't worry, but don ' t turn it back a with that, too. By this method all the oles Set true in the four- jaw chuck it was
import ant, all these should be paral lel with bit as a correction , because that way you will be the right distance apart. and wi ll all bored 9/ 16 in., then set out of true by
one another if the finished engine is to run could introduce an error through backlash be parallel to one another in two planes. It .04 7 in. and the hole re-bored to the same
smoothly. There will be one hole at each {l ost motion due to slackness) in the will be clear that if any holes are wanted setting. Next it was set well off centre to
end, and a main trunnion hole at the screw and nut. Go back to the very start which are not on the main centre line , it is dril l the No. 38 dri ll hole. The correct
middle, plus one or more for the links of and come at it again. It's a good thing a sim ple matter to drill these in an off-set setting was established by measurements

46 47

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 taken off the outside surface of the 1 in .
bright bar. With the piece sti ll held , the
chuck was removed from the lathe nd
bolted on the m illing mach ine table. A
number 38 drill . running in a true chuck.
then 'picked up ' the existing hole and the
dia l readings on both screws of the tab le
were noted (and written down). The drill
was changed for a very short stiff 1/ 16 in.
dril l, the ta bl e screws were ro t ated , to
bring th e first 1/ 16 in. hole position under
it and that hoi th en drill ed. Further
rotation of the screws brough t in turn
each of the ot her holes into posi t ion and
the drilling was qu ickly comp leted. The
huck was the n returned to the lathe. Th e
fi rst boss arou nd the No 38 hole was
turned and t he piece parted off. care bei ng
t ken to leave th e shal low boss on th e
arting side. Then the second boss was
turned , another parti ng off. and the two
co m pon ents we re through that part of th e
process . It rem ined only to cut the
desir d piece out of the ring and fil e up
the two ends to the roun d d profil e. By
th ese methods a compone nt of a ra th er
complicated shape was pro uced under
Fig. 31 Photograph of steam hook
48
complete con trol and exactly as specified
on the drawing.
There are ma ny other articles in mode l
engineering which lend them selves ery
w II to th e jig-boring technique. Locomo-
tive boiler t ube plates w ith a large num ber
of ho les ca n be done this way, and
because some of the holes may be J in. or
even more in diameter it is vital to have
the m etal c lam ped dow n to avoid
personal injury, as copper is not one of the
kindest of m aterials for machi ning. But if
clampe on packings on the m iller, any
large holes for wh ich dri lls are not avai l-
able ca n sti ll be dea lt wi th by using a
boring head . If a large d rill is ava il able, and
the machin e has a low enough speed to
avo id chatter, th re w ill be no 'three-
corn ered' holes made to cause em b rra ss-
ment w hen fittin g fl ue tu bes and si lver-
so ldering them at a later stage . It w ill be
found that as fa m iliarity w ith th e vert ical
mil le r develops, other examples wi ll arise
in w hich this high- sounding but r ally
qui te simple techn iqu e ca n be borrowed
from in ustri al pract ice, with grea t
benefits.
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CHAPTER 8
Profiling
It is not unusua l for large componen t to
have portions wh ich are circu lar arcs .
Loco m ot i ve fr am es a r e com m o n
examples. with cu t-aways t o clear bogie
whee ls. Such pieces are much too large to
swing in th e lath e. and whi le th e ba nd aw
if availa ble can do a lo t to relieve the
ted ium of drilling , hacksaw ing and fili ng .
the mill er can do a lot more . Using a
trepa nning cutter in a boring head it ca n
take away the unwanted m etal in a sing le
opera tion to finished size on any arc.
Altern tively with a boring type tool it ca n
fo ll ow the bandsaw and just avoid the
filing.
Sm okebox ca stings for locomotives
and traction engines, howeve r, o ften have
circular arcs to fit the b iler shell , and the
bandsaw can be no'help wit h these. But if
they are set up on th e mi ller, the radi us
can e determ ined by the setting of a
boring head cutter. and trave rse across
the work provided by the downfeed of the
sp i ndle , eve n thoug h th is ·s usually
manual. That feed length may not be
enough to cover t he face width, but after
going as far as the spindle wi ll move . a
second cut ca n be taken by reset ting the
head of the machine.
I n m ac h i ne r y de tails th e same
problems arise . Fig . 32 shows a pad bol
fo r locking two machine parts together.
The two parts of the pad bolt which are
bei ng profiled to su it a rou nd colu mn were
made fro m one piece of stee l. and cut
apar afte r th e profiling. A groove can be
see n where th e sepa ra ti ng cu t was to be
taken. The cutte r in th e boring ba r was set
to the finished ra dius. Only the cro ss-feed
of the t abl e was used (to put the cu t on
bi t by bit) the other sl ide being locked. The
too l w as t raversed by the down feed. It is
not possible to take the full amo un t of
metal removal in si ngle pass in a job like
th is. but with successive cuts a pe rfe ct job
is assured. Si mil arly t he holes for such pad
bol ts are 'part holes' and could not be
dri lled in the second stage to full si ze
wi thou t guide bushes for the drill. But
drillin g undersize and th en open ing out
with a boring head gets there just the
sam e. a bit less quickly.
Profil ing locomotive connecti ng rods
and coupling rods can be a somewhat
tiring operation if one has t o do it by
sawing and filing . Trying to do thi s work
on the bori ng tab le of the lathe with
vertical slide or anglep late is not very
happy either. Usual ly the cross-sl ide travel
is mu ch too short to com plete the length
i n one pass, so t h at re-setting is
necessary, and the la the does not have
49
 the in-feed facilities needed. Generally
with a vertical sl ide the point at which
cutting is being done at the ends of a long
rod is a very long way from th e place
where the slide is secured. so that apart
from 'spring' of the piece there is danger
of sli pping t aking place with disastrous
results. Com pare such attempts with the
Fig. 32 Profiling pad bolt
Fig. 33 Profiling coupling rods
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set-up shown in Fig . 33. w here a pair of
coupling rods. with 'chucking pieces· of
extra metal at each end. are cl amped on
packings in a safe and rigid set-up.
Generally the diameter of end mil l used
can be arrang d to give the right radiu s
where the body of th e rod joins the
bosses.
51
CHAPTER 9
End-Rounding
In model work, as in full sized machine ry,
many compone nts su ch as cra nk webs,
connecting and cou pling rods. m achine
links, etc. have to have rou nded en s.
These can be produ ced by filing. and the
use of ha rde nerd steel coll ars and ro ll ers
for guides has often been recommended
in Model Engineer t o help the not- so-good
fi l r to ach ieve a good appearance . Even
with these. this kin d of fi li ng demands a
skill which ma ny model! rs just do not
have (and wi ll neve r acquire , for wa nt of
practice, if nothing else ) so fo r that reaso n
al one it is not a good met hod. But it i
also rather severe o n fi les, w hi ch are now
quite expensive too ls, and unli ke ly ever to
get cheaper.
So where there is a vertica l miller ava il-
able, why not do the job the right way, as
it would be done in comme rcia l engineer-
ing? It means mvesting in a rotary table ,
but these ca n be bought in kit form as well
as complete ready for u e. an d if
machined and assembled by the hom e
worker himself, are not terribly expe nsive.
Presumi ng tha t the component has a
round ho le at one end , a plu g is needed in
the table so as to locate by that hole. I
have a sma ll rotary tab! w ith a t W hit.
hole in the centre and have a number of
plugs of sta ndard sizes to fit that. But
52
anot her table which I have possesses a
No. 2 M orse taper central hole and arb ors
can be p t in t his for location . It is , in fact.
a Model Eng ineerin g Services Type RT3
whi ch oes not have a tee -slotted tab le.
but has a spindle screwed like the M yford
lathes and will accept any chucks or
facep la te s from the lathes. Th is ma kes it
feasible to tu rn , say, a cyli nder cover and
tra nsfer it to a rotary table for rilling the
bolt hol es wi thout losing the accuracy of
setti ng. But tha t is not a feature of impor
t ance for round end in g operations. I have
used it for a number o f engine cranks in
the ma nn er shown in Fig. 34. Each crank
was located on the arbor but al so clam ped
w ith a slot plate rest ing on Picador
stepped packing . a pair of these being
also under the crank itself. The cutt er is a
} in. end mill cutting on its side.
In all rotary mill ing of th is kind where
the cutter is working on the outside of the
component it is vitally necessary to feed
the table clockwise see n from above . All
normal milling cutters rotate th e same
way as a twist dri ll. so whichever side of
th e work the cutte r is touching, the work
must meet the cutte r, and that means
clockwise rotation is essentia l. Otherwise
if the cutter is going the same way at the
surface as the work it is certain to grab
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Fig. 34 End- roun~ing
hold and that means at least spo il ed work.
probably a broken cutter. and a I t of grief.
But if one is working on an in tern al profil e,
such as trimming the inside of the rim of a
flywheel . th n the forces are reverse and
the work needs rotating anti-clockwise.
Now the threads of the RT3 spind le are
like the Myford lat hes. right han , so
when one is doing inside work a chuck or
faceplate is tigh t en d by the t hrust of th e
cutter. But when doing the , perhaps, more
normal milling on the outside of a piece.
the cutter thrust tends to undo the
facep late, and un less the wo rk is very light
cu ting, this is wha t w ill cer ainly happen.
The on ly satisfactory answer to thi s
problem is to drill and tap a hole throug h
the boss of the faceplate, m ake a coned
dim ple in the t able spindle at the same
spot, and insert a screw with a cone po int
that fits the dimp le. Not a diffi cul t matter
at all . But if you are going to use a chuck
on the same t able for the sam e kin of
work , then make a penci l mark to show
where the dimp le is forth faceplate , and
with rotary table
drill the chuck boss well away from this.
so that you have two positively separate
dimples , each for its own accessory.
I have used a 5/ 1 6 in. BSF socket grub
screw for this purpose. with a point
modified (in the lathe) t o a longer con .
But I found the ordi nary hexagon key was
no t rea lly long enough to be conve ni ent
with a stand ard 7 ins. Myford faceplate .
So I cu t off the short bent en of the key
and fitted t he ion part to an ext ension
made of l in. bright mi ld steel. Thi was
dri ll ed in the lathe 3/ 16 in. deep with a
No. 16 ri ll which is about the across-
corners size of the hexagon, then 7/ 16 in .
further with a No. 22 dri ll wh ich is about
th across-flats size. The two pieces were
th en pressed together in a big vice, the
squared-off en of the hexagon cutting its
way down the hole in the mild steel. A
5/32 in. cross pin was fitted, Locti ted in,
and now I have a Tee wrench long enough
to reach the screw in the boss without any
difficulty. It took on ly five minutes to make
and is a conveni ence there for ever.
53

CHAPTER 10
Dividing Heads
For man y roducts th e use of a divid ing
head is an absolute necessity. Many home
workers, especia lly th ose without any
engineeri ng experienc e, regard them as
most mysterious devices. al most border-
ing on the o cult, and say wit hout really
thinking, 'Oh. I could never use one of
those!'. Well, a dividing head is rea lly no
more th an a headstock with a sp indle on
wh ich the work is mounted, with some
m an s of turn ing it through positive
angula r amoun ts. and holding it there
whe n each movemen t has been made.
Naturally there are ma ny types of dividing
head and over the years many designs
have appear in Model Engineer for
heads which can be made in the home
workshop . A g r ea t dea l of qu i te
satisfactory work can be done with a
simp le head of th e type shown in Fig . 35 .
On the spindl , provision is made for
mounting a la the cha nge w heel. A pring-
loaded plun er with a conica l poi nt drops
into the gap between two tee th of the
wheel . and then the spindl e is locked by a
screw bearing on a pad inside the main
bearing. It is ad visable not to rely on t he
plunger holding the spindle against
rotation when screwing on chucks of
when fixi ng a component on an arbor by
means of a nut. If th e spindl turns. the
54
hardly be done at all with hand tools is strength was needed to transmit a lot of
shown in Fig. 35. This is one half member ower this might have to be done. but it is
o f a dog clutch. The 12 teeth are being cut a good dea l more difficu lt and would
with a slitting saw w hich passes across rare ly be worth the trouble. Unless you are
the work right on the centre line. Afte r using a we ll-established design for wh ich
each cut, th e locki ng scr w was eased . drawings are available. it is advisable to
the pl unge r lifted out. the whee l turned lay ou the tooth design on the drawing
fi ve teeth , and t he plunger dropped in board , preferably at an enla rged scale, to
aga in. The spindle was then locked and
the next tooth gap cu . Really a very
ve rify the thickness of cutter which will
produce the desired result. They may be
si mpl e procedure. Now on the other h If the same thickn ess for both halves. but
member of th e clu tch the teeth have to maybe not, it depend on the thickness of
have parallel sides. and the gaps them - tooth se lected. It is also a goo thin g to
selves are tape r sided. Thi s just involves avoid an od number of teeth, because
se tti ng the cu tter with its bott m edge th e curve of the cutter when going
teeth of the change w hee l may be bad ly above the centre line by ha lf the thickn ess th roug h one side may be chewing into the
da m ag ed. In fact when do ing th is sort o f of the teeth left upst nding in th e first metal which has o be left intact on th e
fixing I always disengag the plu nger. ha lf. The same procedure of cutti ng right opposite side to make the toot h. If you r
then if t he screwpad doe s not hol d, no across is fol lowed, and after six passes th e desig n ca n arrange fo r an even nu m ber of
damage is done. job is com plete. It is feasib le, if you are te eth this risk will be eli minated. A noth er
By selecting a suitabl e change w heel it will ing to take the trouble, to make a poin t is to check t hat th e desired nu mber
is possible to get quite a lot o f divisions clu tc h w ith all tooth sides tapered, so that o f tee th can really be s ecured with th e
very easily. For example a 60 tooth w h el the two halves are ide ntical. If maximum dividing head you intend to use.
w ill give 2. 3 . 4 , 5. 6. 10, 12. 15. 20 or 3 0
divisions. It will no t give 8, but a 40 tooth
w he I w ill do so. When doing dividin g Fig. 35 Cutting teeth in dog clutch pan
with this kind of dev ice it is a good thing
to have a bit of chalk handy and mark the
approp riate tooth gaps w here th e plunger
is going o have to drop in, befo re starting
cutt ing, to avoid incorrect se tti ngs which
would spoi l the work. Many examples of
machi nery parts to which a simple head of
th is kind ca n be usefully appl ied cou ld be
given. Such items as crankcase drain or
filler plugs which need hexagons, square
ends on shafts , tools like taps, reamers,
para ll el flats fo r spa nn ers o n round
articles. all these can be formed so very
easi ly with an end mill , with less physical
effort than filing. and with an accuracy
which enhances the appearance o f the
article even if dimensiona l accuracy as
such is not im portant.
But there are examples where accuracy
is fairly important, and one which cou ld
55
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 MYFORD DIVIDING HEAD
The Myford dividing head is an excel-
lent piece of equipment, with a very wide
range of divisions. The main spindle has a
!O 60 tooth worm wheel on it, and a single-
start worm meshes with that. Concentric
with the worm there is provision for
mounting a multi-holed division plate
which remains stationary and does not
rotate with the worm . On the worm
spind le is fi tted an arm carrying a spring-
loaded plunger wh ich has a point of
parallel shape that enters ho les in the
J.. division plate. This arm is slotted and can
16 be set to such a radius as w ill bring the
plu nger in the rig ht place for any of the
rows of ho les that are already drilled in the
plate. Having set the arm, if one tu rn s the
worm one w hole turn and drops th e
plunger back into the same hole from
wh ich it started , the main spin le wi ll
have rotated one sixtieth of a turn . But if
one m oves the worm and arm five
complete turns before dropping in , the
mai n spindle will have turned one twelft h
of a turn. Basically. t hat is all there is to
gettin any desi red number of ivisions.
Having got the right division plate on the
head one moves t he arm s many turns,
plus if necessary, a certain number of
holes extra to the comp lete turns. A chart
supplied with the head gives all the avail-
able combinations. In order to accomplish
,___, - all divisions up to 100 it is necessary to
have 4 plates. but two of these are needed
only for some rather outlandish numbers
with which few model engineers will e er
t the cross slide screw and the measure-
0 ~
t
I
3i
STE.ADY STANO FOR
have to deal , so the two normal plates will
se.ve. almost everything. There is one
point of practical importance in using a
3' MYFOR 0 Dtv'o'G HEAD
Opposite, Fig. 36 Drawing of steady stand for
Myford dividing head
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worm geared dividing head . When moving
from one position to the next. always turn
the worm the same way, never go back. If
by chance you overshoot the nght hole, of
course you have to turn back, but go well
back. way beyond the hole you want by a
good margin , then come up to it afresh . If
you fail to do this you will have an error in
your dividing and a scrapped work -piece .
Our old enemy 'back-lash' will see to that.
But it' s easy enough to avoid this kind of
disaster. There is provided on the head a
most important aid to correct counting of
the number of holes needed whe n turning
the worm. Two brass blades are fitted
aroun the worm shaft. above the division
pi te, an these can be move relative to
one another, by loosening a screw, and
set to embrace the number of holes
needed. Than after lock in g with the
screwdriver. they make a mask to show
just where the plunger should be dropped
in. After each movement you rotate them
till one blade comes aga inst the plunger,
and you are then ready (after doing the
cutting of course) for the next move. In
this part of the procedure the two blades
move together as if they were one piece of
meta l.
STEADY STAND
I have found in using the Myford head
that it is a convenience to be able to se it
at lathe centre height when fixed on the
boring tab le. If one wants to drill cylinder
covers and similar work the radius of the
row of holes can be readily obtained by
ment is direct. So I have a packing block
of the right thickness which I can place
under it for this purpose.
There is one minor criticism of the
Myford head which is nevertheless impor
tant from a practical point of view. The
single bolt which holds it to a machine
57
 t able or vertica l sli de , etc. does on
occasion come a long way from the poin t
whe re cutting i bei ng done. and accor-
di n ly there is danger of the work being
spo ilt by the head slipping. To ove rcome
th is I have made up a steady stand from
mil d steel bar materia l which bol ts on the
table of the miller, and clamps on the 1 in.
overarm bar of the head. The stand has a
vertica l t in. bar set into a flat ba se with
slot for a table bolt. A two-way cla m p
slides on thi s vertical bar, and another i
in. ba r passes t hrough it horizon tally. At
the end of this is a two-plate clam p
ripp ing the t in . bar. w ith provision also
Fig. 39 The George H. Thomes Versatile Dividing Head
Fig. 37 Steady in use on a gear cutting operation
Fig. 38 Author's design for simple dividing head
\\
58
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for gripping the 1 in. bar o f the head. The
various clamps can be moved separately
and make pretty universa l fitting. The
whole thi ng is shown in use in Fig. 37 .
This fitting of my design is not on the
market , but it has proved so useful to me
that I am giving a working drawing of it in
Fig. 36 and anybody who like s can ma ke a
unit fo r himself.
OTHER DIVIDING HEADS
Since the last editi n of this boo k was
prin ted three new ividi ng heads have
appea red on the market. The first. of my
59
 own design, replaces that shown in Fig.
35 , long out of production after the maker
died several years ago. It is essentially
similar with detail improvements. It ha a
ta ilstock for supporting long slender
pieces, and a pai r of raising blocks which
bring the centre height up to just ove r 3t
in. and thereby allow fo r rotating work up
to the size of the 7" diamete r Myford
faceplate . It is shown in Fig. 38.
The second type is a m uch more
elabo r a t e a nd versa t i l e appliance
designed by Mr Geo. Thomas. and
su pplied, li ke the first one, by N.S. & A.
Hemingway, 30 Li nks View. Hal f Acre.
Ro chd ale . In this head a 24-ho le divisio n
plate provides for sim ple divi ding with
those factors associated w ith 24. A 40-
tooth worm wheel and w orm can Is be
engaged , w ith a six- row dr ill ed - ho i
division plate, giving much fin er divisions.
This plate can be rotated by a subsid iary
worm, thereby permitting very high
Opposite, Fig. 40 The Kibbey dividing head
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numbers of divisions to be obtained. Most
people will need some help to make the
fullest use of this device and the book by
Geo. Thomas h1mself on its construction
and use, (Dividing and Graduating , Argus
Books Ltd.) will be found t he best source
of info rm ation. This head is also ava il able
wit h tai lstock and raising blocks, but in
normal form is shown in Fi g. 39 .
The third head i supplied also in kit
form y Model Engineering Services. and
was designed by Mr Ron Kibbey. It uses
sta ndard Myfo rd cha nge wheels as
divisio n plates, but ha s a forked locking
plu nger which ca n spa n over a tooth as
well as drop between two tee th . Th us the
num ber of divisions in creases to twice the
number of te eth in any wheel. In addition
it has a mou nting for a wheel-pair to mes h
wi th th e spind le w heel , giving a gear ratio
to add to th e basic divisions. It is not at
presen t provided with a tailstock or raising
blocks. The head , with extra gear pair in
posi ti on, is shown in Fig. 40.
61
 CHAPTER 11
Dividing Heads and·
Gearcutting
The availability of a dividing head is again
essential for doing gearcutting on the
mi lling machine. Of course the re are types
of gears one just ca nnot do, but ordi nary
spur gears can be done perfectly well for
m odel engi neering pu rposes, where
neithe r high speeds, ext rem e sile nce , nor
high rates of po wer tran smissio n are
emanded. The design of gears is a
subject outside t he scope of this book,
which is intended to deal with workshop
operations, but there are plenty of source s
of informat ion on gear design. The sim ple
type of ividi ng head already illustrated
will serve very w ell if the gears to be cu t
have such a number of tee th as th e
indexing change whee ls can deal with.
But if the number required cannot b got
from existing whe els, t hen a more
comp lex head such as he Myford, will be
needed. Fig. 37 shows th is in use cutting
the tee th of a pin ion w hich are integral
with the shaft. The blank was turned to t
in diameter on th e part to be held and th is
was gripped in the sta ndard Myford t in.
collet. while the other end of the compo -
nent being centred wa s supported by a
60 degree centre in the overarm fitting.
This pict ure shows the steady bracket
described in the last chapter in us . The
cutter is a simp le flycutter in a boring bar
62
held for convenience in a boring head. It is
shown in clo se-up in Fig . 41. Th e profi le
w as established by grinding to su it a
whee l of th e same pitch w ith sl ightly mo re
teeth. The variation is so small as to be of
Fig. 4 T Close-up of f/ycutter and pinion
no importance, especiall y as the pi nion
rot ates at only a low speed.
But if several gea rs are to be made . and
especially if du plicates may be w ante d
later, it can be w orth whil e to invest in one
or more proper disc type gear cu tters of Fig. 42 Gearcutting with Brown & Sharpe cutter
what is now universally known as the
'Brown & Sharpe ' type, because th ey
were deve loped by the famous firm of
Brown & Sharpe in U.S.A. m any years
ago. They are of co urse now made by
British firms as w ell , and by others all over
th e world, to an accuracy of interna iona l
standards, far better than anythin g th at i
needed for model engineering , and are
properly backe oft as we ll as being made
from high speed steel. No single cu tter
will prope rl y deal with all number of t eth,
so they are m ade in sets, each!. cutter
dealing with a limited range. and each
bears an identifying number. Th e range
runs as fo llows:
N . 1 135 to a ra ck No. 5 21 to 25
No.2 55 to 134 No.6 17 to 20
No. 3 35 to 5 No. 7 14 to 16
No. 4 26 to 34 No.8 12 and 13
63
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 Fig. 43 Flycutting I 0 d.p . gear wheel, front view
T hese cutters can be bo ught sing ly at
any time fro m reg ular tool merchants and
I doubt if any disco unt wou ld be given fo r
buying a com ple te set of 8 . So th ere is no
need to go o the expense of acqui ring a
complete s t unl ss it is firmly known
there will be a use fo r every one ! Fig. 42
shows one of these doing a simila r job to
that depicted in Fig . 37. The smoother
action of the multi- toothed cutter made it
possible to d i pe nse with the use of th e
steady stand , though care was taken not
to be too rough with th e feed, especially
at the start of each cut
Go in g now from wha t m ight be called
the sublime to the ridiculous. or at least
from the miniature to t he outsize , t he next
photograp h shows the cutting of a much
larger gear, actually 9 .600 in . p.c.d. This is
a gunmetal gear needed as part of a meta l
patte rn from which the flywh el of Fig. 20
was made. It is only 3/ 16 in. th ick but the
64
Fig. 44 Flycutting I 0 d.p . gearwheel, rear view
teeth are 10 .p., approx. 5/ 16 in. ce ntres, prevailin g, but using this safegua rd all avoid da mage to m achines and w ork, as
so qu ite a lot of meta l had to be rem oved went well. well as possible inj ury. Fig . 4 3 shows the
at each too th. The cu tt mg wa s one with It is well worth keeping in mind in the fro nt of the gear disc. and in th is view the
a flycu tt er, grou nd up by hand to m atch a home workshop that thi s meth od of dividin g head is not visibl e. But in Fig. 44
s ilh ouette of a 1 0 d .p. t oo t h i n ba ck-up is widely used in t he engin eeri ng both th e angl epla te and th e dividing head
Machinery's Handbook, using a m agnifi er, industry, espe c i ally in t he heavie r are seen. The gear blank w ould only just
this cutte r being set in a bori ng ba r of sect ions, on planing m achines and ot her swin g in the gap of th e M yford lathe so
rather excessive length in a boring head . w here there is eit her high thrust or high without ra ising blocks it represents about
Two cuts were taken , but even then there impact' som etim es both, because it can the largest job that ca n e tu rned.
was a good dea l of spnng and noise. The
shape of th e blank casting was arranged
to provide for mou nting by 8 bolts on the
large Myford faceplate, (9 in. diameter)
and this was fixed on the miller table so as
to overhang the side. That pe r mit~d fixi ng
a sta nda rd angl eplate on the table too,
just touching the back of the facep late,
which reduced the springiness of that, and
provided a back-stop against t he da nger
of sli pping. It wou ld have been ask ing a lot
of the single bolt of the dividi ng head to
prevent movement under the conditions
65
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CHAPTER 12
Dividing Heads and
Tool Making
There are many occasions in too l making
when dividi ng is necessary. Multiple
edged cu t ing too ls like taps, rea me rs,
milling cutters, countersinks, etc. all reall y
need dividing devices to prod uce the best
resu lts, even though some of the simple
cutters ca n we ll be m ade by filing or
free hand grinding . Howeve r. th e fo rm of
the teeth or flutes so meti mes settl es that
Fig. 45 Fluting Acme thread tap
66
rough and re ady methods just will no t do,
and as in the next exampl the ph ysic al
difficulty of getti ng at th e metal that has
to be ta ken away more or less se t t les tha t
mechanical dividing mu st be em ployed.
Fig. 45 shows t he fl uting of a long-thread
Acm e tap whi ch is held in a coll et in t he
spin le of a si mple dividing head. us ing
cha nge wh eels for the dividing. In order to
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obtain the maximum swarf clearance this
tap has five flutes. The head has no
t ailstock so the outboard end of the tap is
rested on a pai r of Picador blocks and the
clamp rests on anothe r pair. These are
very useful accessories for milling opera-
tions. Of course each time t hat a flute is
comp leted the clamp has to be re i ased
before the work can b rotated to the
position for the next flu te. A suitable
tailstock, w ere it avai lable. would obvi te
the need for this . The 5 flu tes are obtained
by moving 1 2 teeth at a time on a 60
toot wheel. T he cutter being used is a
commerci al tap -fl uting cu tter picked up
cheaply at a sal e. These cutter are m ade
w ith a somewhat lop- sided rounded
profil specifically for this duty, but if it
had not been ava il able , a flycutte r would
have been ground up to the profile of a
similar tap. The profile is not desperately
impo rtan t and a small error would not
matter.
Fig. 46 Cutting teeth of ball-end cutter
Another example of the use of th e
dividing head , this time coupled with the
use of a small rotary tab le. is shown in
Figs. 46 and 4 7. The workpiece to be
produced was a fine tooth milling cutter
with a round end for rout1ng or hand
milling on the light alloy cy linder head of a
car eng ine. The commercially avai lable
cutters for use In electric dri lls had uch
coarse teeth th at once they touched the
surface of the alloy t hey we re uncontro ll-
able and pulled sideways so violently that
dam age to the cylinder head was al most a
ce rta in ty. So as fine p it ch cutters
appea red to be not purchasable it was
deci ded to make one. The blan k, of a
carbo n steel si mi lar to si lver steel but
som ew hat lower in carbon . was made to
hold in a collet and wa s give n a sm all
rec ess in t he end for the flut ing cutter to
run into. The dividing head , with a 50
tooth change w heel on its spi ndle. was
mounted on a stee l plate so that the end
67
 Fig. 47 Close-up of ball-end cutter
of the work-piece w as eyond the centre
of the rotary table by ha lf its diame ter. In
other wo rds, th e centre of the ball end
was over the centre of the rotary table.
The axis of the work was on the rotation
centre . This is not apparent from the
photograph, but wa s an essential feature
of the set-up. A stop block was clamped
to the unde rsid e of the mi ll ing m achine
table with a toolmaker's clamp, visible in
th e p hot g rap h , to limit the table
moveme nt positively to thi s position. In
the other direction the movemen t of the
table brought the cutter to a part of the
tool shank smaller than the diameter at
the bottom of the flute so that indexing
could be done w ith the cutter in the clear.
The cutter used was a carbon steel one
made originally for producing locomotive
lubricator ratchet wheels, with a 60
degree single angle. With the axis of the
work parallel to the table a cut was
started at the requ ired full depth. and the
68
table traversed along bringi ng the cutter
into operation cutting al ong the cyli ndrica l
portion . When the table was arreste by
the temporary stop block, the rotary table
wa s turned by means of its worm , so the
dovetail cutter continued cutting round
th e ball end of th e work. When th e cutter
ran into the recess. the fe ed was reversed
first with the rotary table, then with the
mai n table , back to the starting point,
where the cutter was clear of the work
shank . The dividing head was then
indexed one tooth on the wheel. and a
new cut started. Eventually all 50 cuts
were completed as shown in Fig. 4 7.
The working diameter of this tool is t
in. and tloere are 50 perfect teeth. The tool
was hardened and tempered, and when
put to use in an electric drill was found to
be entirely satisfactory. It worked com-
pletely cha t ter-free, with no tendency to
run away, and in spite of it fine and
sha ll ow teeth , removed metal at a very
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Fig. 48 Gashing flutes in large countersinking tool
gratifying rate. The work on the po rt s in
th e alloy head was compl eted to th e great
sa ti sfaction of the user, leaving a beau iful
smooth surface for the gas flow.
Another example of cutting tool making
is shown in Figs. 48 and 49 . A la rge 60
degree countersink wa s needed for a
commerci al operation on steel tu bes. th e
tool being about 2-l in. diameter. It was
made with an interna l form identical with
the Myford lathe spindles from a carbon-
manganese chrome alloy of known
identity, so th at subseq uent hardening
could be done without risk of failure in a
commercial establishment with
knowledge of this steel. In the pictu re it is
shown mounted on th e Myford dividing
head having th e flutes cut with a specia l
angle form disc type cutter. Because of
the pecu liar angles which are involved it
was necessary to be able to set the head
with its axis at an inclination to t he table.
and it proved that the simp lest way to do
this was to use a ve rtical slide. There was
qu ite a lot of metal to be taken out of the
25 flutes in thi s de idedly tou gh steel, an
as usual the cutt ing was a long way from
the anch orage point. so the steady stand
was brought into use at the back of t he
head , as it proved too difficult to se t it at
th e same side as the cutter. However, it
served qui te well in th at position and
t he re was never any sug gesti on of
insecurity.
The main gashes for the flu tes were
taken out first , with two cuts down ea ch
flu te. Then the head was tilted to a new
angle and ano her series of cuts taken to
accomplish the relief. Because of the
conical shape of the work the vertical slide
had to have its base set at an angle to the
miller tab le. All these apparently com-
plicated setti ngs had to be establishe
experimentally (though possibly with a lot
of effort they might have been calculated)
to give the desired form of the cutting
69

Fig. 49 Rear view showing teady stand in use
edges of the countersink and the rake
angles desired in two directions. The small
division plate in use is one which had
been made some time previously for doing
125 division m icrometer dials, for which
unfortu nately th e standard Myford plates
do not provide, or did not at tha t ime.
However, with this set-up and not too
many hours work i proved possib le with
home workshop quipm nt to produce a
very suitable specia l countersink which
would inevitably have cost a small fortune
70
if it had had to be made in a commercial
factory.
It is hoped that these examples of
tool maki ng will encourage all who need
non-sta ndard tools , and who know of no
firm that w ould take t hem on, or are
det rred by the high cos t of labour-
inten sive specials. Who knows, somebody
in a home workshop might take on th e job
of hel ping out some tool factory th at
would no t wa nt to be dive rted from its
normal work by jobs of t his kind?
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CHAPTER 13
Dividing Heads and
Graduated Scales
In th e constructio n of sm all mach in tools
and accessori es it is often desirable to
have grad uated sca les for the con-
venience of precise mea surements, and
the cyl in drical m icrometer dial is un doub-
tedly the comm onest type. Depe ndin on
the number of graduation required the
eng ravi ng or cutting of the li nes can be
done w ith either a sim ple head or the
worm geared type . There is a choice
between using a non-rotating cutte r of th e
planing or slotting type. and using a
rotating cutter like those employed on
pantograph en raving mach in es. In each
ca se the work is mounted on the dividing
head and the t able screw is used to move
the work against the tool. It is ad visable to
cl mp stops to the table, if the machi ne
does not ha e stop devices bu il t in , o as
to positively li mit the table movement an
keep the lines the correct length . Where
there are lines of more than one length on
the same dial , one or more slips of sheet
metal can be inserted in front of the stop
to obtain the short lines. The cutting tool
can be ground to an included angle of
about 50 degrees. Few modellers have
access to an engraving cutter gri nder,
which is the ideal machine for grinding the
O-bit type cutters with con1cal end which
are needed , but they can in fact be ground
on the Quorn g rinde r, which is becoming
more and more popular with model
engineers. Th ose who do not possess one
of these versatile machi nes m ay have
some friend who can help out by grindi ng
an occasional cutter. For my part I pr fer
the ro tati ng cutter bu then I do have the
machine to grind them. Without this a
slotting tool can easily be ground an if
rigidly hel w ill lso do a good job.
Fig. 50 shows a cylindrica l sca le being
engraved on th e miller w ith rotat ing
tool. This is n t a loose collar, the scale is
on the co m ponent itself, actua ll y part of a
Quorn grind er. bu t a separate collar wou ld
just be mounted on an arbor and treated
in the same way. Fig. 51 is a cl ose- up of
this operation .
Some articles need the sc le on a fl at
surface but s ill in a curve. One of these is
needed on the Quorn grinder, and Fig. 52
shows this set on a rotary tab le on the
miller and being dealt with by a rotating
cutter as the last example. The M .E. S.
table in the picture has a 90 tooth worm
wheel. so one revolution of the worm
gives 4 degrees movement and each
ivision on its 1 6-line micrometer collar
gives one quarter of one degree. The scale
being engraved is one specified i n
degrees, as it is an angle-setting scale .
71
 Fig. 50 Cylindrical machine component being graduated
Fig. 51 Close -up of previous operation
72
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Fig. 52 Gra duating part-circular arcuate scale on flat surface
Conical microme er col lars are som etim es
required. bu t they are more difficult to
produce and should e avoided in the
designin g if at all pos ib le. For graduating
one of th se the dividing head would need
to be tilte after the f ashio n of that in Fig.
48 . but possibly in the ot her irection .
depending on the actual design of the
co ll ar.
One point in making scales of any kind .
The figuring should always be done so
that th e fig ures are the righ t way up as
seen in using the scale. The fi gures m ay
need to have rising va lue ... 10 . 20 . 30
. . . to the ri gh t ha nd from t he zero mark.
but quite possibly, depend ing on circu m-
st ances t hey may need to be the opposite
way. It is as wel l to get this thoroughly
sorted out before starting to use marking
punches to put the figures in , because it
ca n be very difficul t to r trieve the situa -
tion if the start was made the wrong way.
73
 article in Model Engineer in yea rs past has
described methods for making gear
cutters of th e Brown and Sharpe type, and I
CHAPTER 14 have some of these myself. made from
plain carbon steel of about 1% carbon .
Such cutters must be run more s owly
than the high speed steel cutters of com-
mercial m ake, bu t it is possible that a
miller is a matter of great importance.
Reference has already been made to tools
which screw directly on the spindle nose,
and another chapter in this book w ill give
descriptions of the milling chucks which
are currently ava ilable.
It will be found that some of the m ill ers
at present on offer have speed ranges

Cutter Speeds for w ider variety of to ols w ill in future be

made in th e home work shops, as a better
understanding of tool making and th e con-
which do not go low enough to match th e
bottom end of the re comm ended speeds
on Tab le Ill. This is unfort un ate, bu t it is a

Vertical Milling tribution w hich the vertica l m iller can

In general I am afraid mode l engineers do
not have very clear ideas about how fast
they should run their lathes, drills or
milling m achines. To run too slowly
extends the working time unnecessarily,
but to ru n too fast will soon blunt a cutter
and may also cause poor wo rk finish
through chatter. The wear on milling
cutters (apart from flycutters) is quite
important because of the trouble of
sharpening t hem, and broke n cutters can
be quite an expense . The principles wh ich
govern the speeds of cutting metal in
other machines such as the lathe and dri ll
ca n be taken as a useful gu id e, in t he
sense that any speed which an a pa rticu lar
material wil l blunt a lathe tool or drill wil l
likewise blunt a milling cutter. But on the
vertical miller there are other problems
too. Generally the point of cutting is much
further from the support than that of the
lathe tool. It will also be a long way com -
paratively from the spindle bearings. The
work may be much further from the
slideways t han it wou ld be from the bed of
the lathe. The cutt ing tool is normally
unsupported at its cutting end, and its
own elasticity is added to that of the
chuck, spindle . work, etc. So speeds
which might be feasible on the lathe may
well be found much too high on th e miller.
provide comes to be reco gnised. The
cutting speeds to be used with such tools
fact of life, and one mu st do the best one
ca n with it , even it it me ans occasionally
borrowing the use of a friend's machi ne.
will need to be arranged to suit the tool Naturally it will tend to influ ence the
As an example. t urni ng back to Fig. 20 w ill materials and the w ork they are doi ng. decision when t hinking of purchasing a
show how elevated the surface of the The proper mounting of tools in the machine .
work is fro m the tab le slides, and in this
example low speeds were esse ntial to
obtain a reasonab ly good finish .
The ra tes of fe ed and dept h of cu t
which are com monp lace on industrial
mach ines are quite ou t of order in the
home workshop. Not only are industria l
mach ines heavy and rigid , so are the work
holding devices, and the work itse lf is
much more robust and rigid. Also, and this
applies particu larly whe n cutting steel,
these machi nes ca n usua lly flood the
cutter with coola nt, taking away the heat
generated in the cutting operation , and
that is not norma lly possible on m achines
in t he home workshop. So Table Il l has
been co mpiled to give some guidance in
the kind of operations which have been
described in the book. It is based on usi ng
speeds which wi ll conserve t he sharpness
of the cutters likely to be used. For flycut-
ters. commercially made endmills. and
Brown and Sharpe gear cutters, the tools
t hemselves will be properly hardened high
speed steel. For the Woodruff cutters it is
based on these being home made cutters
produced from carbon stee l or 'silver' stee l
(which is a carbon steel with about 1.2%
carbon and no alloy) . More than one

75
74

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 TABLE Ill TABLE Ill (continued)

FLYCUTTING . Flat surfaces as in Fig. 16, H.S.S. cutters. easily sharpened. KEYWAY CUTTING. With H.S.S. disc cutter Fig . 26 , or slitting Fig . 23 .
Depth of cut :
Mild steel .030 in. (inches)
Brass .045 in . Cutter diameter. 2 2t 3 31 4
Light Alloy .060in. Speeds r.p.m.
(inche ) Mild steel 65 55 45 38 33
Brass 1 15 95 75 65 55
Diam eter of Light Alloy 190 155 125 1 10 95
cutting : 1 "2' 2 2.12 3 31 4 4t 5
Speeds r.p .m : GEARCUTTING. Commerc ial H.S .S. Brown & Sharpe cutt ers 2 ~i n . diameter. Fi g. 42 .
Mi ld Steel 150 100 75 60 50 45 38 34 30 Speeds r.p.m.
Brass 230 150 1 15 90 75 65 57 50 46 Mil steel 48
Ligh t alloy 570 380 285 230 190 165 145 12 5 115 Bras 80
Lig ht A lloy 110
Speeds may well be limited by the ex tent that swart thrown abou t the workshop can be
accepted. 'Home made' cutters produce fro m 'silver steel' .
(in ches)
ENDMILLING. Spi ral flu te H.S.S. endmill s. Dep th of cu t up to ~ of cutter diameter up Cutter diamete r. 1-l4 q 2 21
to 3/ 1 6 in .. then up to i of diame ter. Wid th of step being cut up to ~ o f d iameter. Speeds r.p.m .:
M ild steel 60 50 38 30
(inches)
Brass 120 100 75 60
Cutter iameter 1/ 16 3/ 32 1/ 8 3/ 16 1/14 3/ 8 1/2 5/ 8 3/ 4
Light All y 180 150 110 90
Speed s r.p.m.:
Mild steel 1800 1500 120 0 800 65 0 450 350 2 50 180 WOODRUFF KEYWAYS . Usi ng 'hom - ma de' silver stee l cutters. Speeds may be
Bra s 2500 2000 1600 1150 8 50 650 450 3 50 250 incr ased by one third f r commercial H.S . . cutters.
Ligh t alloy 3500 3000 2 500 170 0 140 0 1200 900 800 700 (inches)
Cutter diamete r. 1/ 4 5/ 16 3/ 8 1/ 2
KEYWAY CUTTING. H.S.S. spi ral fluted end m ills or slot dri ll ·. Fig. 24. Speeds r.p. m.:
(inches ) M ild steel 380 300 250 200
Widthofkeyway 1/ 16 3/ 32 1/8 3/ 16 1/ 4 3/ 8 1/ 2 5/ 8 3/ 4 Brass 700 580 450 3 50
Light Alloy 1000 900 800 650
Depth of cut : (th ousandths of an inch)
Mild stee l 10 15 45 70 100 200 2 50 Cast iron. un less exceptionally har . may be cu t at the sa me wvs. as mild steel. but for
25 30
Brass 12 17 27 40 100 140 250 300 work on carbo n stee l ('silver steel '). alloy steels, and free cu tt1119 sta inl ess reduce revs.
60
Light allo y 15 18 30 45 65 110 135 300 350 by one third. For non -magn etic stainl ess reduce by half.

Speeds r.p.m .:
M ild steel 1800 1500 1200 800 650 450 350 250 180
Brass 2500 2000 1600 1150 850 650 45 350 250
Light alloy 3500 3000 2500 1700 1400 1200 900 800 700

76 77

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CHAPTER 15
Work-holding with
Difficult Shapes
Problems do arise from time to time
regarding t he methods of hold ing work in
the milling machine. In fu ll scale engineer-
ing these p ro blems are not nearly s acut e
as components are more solid and clam ps
can be applied withou t crushing the
pieces. Often with model parts it is
di ffi cul t to get a hold sufficien tly fi rmly
without more or less mutilating t h pi ce.
One method I ofte n use both for ca tings
and ba r material i to arrange for an
accurate chucki ng piece to be left on the
component until all operations are
co m plete and then to re m ove th is.
Generally this piece is made to su it one of
the Myford collets. from t in. diameter
downwards, since the collets do hold the
part with great accuracy, and after turning
operations it can be transferred to the
miller with the collet placed in a divi ing
head ; even if no indexing has to be done.
he head acts as a very effective vice.
Som etimes thin components presen t
prob lems in holding on the m illi ng
machine. If one side is already flat one can
use double- side sticky tape, available
from drawing office supply shops and
some stationers. If two or three strips can
be used, an astonishingly firm rip can be
obtained, which will stan up t shear
forces induced by m illing. I have also in an
78
industria l plant stuck down metal which
had to be tooled all th e way across th e
piece . on a false base wi h woodworker' s
glue and a sheet of new paper. After t he
operations are comp leted a fine chisel is Fig. 53 Tape-held workpiece being f/yc ut
knocked in between the parts and t he
pa per tears w ithin its t hickness, the
pieces come apart with some paper
Fig. 54 Three- fac e angleplate used to align vee-blocks
sticki ng to each. This ca n th en be washed
off with hot water. There is nothing very
origi nal abou this. of course. it is an age-
old pattern ma kers' method of prod ucing
pattern which has eve ntua lly to be in
halves, but it is a sound method no nea rly
so wel l known as it should be. Fig . 53
shows a light alloy casting b ing faced
rig ht across w ith a flycutte r, the casting
bei ng stuck to the t able with sticky tape
and nothing else .
However. the ariou s examples given
th roughout the book should serve to show
how to unde rt ake a really wide range of
jobs. At the risk of seeming repet itive I
would again stress that it is often worth
while to make a jig for holding or locating
the work, just to make sure i t can be held
firmly enough without da m age in the right
attitude. The kind of jigs and fixtures
needed in mode ll ing se ldom involve more
than a few mmutes or perhaps an hour to
make , and if this safeguards the co po·
79
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Fig. 55 Three-face angleplates used as main packing
nent, as we ll as the tools and machine. it
is time well spent. If a dupl icate compo-
nent is ever needed tha t wi ll be produced
expedi tiou sly w ithout risk too.
Angleplates
A new type of angleplate ha s been
introduced by Hemin gway . Th is has three
faces machi ned at 90 degrees to one
another. I have found over m any years
that cas - in slots in angleplates never
seem to be In the rig ht place fo r any job.
and it seems better to just drill a hole
where it happens to be needed. These
80
CHAPTER 16
Milling Chucks for
Safe Cutter Holding
The newco m r to vertic al milling may
wonder why th ere should be any need for
special chucks for m il li ng cutte rs . and
especially w hen he sees that these are
fairly expen sive accessories. may be
tempted to make do without on e. Bu t first
of all it is necessary to re alise that th e
forces acti ng upon mill ing cut ters in use
are generally qu ite diffe rent from those
acting on dri ll s in a drill ing ma chine or
an glep lates , which are sent out
lathe . Th e drill is usually subjected, except
un machined in ligh t alloy, are in thre e
at the mo ment of com plete penet rat ion. t o
sizes very convenient for use in ho me
axi al forces only, which press it more and
workshops and can easily be fac ed up on
more firmly int o the Morse t aper ho le in
the Myford lathe bo ring table o r facepl ate .
t he sp indle. Eve n if it is held in a drill
Fig. 54 shows one of th em se t across a
chuck and has a paralle l sh ank, t he same
mil ler tabl e to loca te the tw o vee -block s in
thing applies.
which the wo rk is res tin g. Fig. 55 shows
Bu t the mi lling cutter is subjected to
another pair used as main packings with
transverse forces, across th e axi s. and
Picador stepped blocks on t op to give the
unless it is screwed on the spindle. th ese
last bi t of height adjustment for the clamp
forces have a com pone nt which is
plates. So many sizes are available by
pressing against the insi de of the Morse
sel ecting different attitudes of these blocks
taper hole, and thereby trying to cause the
that they are very usefu l indeed.
cutter to slide ou t of the spindle. Each
time the spindle rotates the pressure is
transferred to the opposite side of the
hol e. and this wagg les the tool out of the
spindle. So first of all. any tool mounted
by a taper shank. whether it is a chuck or a
solid endmill with taper shank . MUST be
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provided with a drawbar through the
spindl e to st op this tende ncy to w ork out.
For cutting tools w hich in ope rati on
produce no end forces that precau tion is
suffici ent. Bu t all the spira l fl uted end mills
and slot drills do generate end forc es.
tending to screw t hem out of the holding
device. (S ri ctly speaking this applie s to
cu tters w ith ri ght ha nd rotation. like a dril l,
and ri ght han d flutin g, also like a drill. But
as it w ou ld be re markabl e for any o th ers.
though manuf actured, t o be fou nd in a
home worksh op. the ot he rs can wel l be
disreg arded.) So spi ral fluted cutters will
try to work ou t of a chuck, if paral lel
sh an ked, and must be fo rc ibly prevented .
It is not good enough to hold them in a
thre e-jaw lath e ch uck , especiall y since
most of these exert more pre ssure at the
inner end tha n the outer. through wear
existin g in th e jaw slides. in effect giving
them a slight tape r.
This is where th e specially designed
milling chuck comes into its own. Ther
are two basic types. bu t each is arranged
to grip the cutter firmly on its paral lel
shank by a split collet closed by a screw
thread forcing the collet into a conical part
of the chuck. In addition one type uses
cu tters formed with a special shaped end .
81
 Fig. 5 6 Clare ml'l!ing chuck
and the other type uses cu tters with a
short screw thread at t he end of the
shank. The first of these, the Clare, has a
rectang ula r end for th e cutter, and this
end is undercut by mill in g. After passing it
through a re ctangu lar slot in the co llet, th e
cutter is turned t hrough a sm al l ang le , so
the part not und ercut overh angs t he end
of th e coll et, and cannot slide out. The
Fig. 5 7 Clarkson milling chuck
82
collet is not only retained in the ch uck
body by an intern ally screwed ca p w hich
fits on t he body, but is also closed on the
shank by it. The coll et screws in t o ano ther
th re ad in the cap, whi ch en sures that it
loosens wh en required, a sma ll spanner
being provided by the makers fo r thi s
purpose. This typ e of chu ck w ill in fact
hold cu tters which do not have the 'tee'
Fig. 58 Osborn milling chuck
end , and have just a plain round shan k,
though of course the security fea t ure is
then non-existe nt. Bu t fo r sma ll cu tters
and light duty it will serve very well.
The other type of ch uck , made both by
Clarkso n an d Osborn, uses only a screwed
shank typ e of cutter and canno t be used
except w ith thi s. The screw thread on the
shank, when subjected to the orque
necessa ry to drive th e cutt er, provides the
force to close the collet and thereby grip
the tool shank. A centre device inside the
body engages with the centre dimple in
the end of the cutter to reduce frict ion
forces that would hamper rotat ion of the
cutter. T he Clarkson chuck needs a
spanne r, provided with the tool, to release
the co llet for ch ang in g cutters. The
Osborne uses a finer thread on t he
securing sleeve. t oget her with som e lost
motion provisions , and can be released by
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ha nd w ithou the use of a span ne r. There
is provision with each of these for using
'throw-away' cutt ers, w hich are made
ch eaply in sizes up to t in. These have a
pla in shank, unscrewed, of t in . diameter
whatever the size of th e cu tting portion,
w hich has a sma ll fla t in one place. They
are se t in an adaptor w ith a small screw at
the side , which bears on the flat, and this
is sufficie nt to prevent their working out of
he chuck. The idea of th ese cutters is that
th y are made so cheaply that in a com-
mercial engineering shop it wi ll cost more
to re-sharpen one than to replace it by a
new one . Whether or not that is rea lly true
will depend on the parti ular establish-
ment in wh ich they are be ing used , but in
the home workshop , if there is a Quorn
grinder, it will be feasible to re-sharpen
the m at a worthwhi le cost in time and
trou ble. for a whil e, until a certain amount
83
of shortening has taken place .
All the cutters with screwed ends to
su it the Clarkson and Osborn chucks have
Whitworth form threads 20 pe r inch
irrespective of diameter. On f in. shanks
this conforms to B.S .W . and on t in.
shanks to B.S.F. for both of which dies can
be read i ly obtained . But for other
diameters. if one needs to make a special
cutter in the home workshop, screwing a
shank 20 threads p r inch is not a difficult
task. Making the spec ial ends for the Clare
cutters is not quite so easy in my view. but
the Clare chuck has the advantages of a
short overhang and a smaller iamet er of
body. Th is is particularly useful when
holding work in a 3 or 4-ja w chu ck on a
dividing head, when sometimes it is
difficult to clear the chuck jaws. But all
84
these chucks can be fully recommended
as bei ng good pr cision tools which
provide complete security against cutte rs
working out in use. If an accident of that
kind happens due to not hav ing a security
chuck, a spoiled componen t is certain , a
broken cutter is possible , and I hav seen
this happen on a number of occasions. So
do be wa rn ed, and don 't think the cost of
a proper chu ck is too high to face.
Photographs of the three chucks
mentioned are shown in Figs. 56 , 57 and
58. The Clarkson Autolock chuck shown
here, as we ll as in pictures in the tex t, is
fitted wi th a damping ring. After the
chuck is fixed in the Mo rse taper. th is ri ng
c n be screwed up to con tact the end of
the machine spindle, giving extra upport
aga in st vibratio n.
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 ARNO LD THROP was an apprentice then
an Outsid Erector with the famous
eng ineers Cole, Marchent & Morley,
Bradfo rd, Yorks. Products: compound
engines to 2500 hp , Uniflows to 1500 hp,
Di sel oil engines, condensers for largest
power sta tions. Later he held t ech nica l-
adm in istra ti v e po sts in high-tensio n
swit hgear, mi ning machinery, stainle ss
fabrication , machi ne tools. and m arki ng
device s. At his retirement he was the
Director of Engineering , Edward Pryor &
Son, Sheffield.
He has been an I.Mech.E. in mounting
se niority over 50 yea rs, serving on several
com mittees and one of B.S.I. He has read
papers to I.Mech.E. and th e Newcomen
Soci ety of which he is a membe r. He has
worked for ha lf a dozen years as dem on-
strator on the Workshop Stand of S.M.E. E.
at Model Engi neer Exhibit io n s. co n-
tributed artie! s to Model Engineer from
1932. and having been in Sheffield
S. M .E.E. from 1937 has bee n its Presi-
dent for. some years.
Fou nding Dare Engineering in 196 3 , he
redesigned Edgar Westbury's ver tica l
m iller and sold it as the Dare-Westbury
unti l tra nsfer to Model Engineering
Services in 1971.
His present interests are stationary
engines. workshop equipment. gardening
and photography.

The author

86 87

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 Index
Dividing heads and graduated scales 71
Planing/slotting and rotating too l 71
Table stops and line length control 71
Abwood mill ing attachment 12 Cutting/en raving cy lindrical sca le 72
Amolco milling attach me nt a nd Cutti ng/engraving flat arcuate sca le 73
m achine 21 Conical micro m eter dials 73
Angleplate s 80 Marking figures of scales ri ht way 73
Angleplate used as backstop 27.29 Di id ing heads and tool - maki ng 66
Arbo rs for slitting saws and disc cutters 35 Fluting screwing tap 66
Astra m illing machine 22 Cu tting fi ne tooth mil li ng cutte r 67
Cutting large countersink 69
Boring operations 45 Special div ision plate. 2 5 hol e 70
Boring heads 30 D-bit for hole centring to start drills 47
Dora-Westbury mil ling mach ine 14
Chucks, Clare, Cla rkson , Osborn 82
Clutch teeth 55 End-rounding:
Connecting rods 43 Filing collars and ro llers 52
Crosshead slides, engine bedplate 30 Using rotary table 52
Fittings for rota ry table 52
Dividing heads. descr i ption and Rounding engine cranks 52
principle 54 Direction of table rotation 52
Plain type, change wheel Locking precautions for external
indexing 55 work 53
Myford worm geared type 57 Engine bedplate bearing jaws 33
Use of division plates 57 Engine cylinder soleplate 30
Use of locating blades 57 E olution of vertical miller 12
Packing block for centre height 57
Steady stand for extra rigidity 56 Fluting operations . locomotive rods ,
Dividing heads and gear-cutting 62 correct flute form 44
Plain type 62 Rods for British engines 43
Pinion cutting 62 Rods for Canadian and American
Large gear cutting 64 engines 43

88 89

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 Mentor mi ll ing machine 22
Flywheel (i n halves) joint face 31
Milling cutters, multi-tooth:
Early (19th century) 'file-cut' cutters 12
Gear cutting 62
Grinder for engravi ng cutters and O- Facemills 30
bits 71 End m il ls 38
Slitting saws 35
Identi fi cation of cutters etc. by marking Disc cutters 40
when made 42 Woodruff cutters 40
Brown & Sharpe cutters 62
Jig-boring: Tap flut ing cu tters 67
Measu ri ng by table screws 46 Angle cu tters 69
Writ ten record of measurements 47 Milling cutters, single tooth :
Flycutters 27
Example of beam for model engine 47
Connecting rod flu ting cutter 43
Trip gear lever of mode l engine 48
Boiler tube plates 48 Profiled gear tooth cutte rs 62
Engraving cutters 71
Avoidance of back-lash errors 46
Jigs for milling operations 78 Milling operations:
Flat surfaces parallel
Keyways for plain sunk keys : to table 32
Endmilling feather keyways on plain Flat surfaces squa re
shahs 37 to table 34
Keyways on taper shafts wi h tilting Slitting and cutting 35
angleplate 38 Compone nt flu ting 43
Disc cutter milling of keyways 41 Tool fluting 67
End round ing 52
Gear-cutting 62
Loctiting for permanent assembly 27 39
Keywaying
Long components. holding problems 3 8. 49
Woodruff keys and
keyways 38
Machine specifications. table of 24 Boring 45
Jig-boring 46
Maximat milling attachment 22

90 91

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 Profiling 49 Tapered sections 29
Eng rav ing 71 Throw-away" cutters 83
Myford-Rodney milling attachmen t and Twin milling machine 22
m achin 21
Myford collets 62 Vic es, use of two tog ethe r 27
Myford dividi ng head 57
Westbury, Edgar T. 14
Profiling: Westbury milling machine 14
Circu lar arcs 49 Woodruff keys and keyways 38
Locomotive frames 49 Work holding fo r difficult shapes:
Smokebox and cylinder saddles 49 Use of chucking pieces later
Pad-bolts 49 discarded 78
Small arc s der ived fro m curve of Sticky tape for t hin articles 78
endmills 51 Glue and paper for t hi n articles 78
Specially made jigs for di ffi cu lt
Quorn grinder for tool sharpening 83 shapes 78
Quorn gri nder, parts of 35, 71

Rotary tables 52
Rotary table, M.E.S. 52

Senior milli ng m achine 22

Security of milling cutters :
Forces acting upon drills and cutters 81
Use of d ra wbars in machine spindles 81
Positive locking of screwed cutters in
chucks 82
Positive locking of Tee cutters in
chucks 82
Slitting and cutting operations 35
Speeds of milling cutters 74

92 93

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 e" the pressure's on
4.. MODEL
ENGIN ER
won't let

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24 issues Europe £48.90
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Airmail rates given on request.

If you would like to ubscribe to MODEL ENGINEER your

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WORKSHOP PRACTICE SERIES l l l ~l3l ~l9525
li 1 1 / 001 l/ 1 1~1 1'1 116111 1 1
llml lll17696
1 . Hardenmg. Tempermg and 8. heel Metal Work 15. Work holding in the Lathe
Heat Treatment R.E. Wakeford Tub.JI Cam
Tubal Cam 9. Soldenng and Brazmg 16 tlectnc Motors
2. Vertical Mlflmg m the /lome Tubal Ca1n V.I. Cox
Work hop 17 Gears and Gear Cutttng
I 0. Saws and Sawmg
Arnold Throp I. Law
fan Bradley
3. crewculling m the Lathe 18 Rhlc Benchwork
Mart1n Cleeve 1 I Electroplatmg
J Poyner le., Oldndge
4. Foundrywor~ tor the Amateur 19 prmg De"fln and M anufacture
B.T. Asp1n 12 . Drill . Tc1ps and Dtes Tubal a1n
5 Millmg Operation' m the Lathe Tubal Ca1n
20. MctcJiwork and Machtnmg
Tubal Cam 13 . Workshop Drawmg Hint. and Ttps
6 Measuring and Marking Metals Tubal Cain fan Bradley
Ivan law 14. Making mall Workshop 21 . Adhestve and Sealants
7 The ·\rt of Weldmg Tools Dav1d Lammas
W.A Vause S. Bray

2. Vertical Milling in the Home W orkshop

The increasing appearanc of vertic I mi ll ing machines in model
engineers' and other small workshops ha brought th versatil ity of this
type of machine to the notice of large and growing group of potential
users, but until the fi rst edition of the book was published in 1977 there
wa little easily available guidance for the average amat ur or small user.
This third, revised ed ition incl udes desc riptions of many of the ve ry wide
range of operations possible, wi th photographed examples, plu infor-
mation on machines, ace ories, cutter , chucks, r quirem nts and
methods of work-holdi ng.
Arnold Throp enjoyed a long and successful ngine ring career
starting with very large steam and oil engi nes and including high ten ion
switchgear, mining machinery and machine tools. He has a hieved over
55 years' membership of the Institute of Mechanical Engineer .

ISBN 0-85242-843-X

£6.50 net K
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