Milling Machine

[John Tallyn]

When my father in law passed away, he left me several of his woodworking tools, and his metal milling machine. After looking thru his drawings, it appears he used the milling machine for cutting mortises and tenons when he built his kitchen cabinets. Has anybody used a milling machine for this. My father in law was a great engineer, far smarter then I, so I could be on the wrong track. Any thoughts as to whether its possible to use a milling machine for tenons and mortises?

Thanks

[Ron Conlon]

Sure you can. The chief downside that I see would be the tedium of using the handwheels to move the workpiece through the cut.

[John Tallyn]

It would not be the fastest in the world, but would be accurate. I had planned on mounting it horizontally and using it to drill dowels with the flat bottomed milling bits because of the accuracy.

[Walter Plummer]

You have to keep the sawdust cleaned off the mill. It can get in the ways and swell from oil and cutting fluid and bind things up.

[Bruce Page]

I have done them on my mill - with power feed too!

[Julian Tracy]

Darn shame to use a milling machine for wood. You'd have a sad machine - they live for metal chips, not sawdust.

Plus - milling machines are oily beasts, at least they should be. Be a pain trying to keep it clean enough that it would'nt stain the wood.

That and trying to keep the sawdust from getting in spots where it'd be hard to find and clean out - where ever it collects could attract moisture and cause rust.

Julian

[David Kumm]

If you have the room, keep it. I use a millrite rather than a drill press and find I use it for both. I made a table that I can attach to it's table or rather the vises attached to the table and keep most of the sawdust out of the way. I have a lot of machines and it seems that metalwork, drilling, tapping, and milling are needed as much as woodworking. I run mine on a vfd and will never go back to a drill press. Tenons are done easier a bunch of other ways. Dave

[Jay Jeffery]

Sounds like fun.
A milling machine is so versatile I'm sure you will find lots of ways to use it.
But like most pieces of equipment, the real expensive part is outfitting the machine, especially with consumables. Did your dad leave you with much in the way of tooling?

[John Tallyn]

I've got a pretty good set of milling bits that came with it. Even if I can't use it for mortises, I can think of plenty of things I can do as far as making jigs, trimming hinges, little krenov style catches, the possibilities are pretty endless. So far the biggest issue with doing mortises, is the height factor, with a milling bit I can only go up 2". But, like I said, plenty of other things I can do with it.

[Bruce Page]

Darn shame to use a milling machine for wood. You'd have a sad machine - they live for metal chips, not sawdust.

Plus - milling machines are oily beasts, at least they should be. Be a pain trying to keep it clean enough that it would'nt stain the wood.

That and trying to keep the sawdust from getting in spots where it'd be hard to find and clean out - where ever it collects could attract moisture and cause rust.

Julian

Julian, my mill doesn’t give a hoot whether it’s making metal chips or wood chips. It’s a tool. It is also relatively clean with its one-shot lube system for the ways. The oil & grease in the head somehow manages to stay in the head and not on the work piece.

[Jim Heffner]

Milling machine.......well maybe. I thought that the milling machine might be better utilized
as a machine to make parts to fit other wood working applications. Metal working machines
certainly can do wood working... but sawdust and machine oils/lubricants don't mix very well
and usually wind up making a bigger mess than anything else.

[Steve Ryan]

I have a Bridgeport type mill and never had a problem machining wood on it. Just keep a vac handy.

[Jamie Buxton]

Grizzly even has a milling machine specifically for woodworking: http://www.grizzly.com/products/Wood...wer-Feed/G9977

[Dave Cottrell]

The biggest difference between a machine used for wood and one used for metal is in the speed of the cutter. Harder materials like metal need slower cutter speeds. Softer materials like wood get better results with higher speeds. This is why a wood lathe turns at RPMs sometimes three times what a metal lathe is geared at. You will notice that the Grizzly machine's top speed is 5000 RPMs, compared to +- 2500 for the metal machines. Your hand held router goes 3x faster than that.

While some milling could be done on the metal machine, the resulting finished cut may not be what you expect, and may need further work to get the surface you want.

The other issue is with dust -- not so much getting all gooped up in the lube, which it does, but in wood dust's retention of moisture and subsequent rust on steel surfaces. I have both metal and wood machines in my shop and I am absolutely diligent about checking ways and other exposed steel for dust and rust. The main point is not cosmetic, but functional. A metal working machine needs to be accurate in its movements and rust on sliding surfaces will change the calibration necessary for a proper cut.

If you plan to use the milling machine for wood, it will certainly handle it (the milling machine will be snoozing through any strain even ebony would put on it -- it is designed to hog off cast iron). But you should be aware of the differences between wood and metal working, and shape your work flow and expectations accordingly.

First thing you need to do is get a dust cover for your mill and make sure ambient dust can not get on the ways and into the lube. Otherwise, have fun with it -- it will be very very useful when you need it!!

[Terry Beadle]

I use end mills in my drill press to take most of the wood out of mortices. Works great. No rust issues. I have a heavy x-y slide mounted on it and it really makes set up and control easy. I'd love to have a mill but the bucks in the bank say different...bummer.

If it were mine, I'd use it.

It is not recommended to mix metal work with wood work but that's a function of cleaning and errant metal chip control. Metal chips raise cane on wood surfaces and wood dust can attract oil gloop like crazy. Still, if you clean things up, both worlds can be had for a little elbow grease.