Milling with a pillar drill?
 

Is it possible to get decent results using an end mill bit in a pillar drill? I know they're not designed for sideways forces, but I'd be using it for thin ally, 5mm at the absolute thickest... Anyone tried this out there? I'm trying to resist the urge to buy a little milling machine :rolleyes:

Re: Milling with a pillar drill?
 

Listen to the voices, you know they make sence....

Re: Milling with a pillar drill?
 

Difficult to feed in X and Y with any accuracy?
Unless you have an attachement of some sort :rolleyes:

Re: Milling with a pillar drill?
 

I've got a cross vice with semi-accurate x and y adjustment... It's a wee bit sloppy but otherwise decent. Dead handy for setting up drilling jobs, it is.

Re: Milling with a pillar drill?
 

Tempted?

Don't really know how well the pillar drill would work, but its worth a try...

Re: Milling with a pillar drill?
 

That'd be amazing to have in the garage... Damn you!

Re: Milling with a pillar drill?
 

I've looked at getting one for myself, but its the price thats the problem. Then when you get into the high spec full CAD type of machine then it really gets silly.

I can get the odd thing milled via my Dads workmates (such as milling a caliper of its bracket - always grease the mount) but no amount of begging can get me out of hours access to the machine. I mean all I would want is to make a few brackets, the odd rear set or two, chain adjusters, no engine parts!

Thing is I didn't do an engineering course at Uni as I'm sure they have one at my old campus so can't really try that... or could I? Still have to find out who I need to talk too to get time in the wind tunnel, just out of interest you see!