John Lawson invited me over to his shop a few days ago and showed me some pretty amazing things he’s made over the years, including his Atlas vertical milling attachment that he made from Taig parts. His vertical attachment really caught my eye because I am in the process of restoring an Atlas MFC mill and I’ve been looking for a good vertical option for a while now. I think the design is in some ways an improvement over the Marvin milling attachment. Apparently John got the idea when he saw a Taig mill being parted out on eBay. He bought the spindle and motor for a fraction of what a Taig mill costs new and he had everything he needed (except for a mounting plate which he made) for his conversion.

Here’s a video of the attachment in action.

And here are a few pics.

I know what some of you Atlas purists are thinking. “How could anything be better than a Marvin?!” Well, for one thing, it’s available. I’ve never seen a Marving on eBay or anywhere else for sale (although they do supposedly show up for sale occassionally). And I’ve heard that when Marvin milling attachments do show up for sale they cost a fortune. Unless you’re a collector the Marvin isn’t practical. John’s attachment is.

Got a better idea for a vertical milling attachment conversion for an Atlas (or similar) horizontal mill? Share it with us by visiting the forum and leaving a comment/pictures/etc. We’d love to see it!

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Kyle Crane submitted his drawings for a carriage stop that fits his Grizzly G0602 10×22″ lathe. I also own the G0602 so I was excited to see these plans. As soon as I get my Atlas horizontal mill rebuilt I will be building one of these. Or maybe 2, one as a stop and the other to hold a dial indicator.

If you’re not a G0602 owner you can certainly adjust the size of this stop to fit your lathe’s dimensions.

A few additional pictures and a description of the machining process can be found on Kyle’s site.

Thanks for sharing Kyle!

  Grizzly_G0602_Lathe_Carriage_Stop.pdf (43.4 KiB, 61 hits)
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I found this nifty little vise over on the Prints and Plans Yahoo group, posted by “SterTrak”. The design allows for the vise to be as large as the length of your mill’s table – which makes it great for holding larger parts.

But as you can see from the pictures, it works just as well for smaller items.

If you decide to make your own please take a few pictures of the process and post them to the forum!

  Versatile_Mill_Vise_Plans.pdf (844.6 KiB, 351 hits)
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