Dividing Head

[Longtine88]

someone recommend to me the best dividing head to purchase for adding to my equipment. I want one that can do spiral cuts example fluting barrels and bolts. I've been looking at various ones but not pulling the trigger until I hear some confirmations from members that have experience with them.

 

[shortgrass]

Is your mill CNC? If so, the manufacturer of the mill will have a compatible attachment that'll be plug'n'play, as long as your machines' "brains" will support the 4th axis. For a manual milling machine, a dividing attachment that will do spirals is gear driven by the X axis lead screw. I haven't seen one of those in 25yrs. , or longer. A complete set for a manual milling machine would include a large pile of gears, so the spiral can be adjusted. Those that I worked around were made by Cincinnati, for the Cincinnati mill that it was used on.

 

[Barehandlineman11]

Im in middle of doing same thing for my manual mill

 

[59FLH]

For manual mills the only one I am aware of is a Haas indexing head with a control box.

Old school.

 

[Longtine88]

Is your mill CNC? If so, the manufacturer of the mill will have a compatible attachment that'll be plug'n'play, as long as your machines' "brains" will support the 4th axis. For a manual milling machine, a dividing attachment that will do spirals is gear driven by the X axis lead screw. I haven't seen one of those in 25yrs. , or longer. A complete set for a manual milling machine would include a large pile of gears, so the spiral can be adjusted. Those that I worked around were made by Cincinnati, for the Cincinnati mill that it was used on.

I it's a manual mill. And not seeing what I want searching is what lead me to making the post.

BS-2 Full Universal Dividing Head Set, With 8″ Chuck (Can Cut Spirals) – Precision Matthews Machinery Co.

www.precisionmatthews.com

This is the closest I can find without cnc options.

 

[Longtine88]

For manual mills the only one I am aware of is a Haas indexing head with a control box.

Old school.

Yeah eBay is about the only place I can find them on and that's a gamble I would think.

 

[Barehandlineman11]

Im looking at doing head stock for mini lathe and building gear set to x axis. Get gearing for set up for barrel fluting

 

[shortgrass]

Milling like you're talking about has largely been replaced by CNC. The set-up time for a manual system just kills it for 1 or 2. The memory in a CNC is just a matter of pushing a button and locating "home". That's a matter of minutes for an experienced CNC hand. Think an hour or two for manual set-up. Any electronic rotary table/dividing device would need to be linked, either with wireless or with wire, so that rotation would begin the moment the X axis was engaged. Feed rate of X would need to be linked to rotation speed, meaning the motor on the rotating device would need to be variable speed. If the feed rate of X was increased or decreased, rotation would have to respond accordingly, or the flutes would not be symmetrical. You could always take the new mill and add ball screws and a CNC control with 4th axis capability. Centroid makes an easy to use conversion. I have cut straight flutes on CNC and manual vertical mills, and manual horizonal mills. Deflection has always been a concern, and I have supported the barrel to keep that deflection to a minimum. Seems to me that any deflection of the work from the tool would induce stress. Just my 'nickels' worth..........

 

[V35BTC]

I have the dividing head and gear set for my manual mill, it gets used once or twice a year to cut a weird gear of other part you cannot source. I have never considered using it to flute a barrel, its just too easy and economical to have it done when the barrel is ordered. If I did decide to flute one myself, it would get done in the Mazek, not on the Bridgeport.

 

[Longtine88]

Milling like you're talking about has largely been replaced by CNC. The set-up time for a manual system just kills it for 1 or 2. The memory in a CNC is just a matter of pushing a button and locating "home". That's a matter of minutes for an experienced CNC hand. Think an hour or two for manual set-up. Any electronic rotary table/dividing device would need to be linked, either with wireless or with wire, so that rotation would begin the moment the X axis was engaged. Feed rate of X would need to be linked to rotation speed, meaning the motor on the rotating device would need to be variable speed. If the feed rate of X was increased or decreased, rotation would have to respond accordingly, or the flutes would not be symmetrical. You could always take the new mill and add ball screws and a CNC control with 4th axis capability. Centroid makes an easy to use conversion. I have cut straight flutes on CNC and manual vertical mills, and manual horizonal mills. Deflection has always been a concern, and I have supported the barrel to keep that deflection to a minimum. Seems to me that any deflection of the work from the tool would induce stress. Just my 'nickels' worth..........

I pretty much knew that this was gonna be the answer. My anal perfectionist self would have to buy a cnc more than likely. Makes s sense on the setup time.

I have the dividing head and gear set for my manual mill, it gets used once or twice a year to cut a weird gear of other part you cannot source. I have never considered using it to flute a barrel, it's just too easy and economical to have it done when the barrel is ordered. If I did decide to flute one myself, it would get done in the Mazek, not on the Bridgeport.

Like you said most economical would be to have it fluted before hand for now.

 

[tobnpr]

Like you said most economical would be to have it fluted before hand for now.

Time is money. Even straight flutes- I have the barrel blank mfg do them before shipping to me.
Too much time involved on a manual machine... for about $150 (depending on type/# of flutes) it's cheaper than I can do it.

 

[shortgrass]

The only reason to tool up to be able to flute barrels would be if you were going to offer this service to the public, or you have other use for that tooling that will turn a profit. For a gunsmith, the #1 job of the manual milling machine is his "tool maker". #2 job is cutting the extractor groove for CRF actions that require that .

 

[BillLarson]

Actually,you can cut spirals in a lathe.
By changeing feed gears and indexing part.

 

[Vanden Berg]

I guess mine would qualify as "old school". 24 tooth drive gear allows any divisor of(24) number of flutes: 2,3,4,6,8,12.