# Milling with a wood lathe



## fred55 (14 Jan 2016)

Just bought a mitre gauge for my startrite benchsaw from ebay Yes was cheap £24 but sturdy enough to turn out angles once sorted ! - Yep cheap, it is too thick and needs 1/8th planing / milling off the bottom to make it fit level with the iron top - do you think feeding it through my union grad lathe fitted with a milling tool with the bar lifted to suitable height - would be safe and up to the job !.
I have taken a file to the backside and it seem soft enough for steel but to file along its length would take days and would never be flat. Sorry to ask but I normally work with wood not metal.


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## Normancb (14 Jan 2016)

If you are planning on feeding by hand, don't even think about it. The forces involved in machining steel are very much greater than wood, you will be running the cutter too fast and everything is just asking for serious and dangerous trouble. Proper milling machines have the work solidly clamped and fed by a screw.

I assume you mean the bar which fits in the table slot is too thick? If so, the easiest thing is to buy a length of steel of the right width and thickness and make a new bar.


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## graduate_owner (14 Jan 2016)

Make a new post and ask if there are any metal manglers nearby. A job like that should be trivial if you can take the angle gauge off so the work can be easily clamped to the mill table. I am way too far off to do it for you.

K


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## Wildman (14 Jan 2016)

if you do decide to go ahead please let us know where to send the flowers, hee hee. You know in your heart it is unsafe thats why you asked the question. Well done. A short length of steel the right size will not cost the earth.


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## dickm (14 Jan 2016)

If you can't find a local metalsmith, or a bar the right size, then one DIY solution is to rough down to near final size with an angle grinder then do the final finish with files. Did that with mitre gauge for my Lurem and it was quite a quick job.


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## fred55 (14 Jan 2016)

One thing about this site I love - some of you do take the p~ss but nicely. It was a daft thought but one of the members who has access to milling maybe offering to help me out - so no flowers or missing teeth here. Thanks all.
Fred


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