Home Made Milling Machine

This all started after I made my router jig for doing burls and clock faces and I saw a ‘Woodsmith’ plan for a ‘Rotary Tool Milling Machine’ and thought that would be a great project and make life easier doing exact cuts.

The plans were well priced, reasonably easy to follow & comprehensive. (sorry can’t send you the plans copyrights involved)
The parts were a bit of a challenge but Ebay proved very helpful if you wanted to wait for the bits, like left hand threaded rod & nuts to fit.
The instructions were in inches which need to be followed even if you prefer metric, though I did use metric nuts, bolts & rods.
I only used half the thickness on the base, had part of a 3/4” mdf sheet with one white side that I scrounged from an old office partition.

The Jig comprised 3 moving platforms X, Y and Z, the Z being the vertical platform adjusting the height of the tool & the cutter. The X & Y platforms are on opposing horizontal planes.
This is the X Platform


A threaded rod with two coupling nuts and a hand wheel boxed in with Ways on either side provides the motion needed.
The Y platform is attached to the X Platform so that they move together.


Next came the rotation cutting base. Notice it is in two layers, the top layer being sacrificial.

I didn’t use the break mechanism on the plans, used a lever stop instead & marked each 1/4 of the circle with a reference point on the Y Platform. A threaded insert in the Y Platform was used to hold a bolt (head removed) to support the rotating base & so it had a pivot to rotate on.

The Z Platform supported the router. I had to depart from the Woodsmith plans a bit to fit my small router. I used left hand rod & nuts so the wind down & up movements made sense. Clockwise for down, anti for up.

Next I needed references to measure distances on, this was not covered by the plans. I tossed this over a few times in my sleep (not kidding). Finally came up with a simple solution which is always best. I embedded rare earth magnets along the XY&Z Platforms & could then place stainless rulers that could be moved to an reference point needed. Also cut markers on the platforms to reference off.


Next I needed somewhere to store the router tools and alan key (o remove it) & a reference table for rotation & distance. The rods & threads were at 1.25mm pitch, so 1 rotation= 1.25mm distance.
This was not covered by the plans.

Well the proof is in the test flight and it does work. Cut a nice ring in thin mdf (could have used a better cutter).

The next project will be on how to clamp the work piece to hold for cutting. Used double sided tape & brads on this one. I can also use it for cutting out recesses for clock mechanisms, my wife’s card making projects and anything else that comes along.
Thats all folks.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python