Mini mill power feed

[kiwiles]

It's a corncob lumber miller.
If you don't recognize mini-mill and power feed as common machining vernacular then this topic likely isn't aligned with your interests. I've often wished that there was a better name for milling machines which didn't have that built in ambiguity but metal machining has its own unique "dialect" by necessity.

I did the same thing to an American arbour router copy lathe 30 or 40 years ago. This was for timber, and allowed fluting and spirals to be done, the router could be engaged or disengaged at will and was pulled by a cable. An indexing plate at the drive end, could be coupled to a mix of driving gears, which could also be changed. The router was fixed to a plate above the work piece centered, which turned. The backside of the plate run on 2 tube bearings, and the front side had a screw follower which could be adjusted in height, and followed along a pattern Using different bits at there appropriate place on the pattern, meant that a huge variety of turnings could be made. By the time I finished making my simple power up grade, it had changed it from a plaything, to a quite sophisticated machine . It is the only machine in my shop I regretted selling
Bill Hinten gives plans for a timber version in his book Router Magic