To do certain automotive things like seat & bowl machining and decking blocks on my 10x54 mill
I just never had the height so I had to install a riser block.
-First issue was to actually locate one that would supposedly fit and I had no idea what brand my mill was so I bought a riser block for a mill that looked similar.
-I actually got up inside the mill housing and got some crude measurements and looked at riser block dimensions before I made my final decision of which brand to buy.
-Seems like I paid $300 to $400 for the block and the "spider" which is a 4 legged cast iron clamp piece that has the threads for the long bolts to screw into---and this included freight.
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Next issue was to figure out how to lift the entire upper head part of the milling machine and off the main body a little over 10" so that I could get the 8" riser which has about 5/8" internal step to clear another internal step of the mill itself.
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For the rear of the mill I devised a jack to fit into a large protrusion with a 3/4" hole.
-I used a long length of 3/4"NF all thread rod and made a large nut that I could screw some long handles into.
-The all thread is bolted solid thru the hole in the protrusion---and on the nut I used a 3/4" torrington thrust washer assembly to reduce some of the torque needed when screwing the large nut and lifting all that weight.
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On the front of the mill---on the OD of the rotating spindle is a large male thread--so I machined up a large nut to fit those threads and welded that nut to a pipe of large heavy wall tubing.
-This tube is about 14" long---and I welded a plate of steel to the bottom with 4 bolt holes so I could bolt the plate to the mill table.
-Plan was to start with the knee (table) lowered and raise it up using the knee (Z axis) power feed.
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All of this effort towards lifting the top worked out real good----except that by myself I had to work back and forth between the front and the rear moving each end up about 3/16" at a time---so that was a fairly tedious couple of hours.
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Once I got the mill all jacked up then I could get a set of 12" dial calipers in there and measure the hole and the step diameters.
-I found that the riser block step OD was .075" too large so I happened to have a friend who's lathe was capable of swinging that large riser block by about 3/16".
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-Then I also found that the ID of the riser block was too large by about .075" so it was way too loose on to the step of the mill.
-After looking at this for a few minutes I decide to use some large pop rivet heads----I drilled about eight 3/16" holes around the perimeter of the step---pushed the pop rivet heads into the holes to use for spacers----filed them slightly and then greased the riser block bearing surfaces----lifted the riser block up and dropped it into place.
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One thing I found out is---once that heavy block drops down into place----it's just about impossible to get back up out of there.
-But it seemed to fit good so I lowered the top of the mill but left the jacks in place until I fabricated the long bolts.
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The long bolts are sort of a project because the threads of the "spider" are something like a 1/2-11 rather than a common 1/2-13.
-So I measured up the overall lengths--the shank lengths---the thread lengths etc and I used 5/8" hex bar stock.
-My lathe has threading capabilities so I checked the old bolts to make sure they were the same thread angle as my threading tool and machined the threads----cut the shank length to size etc.
-I used thick 1/2" hardened headbolt washers under the hexs.
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When it was all said and done the preparation and installation this riser block was about a full week long "event".
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The riser block has allows me to do MANY large projects---in particular the decking of engine blocks.
-One new problem was that now I had to have some way to get the big heavy race blocks up and onto the mill which I have constructed an overhead swing arm hoist that bolts to the top of the mill with ONE large bolt.
-Then I use a 3" diameter air cylinder that has about 16" travel to lift a block up from a roll around table up onto the main bearing bar.
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Another niggly problem is when you want to mill something like a plate of 1" thick aluminum you now have to use some sort of spacers to raise the plate up from the mill table a few inches because you can't get the quill down and the mill table up quite far enough to mill short projects.
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Bill Jones' Photo Gallery Page 10 Installing 8" Riser Block on Vertical Mill |