MTMF on the horizontal

The Anvil main (all, actually) tube mitering fixture barely fits on my horizontal mill. Mostly the 5×20″ table is pretty tiny for an 8″ rotary table (rotab) which is what the MTMF requires. I have the rotab attached in the center t-slot but really i should have fabricated an extension plate so I’d be able to use the full Y-axis. But because the knee/Z-axis is somewhat limited (15″) I could barely center the fixture with the spindle as it was. To help this effort, Anvil fabricated me a special adapter plate for my rotary table that is thinner (3/4″) than the stock adapter plate (~1″). Even this little bit of difference helped. The adapter plate also came with slots instead of single holes to attach it to the rotary table so you can tram the plate’s rail to the spindle axis like seen in the photos. The reason? Anvil makes their adapter plates for Phase 2 rotary tables and I have a Yuasa type that has the t-slots about 19 degrees offset/different than the Phase 2 table. So when I had the stock adapter plate the rotary table read 119 degrees when it was perpendicular to the spindle instead of 90 degrees. With the new plate I was able to set it right at zero (or 90) with the rail perpendicular to the spindle. Makes it mush simpler to set the miter angles this way! It sounds like Anvil now offers this type of plate as an option for the MTMF because not everyone will have the same type of rotab.

Then, i found a nice slotting saw arbor in the box of goodies that came with the mill. It was made for the Brown & Sharpe #9 spindle so I just was able to load it right to the existing drawbar. Super easy set up and the MTMF keeps the chainstay or seatstay in phase without any futzing. Just load it, lock it down and slot. Seriously, it’s easier and more accurate than the hacksaw method I was using previously. I love how the horizontal serves it up on a plate right in front of your face whereas with a vertical mill you’re (or at least I was) ducking and tilting your head to try and see under the mill’s head to align the tube and see what’s going on. At least for me, I prefer horizontals now for mitering that I have one, even a tiny one.