New Hybrid CNC Mill Replaces Venerable 57-Year-Old Cincinnati Mill

The Carleton Laboratory’s machine shop is at the core of the Laboratory’s capability to support both research and testing projects. The shop allows for the fabrication of precision fittings, test setups, and student parts for both teaching and research applications. In recent years, the major equipment of the machine shop was systematically modernized or replaced, bringing the various fabrication areas (cutting, sanding, grinding, milling, turning, etc.) to a state of good repair. Last year, a Haas toolroom mill was purchased, the first CNC fabrication machine in Laboratory history.

This year, a vertical/horizontal mill original to the Laboratory (acquired in 1962) suffered a major mechanical failure. Considering the age of the machine, repair was deemed uneconomical and the machine was scrapped. A new open-table Clausing Industrial toolroom mill has now been commissioned as a replacement, doubling the Machine Shop’s CNC milling capacity while still allowing users to perform simple fabrication jobs by hand, using the table dials. The new mill features the same table dimensions as the Cincinnati while providing larger travel in all three directions. The mill will be put to the test immediately by the undergraduate AISC/ASCE student steel bridge team, as they build their 20ft bridge for competition.