Neat ideas and an easy novice project

[Cedge]

I've been surfing onto machinist sites this evening and enjoying some of their finished projects. It's been a while since I just toured the community so I'm having a bit of fun "away" from the shop.

Here is one idea that just makes such common sense I can't understand why I hadn't thought of it already. http://www.tokentoolroom.com/perpedge.html

Here is another one that I'm cogitating on various ways it could be used. It might wind up becoming a top of the to do list project, soon.
http://lautard.com/octopus.htm

Steve

 

[wareagle]

I tell you what, the perpendicular straight edge will be made within the next coupl of days! Wow, something so simple... :idea: I'm a smart guy, so why didn't i think of that? :?

The octopus looks intriging as well. I think I will file that one for a rainy day project. Looks to be very handy, though.

 

[mklotz]

Gee, I thought everyone had a straight edge mounted on his mill table. None of my metalworking buddies ever commented on mine being a good idea so I thought it was something everyone did.

If you want to be clever about it, make the straightedge in a 'T' shape. Bolt it down roughly square and then take a light cut across the edge of the top bar of the 'T' to guarantee that it's aligned to the table Y motion. As a plus, this design prevents swarf on the table interfering with the fit of the part to the straightedge since the swarf will be pushed under the 'T' overhang. (Obviously, this isn't an excuse for not cleaning the table prior to mounting the part.)

 

[Cedge]

Marv
The "T" idea is something I picked up on while looking at the simple elegance of his idea. It would help hold the cross block square, making positioning my screwless vise a much simpler process.

I've also been toying with adding a tooling plate to my mill to increase the available work surface and make repositioning a bit more painless. It won't increase the bed travel any, but it will sure give me more options when using clamps and such for setup. Having DRO's (best money I've spent) on my machines, making one the size I want shouldn't be that big of a project.

I do have one question though. The tooling plates I've seen for sale use 1-1/16" between centers for the stop pins. I can't for the life of me figure out why they chose that spacing over 1 inch centers. Seems like an awkward progression over several moves. Got any idea?

Steve

 

[mklotz]

Steve,

It's 1-1/16" for the same reason that we have number and letter drills that give no idea of their size, a virtual plethora of meaningless gage numbers and other Imperial idiocies.
For some reason - ego, ignorance, or sheer bloody-mindedness - the Imperial system has delighted in creating odd-ball measurements, sizes, etc. and then doggedly sticking with them despite the confusion, annoyance and errors they create.

We see this here in the USA in the quasi-religious resistance to using metric. The great advantage of metric is not in the power-of-ten progression of the measurements or the unwillingness to create bastard units, but rather in the fact that it's a logical system that demands open-ended scales (no more idiot 000 sizes or gages) and sizes based on simple multiples of the base unit (no 0.0737 mm screw pitch). I could go on about the LOGIC of metric, as opposed to its computational simplicity, but I don't want to start a metric-Imperial debate - all such debates simply generate verbal entropy.

When I was starting out, I selected a few common sizes on which to standardize (as much as that is possible in the Imperial insanity) for any tools I made. Shafts in aliquot sizes, 1/4-20 and 10-32 screws where possible, etc.. The synergy effects have been amazing. I can't count the number of times I've wanted to combine two jigs in a way not envisioned when they were made and it's been possible to do because of this standardization.

Make your tooling plate with this idea in mind. Then, as you make things to attach to that plate, observe your own self-imposed standards. You'll not regret it.

I make mostly small parts, so my 'tooling plate' is a small fixture that mounts in the milling vise via a block base. A few pictures may give you some ideas. (Feel free to contact me for more details.)

Think about adding a plate to your rotary table too, if you have one. I added an 8" plate to my 6" RT and it's made a world of difference in the ease with which I can clamp work.