Tiny V-block fixture for making fittings

[gbritnell]

Gentlemen,
I made this fixture years ago and have had to use it to make an elbow fitting for the radial engine I'm building. I thought it might be of interest to some of the scratch builders. It just a mounting plate 1/4x2-1/2x2-1/2 (6x63x63 mm) I then made 2 tiny V-blocks with clamps. One is mounted in one corner and the other can be moved closer to the other depending on the size of the fitting being made. The V-blocks can be rotated to make all different angled fittings.
In this case I made the two halves of the fitting and cut them off at 45 degrees. The holes were put in at the time of turning. 2 rods were turned down to fit the holes and acted as arbors to mount and space the pieces. For silver soldering I put a piece of paper (.004) between the parts when fitting up. This allows space for the solder to wick between the parts.

 

[gbritnell]

The rods used to fixture the fitting were then used to keep the wall from compressing when it was put in the vise to profile the flange shape. I made a step-off chart and walked around the flange with a .187 4 flute end mill. The steps were then filed and polished.
The main diameter of the body is .335 (8.5mm). The overall length of the legs is ..660 (16.75mm)

 

[minh-thanh]

Simple tools, great results.
Thanks for sharing !

 

[mole42]

I love simple jigs & fixtures to make jobs easier! This is a superb example.

One point - when I was taught silver soldering (far too many years ago!) while building oboe & flute keywork we were encouraged to have the two faces as near parallel and in as close contact as possible so that there was almost no solder line showing after finishing.

 

[gbritnell]

I'm sure it depends on the type of joint. In this case some of the material had to be filed away after soldering to form the outer radius so not providing a small space for the solder might have caused an open joint.