Too many holes = 1 Tooling plate

[Majorstrain]

It's been a while since I've posted a project, but I have had a few on the go.
This is one of them.

A tooling plate

It's 24" x 10" and has a threaded hole grid of M6 x 1 at 1" spacing. In between those it has reamed 6mm holes at a 2" spacing for fixture alignment using 6mm dowel pins.
It's made out of some 20mm mild steel plate that was sitting outside at work and weights in at 22 kg's
It has mounting holes that suit my Bridgeport T-slots and my soon to be completed CNC X3 (the other long running project)

I spot drilled all the holes, then drilled and machine tapped the threaded holes.

Those with a keen eye will notice two holes missing in the pattern. That's where I broke two M6 spiral flute taps running them in and out at 400rpm.
They both broke on the start of the return journey out of the hole at around the 70 holes each.
To remove the taps I just core drilled the broken taps out with a 20mm rotor broach bit which drills out an 11mm core and then turned some 20mm plugs up on the lathe and Loctited the in.

I then took the plate into work and surface ground the top and bottom.

By then the 6mm carbide reamers had arrived and I reamed the alignment grid holes.

From memory there are something like 207 tapped holes and just over 100 reamed holes.

Now I need to make some low profile eccentric clamps like Shred.
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=2498.0

And finish the X3 conversion.

Cheers,
Phil

 

[Lakc]

Tapping all those holes looks like fun, in a masochistic sort of way. :big:
It is a seriously nice looking tool and I am sure it will come in very handy.

 

[MachineTom]

400 R's seems fast for rigid tapping with a manual mill. Or were using a tapping head?

 

[putputman]

Phil, you will gain back every minute you spent on that tooling plate with the time you save on future setups. It will be especially helpful when you setup castings to be machined.

I have several smaller tooling plates that I use on the mill, lathe, & rotary table. I use them over and over.

 

[Majorstrain]

Thanks for your comments guys,

Jeff it was a bit masochistic, but after I surface ground the plate the end came into sight and it felt better.

Arv, if you have any set-up pictures it would be enlightening.

Tom, Yep I do rigid tap on the mill.
I run a Danfoss VFD with a brake resistor on the mill. When I hit reverse it will stop the rotation in a 1/4 turn at 400 rpm and then back out. The taps are held in an ER32 collet but just nipped up to allow them to spin if the torque gets too much.
The blame lays with me, as the taps got a bit dull I had nipped them up a bit too much. That gave me a bit of slip, grab oscillation at the start of backing out.

Cheers,
Phil

 

[putputman]

Phil, I have a few fixture plates that I use on the lathe, mill, and rotary table. If you want to browse thru my web site, you can probably pick out some photos that interest you. Most of the setups would be in the I.C. engines.

You might want to make a bunch of small hold down clamps. They really come in handy. Mine use mainly 1/4-20 studs and screws.

 

[Majorstrain]

Thanks Arv,

I'll be making some of those hold down clamps for sure.
I really like the lathe plate, your vice mounted tool plate looks useful as well.

Cheers and thanks for the ideas,
Phil

 

[arnoldb]

Nice one Phil Thm:

I have something similar lined up on my tuit list - but much smaller.

Regards, Arnold