tooling plate

Discussion on all milling machines vertical & horizontal, including but not limited to Bridgeports, Hardinge, South Bend, Clausing, Van Norman, including imports.

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TRX
Posts: 162
Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:30 pm
Location: Central Arkansas

tooling plate

Post by TRX »

Having seen tooling plates in pictures and marveling at how convenient they appeared to be, I decided I should have one too.

Looking at the situation further... what do you do about chips?!

I haven't seen any pictures of plates with plugs in the unused holes. And if you raised the plate up on standoffs so the chips could fall through, keeping the underneath relatively clean would be difficult. And simply ignoring it might not be a good idea if you were using water-based coolant.
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GlennW
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Location: Florida

Re: tooling plate

Post by GlennW »

Compressed air clears out the holes.
Glenn

Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!
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10KPete
Posts: 440
Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2015 5:29 pm
Location: Nordland, WA, USA

Re: tooling plate

Post by 10KPete »

Vacuum cleaner.....

Pete
Just tryin'
Magicniner
Posts: 532
Joined: Thu May 30, 2013 4:40 am

Re: tooling plate

Post by Magicniner »

It's easy to cover unused holes, I use teflon baking sheets cut for my regularly used fixtures, masking tape for one-offs.
Jaxian
Posts: 154
Joined: Fri Mar 15, 2013 1:38 am

Re: tooling plate

Post by Jaxian »

Here is my fixture plate. Just uses little plastic plugs. The design has hardened bushings for about 12mm down from the surface so you can use dowels as fences. The plugs fit in the smooth section. A few are missing I need to replace. Fixture plate is too small for my machine but I got it used for a good price. Correct one is about $5k so making due for now.
20170802_133747.jpg
earlgo
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Joined: Sat Jan 29, 2011 11:38 am
Location: NE Ohio

Re: tooling plate

Post by earlgo »

I'm glad you brought this up as it sparked an idea for me. Since my mill is so small it only has 1 T-slot, mounting a vise parallel with the slot is an exercise in clamping innovation. If I had a tooling plate to bolt the vise to, it would simplify things.
Thanks for adding a new project to the already over sized list.
--earlgo
Before you do anything, you must do something else first. - Washington's principle.
johnfreese
Posts: 219
Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2016 2:10 am

Re: tooling plate

Post by johnfreese »

I have a 15" square tooling plate that came off a cross-slide rotary table. All the holes are plugged with 3/8" setscrews.
TRX
Posts: 162
Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:30 pm
Location: Central Arkansas

Re: tooling plate

Post by TRX »

Flathead screws made from threaded rod might be better than socket head set screws; you could use a pick to clean the slot before unscrewing them, rather than trying to dig or blow chips out of the socket.
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BadDog
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Joined: Wed May 17, 2006 8:21 pm
Location: Phoenix, AZ

Re: tooling plate

Post by BadDog »

I have a tooling plate I harvested from a scrapped machine. I also have concrete anchors at various points in my slab for things like my big manual tube bender (roll cages and such). I have to cut bolts or stud to length somewhat frequently. I take the drop stubs, make appropriate length, and slot them to make what are effectively slotted set screws. Keeps the concrete anchors clear as well as the tooling plate and other tooling holes I want to protect. For example, the outer jaw mounts on my Kurt clone, and t-nuts that stay captured within my chip confinement system on my mill table, though the latter I make longer to remove by finger most of the time. They all perform their function flawlessly, come out easily, and use what would otherwise be wasted threaded remnants.
Russ
Master Floor Sweeper
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