Welding Jig Clamps | Best Archery Site

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May 10

Jig Clamp

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Jig Clamp

Maximize your Drill Press

A drill press is indispensable in any shop, but there are many fixtures available commercially, or that can be shop built, that will improve production and accuracy.

A cross feed table travels longitudinally and transversely on X-Y axes, and provides accuracy within a few thousandths of an inch, much like you would expect on a milling machine. While some milling operations can be performed on woods and plastics, do not try to mill metals in a drill press. Metal machining requires a machine with more inherent stability than you will find in most drill presses. Combination machines are available, however, that can be used both as a drill press and as a milling machine, and these can be used for metals.

A combination rotary table that can be used vertically or horizontally is a nice addition, especially if a lot of precise radial orientation is needed, and when used in conjunction with a cross feed table, an infinite number of hole patterns is available. Some rotary tables come with dividing plates that give unparalleled accuracy.

If you have a three jaw lathe chuck, You Can chuck a piece of round stock that will fit into your drill press chuck, and place it on your drill press table. With the drill press turned off, bring the chuck down over the round stock and tighten the drill press chuck. This will locate the center of the lathe chuck directly under the drill press chuck, and the lathe chuck may then be clamped to the drill press table. Any round stock placed in the lathe chuck will then be centered, and this will be true as long as the table is not swung out of location.

Many jigs and fixtures can be shop built to adapt your drill press to your individual needs, such as, locating fixtures for repeat or production applications, vee blocks for drilling round stock, and centering fixtures for drilling holes in the ends of round stock, just to name a few.

For ease of machining, wood may be used for short run applications, but use aluminum or steel with hardened drill bushings, for longevity.

About the Author

For illustrations and complete instructions for building a number of jigs and fixtures, I am writing an e-book called Maximizing Your Drill Press, and it will be available soon at my eBay store, “Gazillion e-books”. Copy and paste this URL into your browser to see all of my books.

http://tinyurl.com/3chxox

What is it like to machine stainless steel rod and bend it to shape?

hey
for a component in my college project i am making a guitar tailpiece
im going to machine a 10mm diameter 300mm long rod of stainless steel to make it into a flat piece that is 4mm thick, 8mm long, but has a rounded side which is why i am making it from 10mm rod.
how hard will this be to make out of stainless steel due to machining time etc?

also i need to bend it so the 8mm flat face is on top of the bend (bending it the harder way not the easy 4mm thickness) . ive made a jig to put an 80' bend, then 25mm away another 80' bend to make a U'ish shape. if i heat the material to cherry red were needed and use lots of clamps to stop spring back, will it work well?
Everything will be clamped after a bend until it has had a link welded to keep its shape

Milling it is the easy bit....if the component is that small you can afford a slow feed rate to get a good surface and take off 1-2mm per run, leaving 10thou on for the final cut or fine grinding which might finish up as 8 or 12 thou when you mic it after the final big cut. So long as there's material to spare for the finishing cut or grinding, no problem.
Stainless steel wrecks cutters. It's hard stuff. Take it steady but it's a small component so 30 seconds or so per cut is all it'll take.
You've got maybe eight or ten cuts to make altogether if you take off a bit at a time.
You could do the whole lot on a grinder instead of milling it but it's probably best using the mill.
An hour of setting and machining time without rushing and thirty minutes if you are OK at machine setting and know your way round the mill and grinder, assuming you want a ground finish.
For a very smooth milled finish cut the feed rate right down to around 6" a minute with the cutting head on high speed to skim off the final few thou each side.
Mic it after each cut so you know the rod was bedded down properly and you don't run out of material at one end. You need mic readings to match each other within a thou or two both ends of the rod after the cut.
If you find it's gone thinner towards one end it's called getting a run in the component. You'll need to use paper or similar under one end of the machine vice for the next cut to even it up.
Careful in the vice and use roller jaws if they are available to hold a round section rod. The rollers pull the rod down as you tighten the vice.
When you have two flat opposing faces use straight jaws and tap the component down being careful to avoid bounce.....that's what gives you a run. One end of the rod is then higher than the other so more material gets cut off as it feeds under the cutter and you have to straighten the cut on the next feed by shimming up one end of the vice.
Remember to take the shim out after the cut.
Cigarette papers are mostly 1 - 1 1/2 thou thick. Always keep a packet of them in a machine shop.
Very handy things to have for squaring up long vice jaws and getting things shimmed easily.

To bend it maybe a compression jig with a slot that holds the rod in place would be a means of keeping the bend going the right way since the easy bend on the 4mm sides would be a danger and you could end up with a compound bend in two axes instead of one.
Push the top lines down till they are symmetrical with the bottom ones for each side. The spacing hasn't come out the way it's supposed to. This old dino doesn't like rows of dots or more than two spaces together....get's in a right old mess with 'em.
The uprights are the ends of the jig.
............. ...............
L............) )_______L

The heated rod fits into the curved slot or whatever shape you make it, straight across obviously to start with, and is pushed onto shape by forcing the wider Right Hand side along the Left Hand side. The slot continues right down both sides of the left half of the jig and as the right half is forced along it the rod is bent and is forced into the slot all the way along. Let it cool before opening the jig.
Otherwise you could have the right hand side as a U shape hinged at the curve, that closes onto the left hand side.
I've used a car jack lying on it's side before as a hydraulic press to push one half of a compression jig over the other or closing the jaws of a V-shaped compressor half of a jig, using a narrow corridor between two strong brick walls and taking up the extra space with bricks and slabs of concrete, with thick slabs of concrete on the wall both sides to distribute the stress.
Have fun. Sounds like a good project.

Podz Vacuum Clamping Jigs