Model Engine Maker
Supporting => Tooling & Machines => Topic started by: mklotz on July 24, 2012, 09:03:29 PM
-
Like many of us, I stick small tools in holes bored in a block of wood. However, this doesn't work well with certain tools. For instance, it's hard to select the right jeweler screwdriver if you can't see the tips. So I made this holder out of some well-aged boxwood I had lying around.
(http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j234/mklotz/tools/shop007.jpg)
The turned recess exposes the tips of the tools for selection yet the whole block can be picked up as a unit without having tools fall out.
Commercial chuck spiders can be expensive. I made this one
(http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j234/mklotz/tools/shop010.jpg)
for machining thin disk-like parts. The slots allow it to slip over the jaws and the spacers (two sets shown) hold it (and the part) a fixed distance from the chuck face with good support for machining.
I'm not sure where I acquired a whole bagful of brass key disks but, never needing so many, I took some of them and made this adjustable spacer by stringing them on a screw which is soldered to the bottommost disk. A finger nut tensions the disks on the screw.
(http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j234/mklotz/tools/spacer2.jpg)
In use, one simply swings aside the unneeded portion of the spacer to provide the right height stack under the clamp.
(http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j234/mklotz/tools/spacer1.jpg)
Finally, if your chuck is hard to remove, make yourself a "banjo" wrench from 3/4" plywood.
(http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j234/mklotz/tools/banjo1.jpg)
The slots fit over the chuck jaws and distribute the force on all three jaws - much superior in my mind to using a crescent wrench on one jaw or slamming a jaw into a block of wood on the ways.
__________________
-
Thanks Marv! :ThumbsUp:
I especially like the simplicity of the brass disk spacer gadget!
I guess i should also do something about my screwdriver situation!
A plastic tub seems positively archaic next to your fancy Boxwood holder! :NotWorthy:
Andrew
-
Very nice. How do the spacers get attached to the spider?
-
Very nice. How do the spacers get attached to the spider?
There are holes in the spider. Each spacer has a matching tenon that fits into the hole. Thus, once the workpiece is mounted, the spacers are completely trapped and can't fly out.
-
Good stuff, Marv. I have a bunch of those brass tags, and now I know what to do with them. I got a bag of them
when I worked maintenance at a rock plant. They were to ID me when I had a lockout on a machine so I could
work on it. Used to carry a number of them in my pocket for that, along with a box of Master locks in my tool box.
I like your spider, too. Very useful tool.
-
as always marv your postings are brilliant ................ thank you
chuck