Fixture Plate for Use in/on Milling Machine Vice

[Twizseven]

My mill is Bridgeport sized and has a large vice and I have found trying to hold small stuff a bit awkward. Particularly at the moment as I am trying to resurrect a Stuart 10V which I bought on Ebay a few years ago.

I wanted the plate to be able to just be dropped in the vice and when vice done up for it then to be level and square

Cut a 7" length of BMS 25mmx30mm section and squared it up on the mill then drilled/tapped three M8 holes down the X -axis centre line.

I had bought a 200mmx80mmx15mm for this job. Set it level in lathe and brought the two ends close to size and then used face-mill to clean up what was to become the bottom. Turned it over and then drilled and counterbored three M8 holes along the center to match previously machined bar. Bolted the two pieces firmly together and then back into the vice to drill and ream two dowel holes. With dowels made and fitted I then squared up the ends and sides and ran face-mill over the top face. Hopefully all is now square and solid and flat.

Then proceeded to layout a hole pattern for M6 tapped holes (two rows of 9 and two rows of , these were then centered, piloted, drilled, lightly c'sunk then tapped M6.

Followed this up with 3 rows of 5.8mm holes (8, 4 and , ready to ream at 6mm for location dowels. These were again centered, piloted, drilled and very lightly c'sunk. These dowels will allow me to set stuff up parallel to the X or Y axis very easily.

Part way through all this I then found I did not have a M6 machine reamer (or it has vanished down a deep hole), but luckily my mate down the road has several spares and am collecting an MT1 and a chucking reamer tomorrow.

The first job it will be used for is getting the Stuart 10v sole plate flat. The original builder had filed it but the mounts for the stand (particularly) and the bearing mounts are not perfectly flat and luckily are not at the required dimension so I have scope to correct it.

Colin

[crueby]

Nice! I have something similar on my rotary table, but never thought of one for the vise - that would be handy, less limiting than the t-slots in the mill table itself.   

[Twizseven]

Chris,

That was my thought, 16mm wide 'T' slots on the mill are not ideal for tiny castings.  I also have a Cowells Milling Machine, now this is small but I can see a small fixture plate being ideal on this as well.  I have just fitted it with a Vertex VMV-15 precision vice which I have managed to get parallel within one 1/2
 of 10th of a thou, so don't want to keep removing it to use the 'T' slots on the table so a small 3" x 1.5" fixture plate might work (use M4 fixings).

Regards,

Colin

[mklotz]

Here's my version of this...

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/miniature-milling-table-27312#post36841

I recommend adding the retractable fences as I used; they make setups much easier.

A tooling block that fits into the mill vise in all three orientations, also fitted with fences, can be very useful too...

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/tooling-block-27359

[Twizseven]

Marv,

I like that idea.  The dowel holes I have put in the plate are aligned on X and Y axes so that will enable me to align parts to those axes but not quite with the flexibility of your system.

Colin

[AOG]

For those of us in the states, Saunders machine works makes one sized to drop into a six inch vise for $70. If you don’t want to drill and tap all of those holes yourself it’s a cheap alternative.

Tony

[Twizseven]

Tony,

Got to admit drilling and tapping the holes is a bit of a pain.  Reckon it took me about 2 hours total.  God bless the DRO.

The big one I made had 36 M10 tapped and 51 M8 reamed.  That took me a long time, most of a day.

Colin

[crueby]

On my fixture plate I drilled all the holes, tapping the ones needed as I go, that many holes in steel was too much for my wrist in pne go!

[Twizseven]

The further you get through tapping that many holes you start to think "its going to snap on the next one" and start going slower and steadier.

Colin

[Twizseven]

I am just wondering what comments I might get regarding issues I might experience, if any, whilst machining the Sole Plate for a Stuart10v on the fixture plate I have just made.

I have just finished making this fixture plate to be able to hold smaller more awkward bits in my large vice.

I am only intending to take off a couple of thou or so to square up (level) the various mounting points. I am intending to run a face-mill lightly over the surface to do this. The previous owned had filed them but not very square. The sole plate is held down by metal bracket which has the bar (located in the bearing recesses) welded to it.

The biggest problem I have with the engine is that he had machined the bearing bores so badly that it needed a 24thou shim under both sides of one of the bearing block to free the crank up. When I got it it only spun the crank if the bearing hold down bolts were loose. The recesses for the bearings are level with one another.

Colin

[Jasonb]

If his filing was bad on the top how flat is the bottom? Make sure you are not distorting the casting if the bottom is not making full contact.

[Twizseven]

Amazingly the bottom is flat.  Actually I tell a lie, I can get a 1 and half thou  feeler just under one corner.  So will most likely clamp it with the feeler in place. Skim the top and then turn it over and very light skim of the bottom.  No other issues you can see?

Regards,

Colin

[Jasonb]

Should be fine with teh feeler in place, same as I often do with raw castings. Apart from that you should be good to go.

[Twizseven]

Thats good.  It is only at the very corner.


Will most likely tidy up the base casting as well. Then I have to remake the bearings from new extrusions.  I am thinking of fixing the extrusions to the sole plate and mounting it at 90 degrees on an angle plate and either drilling and reaming both at same time or maybe using the small boring head if it has enough reach.

Colin

[Jasonb]

If you have not got the extrusion yet you could square up the recesses and then make some "t" shaped bearings or go the whole hog and have square bearings and a separate steel top plate

[Twizseven]

I have the extrusions already.  I fact I also have a spare (not quite sure why).

Colin