Relocating Knuckles

[Paul Chick (Earthlink)]

Subject: RE: Relocating Knuckles


Paul,
I'm not a machinist, so forgive the stupid questions.  I had trouble
picturing and understanding some of this stuff.

>
>Ron and Others
>I picked up a cross sliding vise for about $100.00 from MSC.  It is an
>import but built well enough for tolerances that this knuckle/shank project
>requires.  The gibbs can be adjusted and the lead screws are OK, so it
>travels well in the X, Y axes. It gets bolted to the drill press table and
>converts the press to a poor man's milling machine.  Tilt the press table
90
>degrees with the vise bolted on and slotting cutters can do their job.

I'm not sure what you mean by tilt the table 90 degrees.  You mean
tilt it so that the face of the table is parallel to the spindle
travel?  Why would you want to do that? What's a slotting cutter?


Yes. Tilt/pivot the table so that it is now parallel to the spindle,
verticle to the floor.  Slotting cutters, sometimes referred to as key
cutters or keyway cutters are similar to saw blades, but made to very
exacting widths and held securely in an arbor--a special mounting shaft for
them--in an horizontal or vertical milling machine. It can be chucked in a
drill press to cut slots to very close tolerances. With this set up and a
simple jig, you can hold parts--hammer shanks for new knuckles, for
example--in perfect alignment for cutting, slotting, drilling, reaming.  All
of your parts will be precisely the same.

>   It
>takes a few minutes to index the vise to the spindle and it yields
>consistent results.  My drill press has square table that I machined the
>sides parallel and square to the column.

Why is that useful?

Any fixture or jig or fence that is installed on the drill table can quickly
squared to the splindle in the horizontal X, Y axes with a cleat attached to
the bottom for this purpose..  For example, if you need to rout a slot or
drill a series of holes in a row, and plan to slide the part along a fence,
squaring the jig is very easy.  Set your distance from fence to cutter at
the required dimension and go.
If this has piqued your interest in other precision tooling, go to the MSC
Industrial Supply Co., or the McMaster Carr webpages and search for drills,
reamers, slotting cutters, vises, etc.  This tooling can be readily adapted
to woodworking machinery and render very precise results.

Paul C


Phil Ford

>  I use a screw less machinists vise
>with it frequently.  It is very tight, no warping jaws when you clamp
things
>into it.
>
>Paul C
>
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