Clever Things We Do In Our Shops

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WayneP

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Throwing this out there to all the guys who have little "tricks" that make our machining life easier and quicker. Here's my contribution and I hope you guys will chip in (pun) and tell us yours! :)

Here goes!

1) Most all my work is on small stuff. I drill a lot of small holes and tap a lot of them too. I have made up a simple small block of wood and I have drilled a set of three holes for each screw size #2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10. For each screw size there's a hole that holds the tap, the tap drill, and the clearance hole drill. Whenever I need to drill a hole for a screw one reach to one spot gets me what I need and quick!

2) Since a lot of the holes mentioned above are done in the mill and the mill most often has a 3/8" collet in it (sound familiar??) I fit all the commonly used drill bits with a 3/8" sleeve on it. I take 3/8" diameter brass stock, drill it with the drill as required in the lathe and loctite the drill bit shank into the sleeve (loctite loves brass). So when I need to use the drills they all fit in the same collet...I never have to pause to fit different holders for drills and milling cutters etc. Oh....one other thing...I took a dremel mini drill chuck and fitted a 3/8 shank on it too so it also fits into the 3/8" collet in the mill and I can fit all the other small drill bits I might want to use...works pretty slick.

Wayne
 
Okay, here's another one:

I do a lot of work on my mill with the help of a rotary table. Of course its also useful to have a vise on the table as well for x-y square-type work, so I put the rotary at one end of the mill table and the vise at the other. Its a pain to crank from one end to the other (maybe some day I'll put a feed motor on it) to change work styles but the bigger pain is re-zeroing the dro every time I switch from the rotary to the vise and back. I use those inexpensive dro's that look like digital caliper readouts that run on batteries (hope you know the type I mean). What I do is put two pickups (and hence two readouts) on the same encoding bar so that there is a readout (and hence a zero) for the rotary and the other for the vise.


Anybody else have any bright ideas to share? :)
 
Wayne, you've got a great idea here, certainly hope people start responding with more tips. Unfortunately, I haven't been machining nearly long enough to have developed any useful tips to share, however, I will be watching with great interest. Thanks, JR49
 
Do a lot of vise work on my mill. Drilled and tapped a 1/4-20 hole just behind the hard jaw on the side of the vise. Use a piece of 1/4 x 1" about 3" long, drill a hole in one end to bolt onto the vise and you have a stop. You can drill and tap the flat part and use all thread for an adjustable stop as well.
 
Use small pill bottles to store small screws etc. Also use them to store extra small taps etc.
 
When I was doing a lot of die construction, we used a lot of socket head cap screws and they were pretty much always in counterbored holes. Since most pieces that I was attaching were nominal (ie 1.5" or 2") the thread engagement was tricky. For the most part, maximum thread strength in steel is 1.5 times the thread diameter. If you attach a 2" piece with a 2" screw and you counterbore 3/8" for a 3/8" screw so it is flush, you only have 1 times the thread diameter engaged. If you go to the next size screw (ie 2.25") you will have 5/8" engaged which is fairly deep for a blind hole to be tapped.

Long story finished. What I always do is counterbore 1.5 times the thread diameter. You then end up with 1.5 times the diameter engaged. The head is recessed more but you have a strong assembly. No math and easy to do, so a 3/8" screw is 9/16" deep.
 
I use foam egg packages with the tops cut off set inside a drawer for small parts bins. Works good parts are very visible & easy yo pick out when needed. seem to be durable used them in two big drawers bout 2 years now.
 
fixit said:
I use foam egg packages with the tops cut off set inside a drawer for small parts bins. Works good parts are very visible & easy yo pick out when needed. seem to be durable used them in two big drawers bout 2 years now.
Click to expand...
Place I worked at used the large ones for small parts. Made it easy to pick out and count parts.
 
When threading a shaft with a die, I make the threads and then turn the die around(starting end out) and
run it on again to complete the bottom threads that are only partially cut. I don't know if this is an approved
procedure but it works for me. If you cut a significant groove at the bottom of the threaded area is would
of course be unnecessary.
 
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cathead said:
When threading a rod with a die, I make the threads and then turn the die around(starting end out) and
run it on again to complete the bottom threads that are only partially cut. I don't know if this is an approved
procedure but it works for me. If you cut a significant groove at the bottom of the threaded area is would
of course be unnecessary.
Click to expand...

Hi Cathead....I don't know if its approved either but I do the same thing, reversing the die to get as many full threads as I can up against a shoulder, then cut a relief groove to remove the few partial threads remaining. It works well.
 
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