Want to mill T slots, need suggestions please.

The nuts produced commercially are probably made to less then the largest published dimensions so that they fit in all machine tables.
In the past I have purchased some that would not fit easily into the slots of a Bridgeport knee mill, a quick toss in the scrap bin solved that problem.
T-Slot nuts do not cost very much, they may be purchased from Walmart
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Grizzly-...MIntrimOHI3wIVD1uGCh3FCwLUEAQYBCABEgK9YvD_BwE
 
I hope the beer went down well. T-slots, depends where the plans are from. The older British standards had less depth in the cross-bar of the T and it was wider than the accepted standard of today.
If you think you will be cutting more T-slots in the future I would keep an eye out on the auction site like Ebay for some proper cutters. As has been mentioned they occasionally come up at a good price and making only two cuts reduces chance of errors.
 
Beer went down very well!!! I do need to do 3 more t slots, but at this point I'm going to do it the same way I did this, only because it's all I have right now tool wise. Got my math corrected so I'll see how it goes. Still have a lot more of work on this project, but its therapeutic for me! Having fun!!! The plans I found were from someone that built and published the blueprints. No idea if its standard or custom. Fun either way!
 
Looking good. Been meaning to do some T-slot cutting myself, but keep putting those projects off.

You'll want to do a lot of measure-twice-cut-once for the remaining slots, as the distance between the slots should be uniform. I'd take a light cut with a small end mill before cutting the (next) actual T-slot and measure the distance to the existing slot at both ends, just to make sure nothing got out of wack in cutting the first one.
 
Looks great !
Did it stay flat with all that metal removed?

Greg
 
Looks Great!
Well done.
 
f350ca said:
Looks great !
Did it stay flat with all that metal removed?

Greg
Click to expand...

Who said it was flat to begin with?? :) I havent checked it yet, brothers family came down and I had to get home. I'll check it later. I do have a pic of before cutting and it was .002 out on both sides of one end. Must say I'm checking it with a dial indicator attached to the mill, not one of those granite plates or whatever they are. It was pretty fun to do. Need to make the rest and see how it goes.

Thanks for all the advise from here. It really helped.
 
Dhector said:
Must say I'm checking it with a dial indicator attached to the mill, not one of those granite plates or whatever they are.
Click to expand...
Moving the table under the dial indicator can give you an entirely wrong reading of flatness. The table may be sagging on both sides as it travels, and there will be no way to know it, the indicator will still show it as good, especially when cut and measured in the same machine and setup. Yes, a "surface plate" in proper calibration is needed to see if it is indeed flat and parallel.
 
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